UK fund manager, Guinness Flight Hambro Asset Management is making its first steps into the European institutional marketplace with the launch of a set of Dublin-domiciled UCITS funds which will also be registered in Germany and Switzerland.

The $1.5bn Global Privatisation umbrella fund which Guinness Flight currently markets to retail investors is being fitted with new share classes aimed at pension fund and other institutional investors.

The funds invest in companies which have had some substantial government investment over the past 10 years, with the majority of the stocks held in UK and Europe (70%). The remaining 30% of the fund is divided between Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia. The minimum investment is $2m. Guinness Flight is also planning to push its Eastern European, China and India funds at institutional investors in the near future.

Baring Asset Management has also recently launched a pooled institutional OEIC umbrella fund, with 14 sub-funds, aimed specifically at the UK smaller pension fund market.