CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Robert Spector and Richard Hawkins, fund's lead managers. MFS Launches Global Opportunistic Bond Fund
MFS Investment Management recently announced the launch of MFS Meridian® Funds – Global Opportunistic Bond Fund, a flexible fixed income fund designed to generate returns from a diversity of alpha sources through variable market conditions.
The investment strategy, available to investors through the Luxembourg-domiciled MFS Meridian Funds range, is based on the belief that global fixed income markets offer a diverse range of opportunities to add value, including global sector allocation, security selection, duration and currency management over a market cycle.
Primarily, the fund focuses its investments in issuers located in developed markets, but may also invest in emerging markets. The fund will invest in corporate and government issuers and mortgage-backed and other asset-backed securities, as well as investment-grade and below-investment-grade debt instruments. Through this diverse opportunity set, the fund aims to allocate risk where it is most attractively priced in order to generate returns.
While the portfolio has the ability to meaningfully allocate to various sectors, including riskier segments of the fixed income markets, the fund utilises a benchmark-aware approach that seeks to balance higher yield and total return potential while still providing the diversification benefits traditionally offered by fixed income. However, it is important to remember that diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against a loss.
‘The need for enhanced fixed income return potential is real in the current slow-growth, low-rate environment. In our view, different sources of alpha are likely to drive performance, depending on market conditions, and so the ability to allocate across different opportunities enhances efforts to generate performance’, said Lina Medeiros, president of MFS International Ltd.
In an effort to manage exposure to particular areas of the markets, the fund is expected to use derivatives primarily for hedging and/or investment purposes.
Richard Hawkins and Robert Spector serve as the fund’s lead managers and are responsible for asset allocation and risk budgeting in the portfolio. They work with a group of sector-level portfolio managers.
In addition to providing insights on relative value for their sectors, this group is responsible for buy and sell recommendations within their sectors.
This highly experienced team has a long track record managing global portfolios, with extensive investment experience in various asset classes and regions around the world.
Photo: Luigi Bellini / Courtesy Photo. “These are Interesting Times for Private Debt Transactions and the European Alternative Loan Market”
From the 28th of September to the 5th of October, a team of ACPI Investments specialists will be visiting Chile to discuss opportunities in European private debt. In an exclusive interview with Funds Society, Luigi Bellini, partner and Head of the Institutional and Family Office platform at ACPI, talks about investment opportunities offered by the European alternative lending market. According to Bellini,the difference between the demand for loan financing and loan availability is particularly acute in Europe, where banks have traditionally played a major role in the capital market.
“Following the global financial crisis, bank lending remains constrained, and there are borrowers with good characteristics who wish to borrow. Meanwhile investors are looking for fixed income strategies that offer uncorrelated returns with low volatility” said Bellini.
ACPI is active in the private loan market, targeting asset-backed loans in the range USD10-30mn with a 2-3 year maturity. ACPI looks for relationship-sourced loans with short maturity and good asset backing as it believes these offer an attractive risk reward profile. Having being active in private loans for some years, ACPI now intends to launch a private loan fund to capitalize on the opportunity in the European private loan space.
“We have put a lot of thought into how to structure the fund”, said Bellini. “We believe prospective investors will respond positively to our approach”
The Latin American Market
As regards Latin America, ACPI has placed a lot of emphasis and effort in the region, and will continue to do so in the coming years. In a few days, Bellini and his team will be visiting Chile, one of the region’s most mature markets, where the firm has an established group of clients. “Chile is a market that has traditionally been more influenced by the United States, now is a good time to start talking about European markets, and there is quite a bit of appetite for private transactions” said Bellini.
ACPI Investments also has relationships with investors from Mexico and Brazil and has two other markets in the region within its radar screen: Colombia and Peru.
ACPI Investments’ Background
ACPI Investments Limited (“IL”) was established in 2001 and is headquartered in London, specializes in wealth management, taking care of the financial interests of some 95 families worldwide. ACPI offers a wide range of investment opportunities including via its managed funds and private equity and private debt.
ACPI Investments Group Limited manages more than 3.5 billion dollars in assets through a number of subsidiaries. It has offices in South Africa and Jersey and in India via a joint venture with a local company.
