Three of the UK’s biggest investment funds have a lot in common: a shared heritage and founding personnel, and similar approaches to markets. In 2017, they also shared something else: disappointing performance.

It was not the first year. The three strategies – Aberdeen Standard Investments’ Global Absolute Return Strategies or GARS, Aviva Investors’ Multi Strategies or AIMS, and Invesco’s Global Targeted Returns – have all now slipped behind their targets over the three years to the end of 2017 (see chart).