Wellington Management, a global investment heavyweight managing over $1.2 trillion in assets, just boosted its alternative investment offerings with the launch of its first interval fund. The Wellington Global Multi-Strategy Fund aims to deliver consistent returns while managing market risk across various market conditions.
The new fund will be helmed by Portfolio Manager Roberto Isch, CFA, supported by an 11-member management team. This launch represents a strategic move to make alternative investment strategies more accessible to qualified wealth investors, bridging the gap between traditional hedge funds and open-end funds.
“Multi-strategy approaches are designed to have low correlation with traditional asset classes and provide downside mitigation during difficult market environments,” Isch said. He emphasizes the fund’s potential role as a portfolio diversifier, particularly during periods when equity and fixed income markets show high correlation.
Mark Sullivan, head of Hedge Funds at Wellington, points to growing demand from qualified wealth investors for institutional-grade alternative solutions. “We are introducing a distinct global multi-strategy interval fund to provide a broader range of wealth clients exposure to a potentially valuable portfolio diversifier,” said Sullivan, noting increased interest in the category amid less reliable traditional diversification methods.
The move comes amid rising industry interest in interval fund offerings, especially within private credit and infrastructure. CION Investments and GCM Grosvenor recently received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a new infrastructure interval fund uniquely designed to offer low investment minimums and direct access to infrastructure assets. Other firms with recent interval fund offerings include Pantheon, Axxes Capital and AllianceBernstein via its private markets subsidiary, AB CarVal.
Wellington brings a wealth of experience to this new offering, with over three decades in hedge fund investments and $30 billion under management across various multi-strategy and long/short approaches as of November 2024. The fund’s structure combines bottom-up trading strategies with top-down portfolio construction and risk management, aiming to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns while maintaining flexibility in capital allocation.
This launch builds upon Wellington’s existing alternative investments platform, which already serves institutional investors through various strategies in alternatives and private markets. The firm, which operates as an independent investment manager, serves over 2,500 clients across more than 60 countries, including pensions, endowments, foundations, insurers and family offices.