Kleinwort Benson and Dresdner Kleinwort launch US dollar version of successful Gresham US Accelerator fund

6 December 2007

Kleinwort Benson, the provider of banking and financial services to corporate and private clients in the UK and Channel Islands, and Dresdner Kleinwort, the investment bank, have launched the Gresham US Accelerator Index Fund.The fund is a US dollar version of the highly successful sterling denominated Gresham US Accelerator fund. The sterling fund, launched in October 2005, has achieved an annualised return of more than 13% making it the fifth best performing US equity fund in the UK market, out of 474 funds.

Unlike traditional mutual funds, the Gresham US Accelerator funds have been designed with a defined return profile, giving investors an allocation tool that will outperform the relevant benchmark – the S&P 500 Index – in most likely scenarios. This is achieved by offering enhanced participation: the new fund will give an upside participation of 165% of the first 12% of growth in the S&P 500 during the one-year period commencing on 08 November 2007, while tracking any falls in the index exactly. The maximum return available is 19.8%.

The fund is derivatives-based and combines three different S&P 500 options. This unique structure of the fund enables the manager to roll into a similar product at the end of the one-year investment period. Shareholders therefore benefit from the flexibility to realise gains when they choose, rather than on the fixed maturity date of the product.

"Clients have shown an increasing appetite for US dollar denominated investments in recent months. As a result we have introduced a US dollar version of the original Gresham US Accelerator Index Fund, which has delivered a strong performance over the last two years," explains Andrew Halford, Head of Structured Products at Kleinwort Benson, the Investment Manager of the fund. "Investors seek innovative and flexible solutions, especially in times of market turbulence. By providing enhanced participation in the S&P 500 and daily liquidity, this fund will fully live up to their expectations."

Gresham Defined Funds is an Open Ended Investment Company (OEIC), defined as a UCITS III scheme, and authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The Gresham Defined Funds platform was introduced by Kleinwort Benson and Dresdner Kleinwort in autumn 2005, allowing a series of structured products to be created for institutional and asset management clients based on a wide variety of asset classes.

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