PRESS RELEASE
Research Affiliates Partners with Russell Investments to Launch Systematic Global Active Equity UCITS Fund
London, UK – October 28, 2025 – Research Affiliates today announced the launch of the Systematic Global Active Equity Fund, a UCITS fund domiciled in Ireland introduced by Russell Investments. The fund leverages a proprietary Research Affiliates systematic investment model that identifies and ranks investment opportunities across global equity markets. Research Affiliates, LLC will serve as the Advisory Model Provider.
Systematic Global Active Equity (SAE) is a systematic, process-driven active equity strategy that aims to prioritize deep-value stocks with strong fundamentals, mitigate risk through quality and momentum adjustments, and maintain liquidity and diversification through optimization constraints.
“The fundamental case for value outperformance in the coming years remains strong, but a more selective approach that seeks to avoid value traps may be warranted. Screening out characteristics that signal value traps is a simple way to achieve this. By purging problem stocks using momentum and quality signals, returns improve across all but the most expensive companies,” stated Que Nguyen, Chief Investment Officer of Equity Strategies.
“This fund represents a new evolution of our partnership with Russell Investments and a powerful extension of our commitment to systematic investing. By combining value, quality, and momentum insights in a rigorous rules-based framework, we aim to deliver strong outcomes for investors while maintaining discipline through all market environments,” added Rob Arnott, Founder and Chairman of Research Affiliates.
“This launch highlights how we can leverage our UCITS platform to provide investors with efficient access to differentiated strategies,” said Jim Leggate, Head of EMEA, Russell Investments. “By combining our implementation expertise with our governance and oversight with Research Affiliates’ systematic equity model, we aim to deliver a solution that meets the needs of a wide range of clients across the region.”
Russell Investments will oversee fund management and distribution, while Research Affiliates provides the advisory model that guides security selection and portfolio construction. This collaboration brings together Russell Investments’ global fund management expertise with Research Affiliates’ renowned leadership in systematic equity investing.
About Research Affiliates
Research Affiliates is a globally recognized investment advisor established in 2002. Its mission is to challenge conventional wisdom and revolutionize the investment community for the benefit of investors through innovative research and product development. The company offers industry-leading smart beta and enhanced indexing, quantitative active equity, and multi-asset products. Research Affiliates believes that because market prices are not perfectly efficient, systematic investment strategies can provide opportunity for improved investment performance. It partners with some of the world's largest investment managers and offers mutual funds, ETFs, commingled funds, and separately managed accounts. As of June 30, 2025, the firm has over $159 billion in assets under management through strategies developed by Research Affiliates.
About Russell Investments
Russell Investments is a leading global investment solutions partner providing a wide range of investment capabilities to institutional investors, financial intermediaries and individual investors around the world. Since 1936, Russell Investments has been building a legacy of continuous innovation to deliver exceptional value to clients, working every day to improve people’s financial security. The firm has $355 billion (£259 billion, EUR302 billion) in assets under management (as of 30/6/2025) for clients in 30 countries. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Russell Investments has offices in 17 cities around the world.
Russell Investments Limited. Company No. 02086230. Registered in England and Wales with registered office at: Rex House, 10 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4PE. Telephone +44 (0)20 7024 6000. Regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority and entered on the FCA register under number 122282.
Contact:
United Kingdom
Caroline Villiers
Kepler Communications
+44 7808 585184
cvilliers@keplercomms.com
United States
Tyler Bradford
Hewes Communications, Inc.
+1 (212) 207-9454
hewesteam@hewescomm.com
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