Both funds will be merged into Aberdeen’s Luxembourg-domiciled Aberdeen Global Sicav from June, but Aberdeen will manage them from 2 April.
The $94m Credit Suisse Equity Fund Brazil and $153m Credit Suisse Bond Fund Brazil will be known within the Sicav as the Aberdeen Global – Brazil Equity Fund and Aberdeen Global – Brazil Bond Fund respectively.
Aberdeen’s global emerging markets team will run the Brazil equity strategy, led by Devan Kaloo, head of global emerging markets.
Meanwhile, the emerging market debt team, led by Brett Diment, will manage the bond fund.
The funds represent the first solely Brazilian propositions offered by Aberdeen, which already runs a Latin American Equity Fund, with 64.6% of the portfolio invested in Brazil, according to the latest fact sheet.
Back in 2009 Aberdeen acquired £40bn in assets under management as part of a deal with Credit Suisse which saw it take over the firm’s Global Investors business in exchange for a 24.97% share of Aberdeen’s enlarged issued ordinary share capital.
The acquired business was a traditional long-only asset manager with predominantly fixed income, money market and equity funds. This latest agreement is separate to that deal.
Diment said: "From a fixed income perspective Latin American economies, and in particular Brazil, have weathered the global financial crisis well and are not burdened by the huge debt levels and imbalances of their so-called developed world peers.
"Yet the yields available in the fixed income market remain at a premium to those offered by fundamentally weaker G7 nation bonds."
Arguing the case of Brazilian equities, Kaloo said: "While Brazil has certainly blossomed due to being the world’s leading supplier of commodities, it would be wrong to view the region purely as a play on the world’s thirst for raw materials.
"Of more interest to Aberdeen is the rise of domestic consumption. Growing, youthful populations with burgeoning workforces are enhancing earning and spending power in the country and this in turn is driving domestic growth."
