Cohen & Steers (CNS), known for its real estate expertise, has launched a mutual fund designed to provide return and temper volatility while also taking advantage of rising inflation. The Cohen & Steers Real Assets Fund (RAPAX) includes five sleeves of investment vehicles designed as a total return fund that is also meant to help portfolios "overcome the corrosive effects of inflation," according to firm co-chairman and co-CEO Robert Steers.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, the portfolio manager of the new fund, Yigal Jhirad (right), said the new fund is designed to provide diversification "across real assets" and due to the low correlation of several of those real assets to each other, together the fund "helps create a smoother return stream." Moreover, Jhirad says, each sleeve in the fund's mix "helps diversify inflation risk," meaning the fund is "poised to do well in a growing economy."
RAPAX, which was launched Jan. 31, 2012, and is available in five share classes, holds five "real" asset classes, each in the following allocation ranges:
- Gold, in the form of both gold bars and gold ETFs: 0%-15%
- Fixed income, short-term instruments in both USD and non-USD currencies: 5%-20%
- Global REITS, across various commercial properties: 25%-35%
- Commodities, including energy products, metals and agriculture: 25%-35%
- Global natural resource equities, in energy, mining, metals and agribusiness: 15%-25%.
Cohen & Steers will manage the gold, fixed income and real estate sleeves, while London and South African-based Investec will manage the natural resource equity sleeve, and New York-based institutional shop Gresham Investment Management will be subadvisor to the commodities sleeve. Regarding the commodities sleeve, Cohen & Steers' president and CIO Joseph Harvey
(left) pointed out that unlike most managed futures strategies, the commodities investments will be actively managed by Gresham.
