The Alpha CIF for Income and Reserves employs a dynamic investment process that has been employed successfully in the Sarasin CI Income Portfolio since July 2002.

The equity bear market at the turn of the century is still a fresh memory, reminding investors of the risks associated with equities. Against this backdrop, attitudes towards risk and reward have become more cautious. While equities still offer opportunities, they remain a relatively high-risk investment.

The “absolute return through conventional assets” approach, which Sarasin & Partners has pioneered, is achieved by investing across the three main traditional asset classes: cash, bonds and equities, with an emphasis on the lower risk “monetary” assets. It is interesting to note that a fixed allocation of 75% bonds, 5% cash and 20% equities would have delivered a positive return in all but one of the last 30 years (1994 –3.6%).

The majority of the Income & Reserves Fund is invested in a well-diversified portfolio of bonds, with a smaller proportion invested in more growth-oriented equities. Income is obtained from high quality bonds rather than distressed or low-growth equities.

Source: Sarasin & Partners

The Alpha Common Investment Fund for Income & Reserves is not a conventional fund: it is a fresh method of providing charities with high levels of income and capital security.

The formal investment objective of the fund is as follows:

"The investment objective of the Fund is to achieve a consistently attractive level of income coupled with the potential for long term capital appreciation, whilst aiming to preserve the value of capital over the shorter term. The portfolio will be fixed interest orientated with the remainder in a mix of global equities, convertible bonds and cash"