The Ucits-compliant Investec Global Defensive Bond Fund is domiciled in Luxembourg and, as its name suggests, has the ability to invest in any fixed income opportunity globally. It was officially launched on 26 July this year and is managed by co-head of fixed income John Stopford.
He is able to use the full range of Ucits tools and he and his team – that includes the firm’s fixed income and currency teams – will short-sell bonds and currencies to generate returns as well as diversify and control risk where appropriate. Their objective is to target lower volatility compared to other global fixed income funds.
Stopford’s process blends bottom-up stock research with a top-down strategic approach with the aim of outing together a well diversified, high conviction portfolio that will include emerging market and currency opportunities.
The fund’s asset allocation at launch was heavily weighted to investment grade corporate bonds (25% of the fund) and emerging market debt (19%), with a further 15% each in developed market inflation-linked and high yield corporate bonds.
The $30m fund is dollar-denominated and will target the Libor dollar overnight rate.
