Citigroup offers new Optimiser product

Citigroup has launched Optimiser 4, a multi-asset structured product offering returns calculated retrospectively on the best performing of three distinct multi-asset ‘investment profiles’.

Respective returns for the three investment profiles — equities-biased, commodities-biased, and balanced — will be calculated over the four-year investment life of the product offering.

The latest in a series of four Optimiser products to have been launched since last year, Optimiser 4’s investment profiles are linked to the performance of a diversified range of global assets.

For example, the equities-biased investment profile will allocate 60 per cent to equities, 20 per cent to bonds and property and 20 per cent to commodities.

The performance of each asset class in the Optimiser 4 profiles are based on equally weighted baskets of reference assets.

New reference assets included in Optimiser 4, as opposed to its predecessors, include indexes for BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) equities and global property.

Other new features include annual observation dates — to lock-in performance on a more regular basis — as well as 100 per cent capital protection at maturity and a coupon of 1 per cent per annum.

Citigroup’s equity structured products head Irfan Khan said Optimiser 4 will “appeal to investors who realise investment timing is increasingly difficult in a maturing investment cycle”.

As with the Optimiser series, Khan said Optimiser 4 “removes the need for investors to make an asset allocation decision today”.

“Instead, it provides investors with the return of the best performing investment profile after a number of years.”