INVL Asset Management, one of Lithuania’s leading asset management companies, has established the INVL Alternative Investment Fund aimed at retail investors, with investments starting at EUR 5000. The new fund will focus, through investments in other investment funds, on alternative asset classes and physical assets such as real estate, land and forests, infrastructure, renewable energy and private equity. This is the first INVL fund that gives retail investors the opportunity to invest in alternative asset classes. The fund’s operation has been approved by the Bank of Lithuania.
Attention to clients’ needs
“We are constantly looking for new investment opportunities that meet the needs of our clients. We set ourselves the goal of creating an attractive and understandable investment vehicle for clients who want to protect themselves from inflation and earn a return over the long term but cannot make a big initial investment. Client surveys show that the capital markets are still hard to understand for most Lithuanians and investments in physical assets seem much more dependable. Meanwhile, funds investing in alternative asset classes and tangible assets are often accessible only to informed investors able to invest at least EUR 125,000, thus excluding smaller clients. We want more people in Lithuania to be able to put their savings to work properly and in that way to help them ensure their future financial security and well-being,” says Laura Križinauskienė, the CEO of INVL Asset Management.
She says the launching a fund like this is an important step in opening up investment solutions to a wider audience. In developing this product, INVL wanted to take clients’ specific expectations into account, so it conducted a survey* of some of its existing clients. It turned out that 60% of clients would be interested in the chance to invest in an investment mix that balances risk and expected return. Half of respondents (50%) would seek a return of at least 8%, and 64% of respondents would choose investments with a length of up to 10 years.
A chance to invest in alternative asset classes with smaller amounts
Inflation in Lithuania is currently high and the best way to protect the value of one’s money is to invest it. For people with somewhat smaller savings, there were not many options: they could choose life insurance, pension funds or mutual funds that mainly invest in stocks and bonds on public markets.
Alongside the public market investment funds available to retail investors, INVL is introducing a product that is accessible to many more people interested in investing and provides an opportunity for those who have save up smaller amounts to diversify their investments: clients of INVL will be able to invest in real assets via collective investment undertakings with a minimum amount of EUR 5,000.
“By selecting the best-suited alternative investments and forming a mix of them from different asset classes and funds, we reduce the investment portfolio’s risk. The investors themselves, having relatively small amounts available for investing, could not diversify their own investments, since the minimum investment in one alternative fund is usually too large for them,” says Vaidotas Rūkas, INVL’s Chief Investment Officer.
According to him, investors see the alternative investment class as an attractive solution for diversifying an existing investment portfolio, since they show greater stability when markets are volatile, with hopes for a good risk-return ratio. Also important is physical assets’ trait of maintaining value in times of inflation. Hence a combination of alternative investments is a good choice that more and more professional investors are turning to.
The launch of the INVL Alternative Investment Fund coincides with the start of its initial offering, which will continue for up to six months. In Lithuania, INVL Asset Management and the brokerage firm INVL Finasta are distributing the fund’s units, with a minimum investment amount of EUR 5,000 and no fixed upper limit. The total term of the fund is 10 years (with extension for another 2 years possible). The target average annual rate of return is 8%.
About INVL Asset Management
INVL Asset Management, one of the leading asset management companies in Lithuania, is part of the Invalda INVL Group. The group’s companies manage pension and mutual funds, individual portfolios, private equity and other alternative investments. More than 250,000 clients in Lithuania and Latvia, as well as international investors, have entrusted the group’s companies with the management of more than EUR 1.5 billion in assets. Invalda INVL, operating since 1991, has 30 years of solid experience in managing private equity assets and building leading market players in their respective fields in the Baltic states and the CEE region.
* Survey of INVL Asset Management clients conducted in July 2021 with 577 respondents.
Important information:
Investments in the investment units of the INVL Alternative Investment Fund (hereinafter – the Fund) involve investment risk and other risks specified in the Fund’s rules and prospectus. The value of investments can both increase and decrease and investors may recover less than they invested or even lose the entire invested amount. The Fund’s management company UAB INVL Asset Management (hereinafter – the Management Company) does not guarantee the profitability of investments.
Before making a decision to invest, an investor should personally or with the help of an investment advisor assess the Fund’s investment strategy, applicable fees and all the risks associated with investing and carefully read the Fund’s prospectus, rules, key investor information document and other documents intended for investors, which are available on the Management Company’s website www.invl.com or can be obtained free of charge at the Management Company’s client service locations.
The Fund will invest most of its assets in other collective investment undertakings. Up to 100% of the assets of the Fund may be invested in other than harmonised collective investment undertakings, including qualifying special purpose collective investment undertakings, collective investment undertakings for informed investors, and other than harmonised collective investment undertakings which invest most of their assets in the alternative asset category including private equity, energy and infrastructure, physical assets (real estate, forests, land), private debt, and other alternative asset classes (hereinafter – Alternative CIUs). At the beginning of the Fund’s operations and/or if it is not possible to invest the Fund’s assets in Alternative CIUs, and/or in order to manage the Fund’s liquidity risk, assets of the Fund, maintaining the requirements of diversification, may be invested in investment funds which invest in debt securities, investment units and/or other money market (including deposits) or debt financial instruments (directly or through other collective investment undertakings). In investing the Fund’s assets, priority will be given to other collective investment undertakings managed by the Management Company.
The Fund will seek to invest in a portfolio of collective investment undertakings with a target internal rate of return of 8%. The Management Company draws investors’ attention to the fact that the actual results of the Fund’s investment activities may differ and the Management Company does not guarantee either the profitability of investments nor achievement of the Fund’s operating objectives.
The Fund will operate as a closed-type collective investment undertaking, hence investors’ right to demand the redemption of investment units they hold is restricted.
All the information contained herein is of a promotional and informative nature and shall not be construed as a recommendation, offer or invitation to invest in the Fund’s units or Invalda INVL shares.. The information provided shall not form the basis of, or form part of, any subsequent transaction.