ACPI IL is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom and registered with the SEC.
ACPI IM Limited is based in Jersey and authorised by the JFSC.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrGuy Stern, Head of Multi-Asset Investing.. Standard Life Investments Launches Enhanced-Diversification Multi-Asset Fund
Standard Life Investments, the global investment manager, has launched the Enhanced-Diversification Multi-Asset Fund (EDMA) in response to a growing client demand for multi-asset growth funds that manage downside risk.
EDMA is part of its multi-asset range for investors who want to balance capital growth against volatility in financial markets. With EDMA, the fund manager aims to generate equity-type returns over the market cycle (typically five to seven years in duration) but with only two-thirds of equity market risk.
Guy Stern, Head of Multi-Asset Investing, explained “the Fund differs from many traditional multi-asset growth approaches. EDMA holds a range of market return investments (such as equities, bonds and listed real estate); however, we also use enhanced-diversification strategies which seek to provide additional sources of return and high levels of portfolio diversification“.
“By taking relative value positions as well as making investments in the currency and interest rate markets, we can develop risk relationships that are quite different from traditional investments. These types of investments are valuable when constructing a diversified multi-asset portfolio as we would expect them to limit downside risk during market falls”.
EDMA is co-managed by Jason Hepner, Scott Smith and James Esland and benefits from the expertise of SLI’s established and award-winning multi-asset investing team. The Fund is a Luxembourg registered SICAV and is a sister fund to the Enhanced-Diversification Growth Fund OEIC launched in November 2013.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: alobos Life. LarrainVial AM and UBP Strike Business Deal
The asset management division of Swiss group Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) has entered into a strategic agreement with Chilean boutique LarrainVial Asset Management.
According to the terms of the deal, UBP’s asset management team will be sub‐advising on a European equity mutual fund registered in Chile and managed by LarrainVial AM.
At the same time, LarrainVial AM’s expertise on Latin American equity and fixed income will be leveraged by UBP to support its global emerging markets capabilities.
LarrainVial AM is a non‐bank asset manager based in Chile, with approximately $3.5bn (€3.1bn) in assets under management, providing a range of Latin American equity and fixed income strategies.
UBP held CHF113.5bn (€103.6bn) in assets under management as at 30 June 2016, of which CHF24bn (€21.9bn) are managed by its investment arm.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrFoto: XOques. Cambio en las variables de predicción
Net New Assets (NNA) during this month amounted to EUR 4.7 billion, still 21% above the one-year monthly average level. Total assets under management are up 7% vs. the end of 2015, reaching EUR 481 billion, including a slight rise in the market (+3.9%). Emerging Market and investment grade corporate bond ETFs gathered most in this environment of heightened uncertainty.
Equity ETF inflowswere significant at EUR 2.1 billion, continuing the trend of the last two months. On developed markets, flows were limited at EUR 339 million. Positive news in the US economic data helped sustain strong inflows of EUR 1.2 billion. However, in Europe the less positive economic data prompted outflows of EUR 1.1 billion from European ETFs. Emerging Market equity ETFs continued their rebound with inflows of EUR 1.5 billion. Flows were focused on broad index exposures, which would suggest that investors were taking a tactical position ahead of the FED’s decision on rates. Smart Beta ETF flows lost momentum, gaining just EUR 435 million in new assets after hitting a one-year record high in July. This month, Smart Beta investors favoured dividend and factor allocation products over minimum variance ETFs in their search for yield and alternative sources of return.
Fixed income ETF inflowsalmost halved in August to EUR 2.7 billion compared to July, close to their one-year monthly average. On developed countries, flows were mainly focused towards investment grade corporate bond ETFs, which saw EUR 1.4 billion of new assets following sustained ECB action. Emerging Market Debt continued to see some inflows of EUR 833 million although at a slower pace than the one-year record high reached in July of EUR 2 billion, which was fueled by the very low/zero interest rate environment and investors’ hunt for yield. The rebound in High yield Bond ETFs of July was short lived with EUR 62 million of outflows in August. Interestingly, flows on inflation-linked ETFs reached a one-year record high with inflows of EUR 546 million. Flows here were mainly on US exposures as economic growth seems to accelerate.
