Aviva Investors has launched its third Long-Term Asset Fund (LTAF), the Aviva Investors Multi-Sector Private Debt LTAF.

The new fund received an initial £750m of investment from Aviva’s My Future Focus default pensions solution, which invests in a broad range of asset classes on behalf of the firm’s auto-enrolment defined contribution (DC) default strategies.

The fund will also be open for allocations from external investors.

According to Aviva, the new fund will particularly appeal to DC pension funds looking to diversify returns from traditional asset classes such as public equity and fixed income, wider private markets allocations and single private debt strategies.

The launch means Aviva’s LTAF range now represents just over £3bn across a variety of private markets asset classes, as this latest addition follows the launch of its Real Estate Active LTAF (REALTAF) in May 2023 and the conversion of its Climate Transition Real Asset Fund (CTRAF) in March this year.

Aviva chief investment officer, Daniel McHugh, commented on the announcement: “We are pleased to add a dedicated private debt solution to our suite of Long-Term Asset Funds, further positioning Aviva Investors as the largest provider of LTAFs for the UK DC and wealth market.

"Private debt is a key growth area for us, and we believe our multi-sector approach will best capture relative value through the market cycle. This should give it potential to deliver strong risk-adjusted returns and diversification to pension schemes, whilst also meeting their liquidity needs.”

Adding to this, Aviva director of investments for wealth and advice, Maiyuresh Rajah, said: “We are the UK’s largest workplace pension provider and our defined contribution default solutions help customers prepare for retirement by investing in a diversified range of asset classes, including private markets.

"We are continuing to further diversify our solutions and this investment in private debt is another important step in that process.

"By supporting the Aviva Investors Multi-Sector Private Debt LTAF, we believe we can continue to help our customers achieve good outcomes in retirement while supporting economic growth by providing funding to companies which often have more bespoke financing requirements.”

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