The Luxembourg-domiciled funds – one of which is centred on emerging markets and the other dedicated to the international corporate market – both have UCITS status and are denominated in US dollars.
Head of EMEA retail and Latin America, Greg Jones, said the funds are the result of the globalisation of its fixed income teams and “complement sophisticated UCITS launches in the European and global high yield sectors over the last two years”.
The Henderson Horizon Emerging Market Corporate Bond Fund aims to deliver a total return in excess of its benchmark and will be managed by Steve Drew, head of emerging market credit.
“Attractive risk premium”
Drew said investors in emerging market credit are paid an “attractive risk premium” because of the emerging market label, despite the investment grade characteristics of the majority of the asset class.
“Emerging market credit offers investors a unique investment proposition,” he said. “While emerging market companies represent some of the largest and fastest-growing companies, their bonds are typically under-represented in investors’ portfolios.”
The new fund uses a filtering process that is both thematic and quantitative to allow the team to concentrate on bonds that offer good value.
The fund is also actively managed for its interest rate exposure, Henderson said, with duration separate from the average duration of the benchmark.
Fixed income fund manager, James Briggs, will be managing the Global Corporate Bond Fund which, he said, is the end result of eight years of globalising its fixed income capabilities.
The fund invests primarily in investment grade corporate bonds, and teams based in Europe and the US will identify opportunities across geographical areas and sectors of the credit space.
Briggs said the fund “benefits from a flexible investment approach”.
Both Drew and Briggs will work alongside a sixteen strong credit research team and will work closely with the interest rates’ team headed by James McAlevey.
