On 30th March last, Aviva Investors' Philip Nell was interviewed for the Sunday Independent.

Philip, who manages the Aviva Ireland UK Property Fund, discussed the resurgence in interest from the Irish in the London property market. You can read the full article here.

- Total assets under management as at 28 February 2014 were €322.64mn, which includes 14 properties invested across 9 countries. The net initial yield on the underlying properties in the Fund is currently 7.34%.

- The Fund Manager’s aim is to maintain a medium term liquidity level of about 15-20%. Aviva Investors maintains a strong focus on maintaining portfolio income and continuing to reduce vacancy rates through active asset management.

- For 2013 as a whole, property transactions in Europe worth almost €98bn were recorded, the strongest total since 2007. (Source: Aviva Investors March 2014).

- You can read the full Fund Report here.

The Aviva Irl Blackrock Global Absolute Return Bond Fund aims to deliver positive absolute returns for investors regardless of market movements.

Since launch in May 2013, the Fund has returned a performance of 3.74% net of fees with a volatility of 1.02% (Source Blackrock April 2014).

BlackRock have just updated their 'Reasons To Buy' flyer which you can read here.

• March started out with global jitters due to the unsettling political situation in Ukraine.  The start of the month saw a sudden escalation in talks of military force being used by Russia and this affected capital markets, mostly equity indices, across the globe. But global capital markets have made their peace as a full-blown military offensive is unlikely.
• Outflows from emerging market funds continued and even Japan equity funds posted outflows for the first time year to date. Inflows into developed market funds such as US and Europe remained intact.
• China was also in the spotlight as investors grew increasingly uncertain about the economy’s revival. Subsequently, inflows into emerging market equity funds picked up towards the end of the month.
• Central bank policy continues to dictate interest rates will stay low.
• Our funds higher up the risk spectrum performed well over March 2014. The Dynamic Multi Asset Fund, High Yield Fund, BlackRock World Gold, BlackRock World Mining, BlackRock World Energy and BlackRock New Energy Funds were up 2.1%, 1.9%, 9.8%, 6.4%, 5.7% and 3.4% respectively.
• Download our monthly performance scorecard by clicking here.