Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM) has launched a multi-factor global equity fund with initial investment from Boots Pension Scheme.

The fund is 'factor-based' – a style of investing that seeks to identify and harness underlying drivers of performance – or factors – to meet specific objectives.

It invests in a diversified portfolio of global equities that exhibit factor characteristics, such as value, low volatility, quality or size.

Launched as a pooled vehicle for UK institutional clients, the fund aims to reduce risk relative to the global equity market by diversifying effectively across regions.

Adam Willis, head of index & multi-asset distribution at LGIM, said: "Investors are looking for alternatives to traditional products and factor-based investing is growing in popularity because it can be used to meet different investment objectives in a cost-efficient manner."

Willis said LGIM has offered client-focused factor-based strategies for more than 10 years and worked closely with its clients to create products such as the L&G Future World Fund, which launched last year.

"We are excited to continue to develop our offering into multi-factor solutions on behalf of schemes such as Boots," he said.

LGIM has developed the Fund in partnership with Scientific Beta, the provider of factor-based indices established by EDHEC-Risk Institute.

The fund uses Scientific Beta's recently launched High Factor Exposure Indices as building blocks for its portfolio.

In November last year, LGIM launched the L&G Future World Fund, a multi-factor global equities index fund that incorporates a climate 'tilt' to address the investment risks associated with climate change.

The fund was selected as HSBC Bank UK Pension Scheme's equity default option within its defined contribution scheme.

The new fund will be managed by Multi-Asset Fund Manager Andrzej Pioch, alongside LGIM's broader Asset Allocation team, which currently manages over £37bn.

First published 27.07.2017

Lindsay.sharman@wilmingtonplc.com