The Neuberger Berman European High Yield Bond Fund will invest in large and liquid companies with stable to improving cash flows and access to capital.
The company said it will avoid securities that have a high default potential in line with the firm’s US high yield offering.
The fund is a sub-fund of the company’s Irish-domiciled UCITS fund umbrella, Neuberger Berman Investment Funds, and will be managed by Andrew Wilmont.
Martin Rotheram and Dan Doyle will co-manage the fund.
Its holdings are diversified across an average of 20 to 25 industries and 75 to 100 issuers. It has a management charge of 1.2% and a minimum investment of £50,000 (€62,000, $85,000).
'Disciplined and repeatable'
The company said the team will utilise a “disciplined and repeatable” investment process designed to “capitalise on opportunity and mitigate risk”.
Wilmont, who joined the firm in April 2014, said: “The European corporate market remains healthy and new issuers will continue to come forward as a result of the disintermediation of European banks.”
Head of Neuberger Berman for EMEA and Latin America, Dik van Lomwel, said: “Clients have been allocating capital to our US high yield, senior bank loans and private debt strategies and we see this launch as a further evolution of our fixed income platform, particularly as the European high yield market continues to deepen.”
Neuberger Berman is a 75-year-old private, independent, employee-controlled investment manager. It manages equities, fixed income, private equity and hedge fund portfolios for institutions and advisers worldwide. With over $247bn in assets under management, the company has offices in 16 countries and employs 2,000 people.
'Dynamic'
In April, the company launched its Emerging Market Debt Blend Fund, which aims to give investors direct exposure to underlying securities in order to give a “more dynamic” solution than the traditional fund of fund approach.
At the time, it added that a US fund using a similar strategy had been launched in September, "with success".
The fund follows the release of the Neuberger Berman Short Duration Emerging Market Debt Fund and the Neuberger Berman Market Debt Hard Currency, Local Currency and Corporate Debt Funds, which were introduced to the firm’s UCITS fund range in 2013.
The fund is managed by Rob Drijkoningen and Gorky Urquieta, co-heads of Neuberer Berman’s emerging market debt team.
