Skandia Investment Group (SIG) has launched an Asian Equity fund to be managed by Australian asset manager MIR, according to FT Advisor.

James Millard, chief investment officer at SIG, said MIR had been selected to manage the Ucits III fund due to its process of combining quantitative and qualitative investment methods.

MIR's Australian-based chief investment officer John Beggs will head up the quantitative work on the fund, along with a team of analysts, FT Advisor reported.

Kenny Tjan, head of the qualitative team, will work with a team of 15 analysts spread across in Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Within the fund MIR will hold between 60 to 100 Asia ex Japan stocks.

FT Advisor quoted Millard: "We continue to see enormous value being created in Asia and other emerging markets and so we are keen to offer customers another great investment manager to supplement those in our existing range of Asian equity funds.

"With many established funds reaching significant scale and capacity we felt now was the time to launch a new and more aggressively styled fund in order to maximise the enhanced returns we believe are to be had in the region."

MIR also manages Skandia's Global Dynamic fund, which launched two years ago.