AMP launches investment series with two fund managers

AMP has partnered with Dimensional Fund Advisors and SouthPeak Investment Management to launch its Constructor Series on its North platform.

The new suite of investment solutions was designed to provide retail investors and their financial advisers with access to funds traditionally reserved for institutional investors, opening the door to differentiated strategies that aim to enhance returns, manage risk and bolster portfolio resilience across market cycles.

AMP said the Dimensional and SouthPeak solutions combine “academic rigour, systematic implementation, and advanced risk management techniques”, while opening up these funds to a broader audience through its platform North.

The partnership with Dimensional, a global fund manager with $1.4 trillion in assets under management (AUM), will see two of its funds become available to advisers and their clients through North.

The Dimensional Global Profitability Fund provides systematic exposure to two-thirds of the highest profitability large-cap companies in developed markets, excluding Australia, as well as smaller, cheaper and high profitability stocks.

The Dimensional Global Listed Infrastructure Fund is a fully-hedged core global infrastructure strategy focusing on small, value, and high profitability infrastructure securities while prioritising sustainability by targeting a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity exposure relative to its benchmark.

Also partnering with AMP is SouthPeak, a specialist volatility manager with a particular expertise in derivatives strategies for institutional Australian and global clients, bringing retail access to its SouthPeak Alternative Alpha Fund.

This fund has a low correlation to traditional asset classes such as bonds and shares with the aim of providing portfolio resilience during large equity market falls for investors seeking defensive returns and regular income through greater diversification.

AMP chief investment officer Anna Shelley said the Constructor Series builds on the firm’s existing relationships with Dimensional and SouthPeak while extending access of these funds to a broader audience through the North platform.

“By partnering with Dimensional and SouthPeak, we are providing access to world-class strategies that combine systematic design, robust risk management, and proven performance.

“We’ll continue to draw on the expertise of our investment professionals to select high quality fund managers and strategies that are typically only available to institutional investors.”

Shelley added: “The Constructor Series reflects AMP’s commitment to unlocking innovative investment solutions that help clients achieve their goals, along with delivering a unique and differentiated experience to advisers on North.”

SouthPeak Investment Manager co-CIO Mattias Soderberg said: “At SouthPeak our focus has always been to deliver consistent, positive returns, especially in large equity falls. With traditional diversification tools starting to struggle, we believe a different approach can help deliver both attractive returns and resilience.

“Our strategies have been used by large Australian investors since 2012, and we are very excited to partner with AMP to deliver our institutional offering to platform investors for the first time.”

Dimensional Fund Advisors CIO, Australia and senior investment director Bhanu Singh said: “Dimensional’s investment approach combines the benefits of indexing—such as low fees, low turnover, and broad diversification—with flexible implementation that supports a consistent focus on pursuing higher expected returns and managing risk.

“By launching these two strategies in partnership with AMP, we are expanding investors’ choices in how they access our investment expertise. And we always start with client need.”