Gulf International Bank (GIB) is offering low volatility and protected strategies on global and regional equities.

In the last few years, markets have suffered from bouts of elevated volatility and large swings in sentiment, the Bahrain-based bank said a statement.

This has led to uncomfortable experiences for investors in those markets that experience large swings in profit and loss or are faced with potential losses on investments, it said.

In response to this, GIB, through its London-based subsidiary GIB UK, has announced that for institutional investors, it can now offer a range of solutions that are able to deliver portfolios that aim to experience lower volatility than the market, can have an element of downside protection and can have that downside protection automatically move up when markets rise.

Jeff Woolsey, senior equity portfolio manager at GIB UK, said: “Currently we run around $10 billion in equity strategies, but we have recognised that not all clients want to be fully exposed to swings in the market. This suite of solutions allows us to offer clients an alternative to straight equity exposure in a low cost, efficient manner.”

These new products are offered to institutional investors with $20 million or above to invest and can be structured on a range of underlying equity indices from Global to Regional and even on selected local markets.

Mark Watts, chief executive officer, GIB UK, added: “This range is an important addition to our suite of solutions for our clients and is a clear example of how we are able to respond to changing market conditions and offer investors solutions that are relevant to their day to day challenges.”

The Bahrain-based GIB is owned by the six GCC states with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund owning a majority 97.2 per cent stake. The pan-GCC bank specialises in corporate and investment banking and has a growing retail footprint. In addition to its main subsidiaries, London-based GIB UK and Riyadh-based GIB Capital, it has branches in New York, Abu Dhabi, Dhahran, Riyadh and Jeddah with representative offices in Dubai and Beirut.

Its Asset Management business is primarily based out of London and manages over $11.6bn in assets for major institutions in both the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region and globally.