Standard & Poor’s has awarded the Thames River Real Estate Securities Fund an AA rating ahead of its launch on 8 April 2010.

The fund, managed by James Wilkinson and Marcus Phayre-Mudge, is a Ucits III product aiming to provide market plus returns with the reassurance of downside protection within a regulated structure.

The long-biased fund will focus on listed real estate companies in Europe and will not invest in physical property assets.

The investment team will employ bottom-up stock selection with an active approach to risk and volatility management. This flexibility will include taking short positions however the net long position will range from 60 to 140 per cent.

The fund, the latest in a product range covering traditional, alternative and physical property, will be actively managed relative to the FTSE Epra/Nareit Developed Europe Capped Index in Sterling. It will offer daily dealing and following careful consideration of capacity, the manager expects to close the fund at GBP500m.

Investment director Michael Warren says: “It is a tremendous accolade to the team to be awarded an S&P AA rating ahead of the launch of the Real Estate Securities Fund. The fund is one of the first of its kind and investors will naturally seek reassurance that the investment team possess the skills to manage such an innovative structure. S&P has provided this reassurance in their recognition of the managers’ demonstrable track-record, which spans a decade, in managing multiple mandates with different strategies. We are confident that this experience, the opportunities present in European property securities and the fund’s pioneering architecture will lead to an extremely high level of investor interest.”