The Schroder ISF Emerging Markets Sovereign Bond Fund and Emerging Markets Bond Fund (the blended option) will be run by the firm’s new head of Latin American fixed income, James Barrineau, along with his three team mates Alexander Moseley, Fernando Grisales and Chris Tackney.
He joined Schroders in May this year from California-based global investment management firm, Ice Canyon, which specialises in EM and global credit strategies and where he worked with Moseley and Grisales. The trio also worked together for a stint at AllianceBernstein.
Meanwhile, the Schroder ISF Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund will be managed by Ranjeev De Mello who joined as head of Asian fixed income in July 2011.
He formerly worked at Western Asset Management where he was lead portfolio manager of the company’s Asian local currency strategies and country head of Singapore.
First for Schroders
Karl Dasher, Schroders’ head of fixed income, said: "Up until this point Schroders has only provided to investors in fund form an absolute return strategy in EMD and have never offered to the public a mutual fund or Ucits form of EMD strategy.
"We have been running regional strategies in Latin America and Asia and segregated accounts for institutional investors, but this launch of an EMD platform is something we have been working on for two years."
Dasher added that Schroders wanted to be sure it had all the pieces in place to deliver top quartile performance. The final piece of the jigsaw was provided with the hire of Barrineau and his team who have the relevant currency, sovereign and multi-sector experience.
All of the funds were launched on 11 July and sit in the Schroder ISF Luxembourg-domiciled Sicav range. The EM corporate bond fund is benchmarked against the JPM Cembi Broad Diversified Index, while the EM sovereign bond fund is benchmarked against the JPM GBI-EM Global Diversified Index.
The EM bond fund, which Dasher referred to as a multi-sector fund, will be benchmarked against a blend of JPM indices, reflecting the fact it invests in local and hard currency sovereign bond as well as corporates.
The objective of all the funds is to provide a return of capital growth and income.