Commodity ETF flowshalted with EUR 76 million of outflows, which compares to the one-year record high of EUR 1.1 billion reached in July.
Italian group Banca Finnat Euramerica has launched a new Luxembourg-based asset management branch called Natam Management Company.
The subsidiary has received a “dual permission” from Luxembourg market authorities.
Banca Finnat said the Natam project was aimed at serving internal as well as external clients such as third-party intermediaries and institutional investors.
The company runs the New Millenium Sicav launched in the 90’s that comprises 14 sub-funds
Banca Finnat’s deputy general manager and president of the group’s Sicavs Alberto Alfiero has been appointed president of Natam.
Sante Jannoni, a lawyer specialising in Italian and Luxembourg financial law and senior management member of a number of professional and financial entities in Luxembourg, will serve as the company’s CEO.
Invesco PowerShares, a leading global provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), part of Invesco, has listed the PowerShares US High Yield Fallen Angels UCITS ETF on London Stock Exchange, and on additional European stock exchanges.
The PowerShares US High Yield Fallen Angels UCITS ETF tracks the Citi Time-Weighted US Fallen Angel Bond Select Index, which is based on the Citi US High-Yield Market Index, with the same composition requirements around credit quality, maturity, and issue size. Bonds must have a minimum rating of C by S&P and Ca by Moody’s, and a maximum rating of BB+ by S&P and Ba1 by Moody’s to be eligible.
“Fallen angels” bonds which were previously rated investment-grade but were subsequently downgraded to high-yield are eligible for inclusion in the index and will be held in the index for a period of 60 months from inclusion provided they continue to meet the inclusion criteria. If a bond exits and then re-enters the index, the inclusion period would reset.
Bryon Lake, Head of Invesco PowerShares – EMEA, says: “With the ‘fallen angel’ phenomenon there are two things going on that are pushing the bond price down. First leading up to the downgrade you tend to see prices begin to drop as investors position themselves for the downgrade. Secondly, after the downgrade there are large asset owners, usually institutional in nature, that are forced to sell what were investment grade bonds but are now high yield due to their strict mandated rules. This forced selling creates a phenomenon where the bond can become oversold, which creates an opportunity to buy the bonds at their existing market value. This overselling – more often than not – is followed by a rebound in the bonds prices, potentially creating a unique opportunity and in a number of instances the bond even returns to investment grade.”
Lake continues: “In addition, because Invesco PowerShares is focused on being a leader in the smart beta space, there is a design element to the index that differentiates this ETF from other such investments. By using a time-weighted methodology the index emphasises the bonds that were most recently downgraded, which is logical in the context of a ‘fallen angel’ strategy vs say market cap weighting, and also could enhance the return of the ETF by more acutely capturing the ‘fallen angel’ phenomenon.”
Unlike traditional indices, where constituent weights are based on market value, the Citi Time-Weighted US Fallen Angel Bond Select Index aims to capture the price dynamics over the potential rebound period by using a time-weighting function that allocates higher weights to bonds that have more recently become ”fallen angels.” Issuers’ weights are capped at 5% and constituents’ time-based weights are capped at five times their respective market value-based weights to help manage concentration risk.
Arom Pathammavong, Global Head of Citi Fixed Income Indices, commented: “Leveraging insights from Citi’s research teams, we continue to expand our family of indices in order to offer market participants unique opportunities to meet diversification needs and further enhance their portfolios. For the Citi Time-Weighted US Fallen Angel Bond Select Index, we examined the price movements of fallen angel bonds which showed that prices of these bonds tend to recover from the dip of the downgrade over a 30-60 month period. The index will hold these fallen angel bonds for up to 60 months while applying an innovative time-based weighting methodology that aims to capture the price rebound effect of these bonds.”
