De Klerk will work alongside Andre Roux on the Africa fixed income portfolio and will be supported by the Investec’s EMD team – co-led by Werner Gey Van Pittius and Peter Eerdmans.
Van Pittius also co-manages the EM Currency Alpha Fund with De Klerk.
Investec said international multi-family office Fleming Family & Partners had provided the seed capital for the launch of the Africa Fixed Income Opportunities Fund, which is Guernsey domiciled.
De Klerk, who worked as an analyst on the Investec EMD team for seven years before his promotion in January, said: “Africa has for several years been the best-kept alpha secret in global emerging market fixed income portfolios. The fund is first and foremost an acknowledgement of 10 years of broad-based African financial market development that goes beyond being a commodity or global bond beta story.”
“Key characteristics include relatively low correlation to global asset price volatility, limited interest rate risk, solid yields and the opportunity for broad diversification,” he added.
Meanwhile, Daniel Axmer, investment manager at Fleming Family & Partners, said: “We are attracted to investing in Africa as we are seeing high growth relative to other emerging markets, improving governance, and fiscal and monetary reforms.
“African fixed income markets are very diverse, and offer plenty of investment opportunities for active managers,” he concluded.
