“It is likely that eventual drilling and production of shale gas will take place in the UK, assuming the government and population determine that the economic benefits outweigh any potential environmental impact. However, it will undoubtedly be a very different environment and process in the UK to that of the US.”
On a sector basis, the data placed further weight behind the adviser expectation of ‘going global’ when it comes to allocating client assets.
In the first two quarters of 2013, the advisers surveyed ranked ‘global’ as the most attractive region. For the period of July-September, the data shows a 4-point sentiment shift upwards.
The global region recorded an average overall rating of 2.05, with a more detailed analysis of the responses given showing advisers with assets under administration of between £10m and £20m as the most favourable towards the ‘global’ allocation.
There are a number of agriculture funds that operate on a global basis and, as such, have been seeing interest from advisers that are diversifying clients away from the turbulent equity and bond markets.
Funds that operate in a niche area such as agriculture, therefore, are more than likely to benefit from the influx of new client money expected by advisers in the third quarter of 2013. The Celsius data reveals that the average UK investment adviser expects to attract £1.8m in new client funds in the third quarter of 2013 – increasing by 63.6 per cent from £1.1m in the last quarter.
Of course, this remains to be seen, but as investors gain more confidence it is likely that they will increasingly move towards the more niche areas such as agriculture in order to diversify their portfolios.
Jenny Lowe is features editor at Investment Adviser