The ETF has also been listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, the Borsa Italiana, the Deutsche Börse, the Euronext Paris, and the SIX Swiss Exchange.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Luckycavey, Flickr, Creative Commons. Brexit May Prove Not to Be a Watershed
The latest round of central bank interest-rate cuts and quantitative-easing extensions will bring some relief to asset managers suffering in the wake of the Brexit vote by further strengthening the case for buying into funds instead of holding cash, according to the latest issue of The Cerulli Edge-European Monthly Product Trends Edition.
While global analytics firm Cerulli Associates is confident that the UK’s decision to leave the European Union is not a game changer, it acknowledges that the fund groups worst affected by the summer’s outflows may have to increase marketing efforts to convince investors to return and to find new investors.
“Most firms are not expecting the outflows, which admittedly were very large, to be magically reversed in the next month. However, they have already stabilized and most industry watchers expect the second half of the year to show a more positive trend,” says Barbara Wall, Europe managing director at Cerulli Associates, adding that the resultant shakeout may intensify the pressure on fees.
Cerulli does not believe that the passporting and UCITS-labelling rights of UK firms with funds domiciled in Luxembourg and Dublin, but managed out of London, will be withdrawn. Any new conditions attached to these rights will, it says, be minimal.
“The EU would have little incentive to deprive itself of the expertise of Europe’s biggest financial center, or to risk restrictions being placed on the export of EU goods and services into the UK,” says Wall, who believes that providers of passive vehicles may be the biggest beneficiaries as the market returns to some sort of normality.
The members of the European Parliament, with a 602 votes to 4, and 12 abstentions, have rejected draft regulatory technical standards aiming to provide a framework to packaged retail investment and insurance-based products (Priips). According to them, the draft regulation, is so “flawed and misleading” it could make retail investors losing money instead of protecting them.
The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) stated in a press release that they welcome today’s adoption of the European Parliament Motion for a Resolution on the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 on key information documents for PRIIPs, which:
objects to the Commission delegated regulation
calls for a postponement of the application date of the PRIIPs Regulation
EFAMA firmly believes that the PRIIPs KID is a powerful instrument to ensure that consumers receive the right information before making their investment choices. Asset managers know how important it is that investors and their advisers are given meaningful, comprehensible and comparable information to make sound investment decisions. It is therefore crucial to get the PRIIP KID right the first time around to ensure consumers find it helpful before making their investment choices.
Asset managers have long argued that the draft RTSs, as endorsed by the European Commission, will not achieve the intended objective to make the KID helpful to consumers. They will at best confuse investors, at worst mislead them.
The European asset management industry is absolutely convinced that the RTSs must be amended in a satisfactory way to serve their purpose for consumers. They need to be amended to solve flaws – and the key ones are allowing past performance so the investor can see if the asset manager has met its objectives in the past, and fixing the inaccurate calculation methodology of transaction costs. Investors must have the basic facts of what their investment will bring in terms of risks and costs. This is fundamental in terms of trust and confidence from consumers.
“We trust today’s adoption will result in amended RTSs that will help and inform consumers. The current draft RTSs do not.” EFAMA said.
Peter De Proft, EFAMA Director General, commented: “We want to be crystal clear. EFAMA would not like to reopen discussions on the PRIIPs Level 1 Regulation, save for a postponement of the Regulation’s application date. What is crucial now is to get the Level 2 right – and this means appropriately amending the draft RTSs, while leaving untouched the letter and spirit of the Level 1 Regulation.”
But timing is of essence, and EFAMA has also welcomed the EP’s call to the EC to consider a delay in the applicate date of the PRIIPs Regulation.
Alexander Schindler, EFAMA President, commented: “Market operators will apply the rules and want to do so appropriately. This is our wish and our intention. However, legal unclarities and flaws in the rules do not make this objective feasible. The premise to do this is to know the final rules, and to have sufficient time to implement them. There is only one reason why we find a delay absolutely essential, and this is because it is materially impossible and simply unrealistic for product manufacturers and distributors to meet the 31 December 2016 deadline. We would suggest a delay of 12 months. We urge the Commission and the European Supervisory Authorities to follow suit to today’s call from the European Parliament and begin the process of amending the RTSs, and we trust they will consider the concerns of investors and asset managers”.
Custom House Global Fund Services, a leading independent hedge fund administration specialist, has expanded its presence in China with the official opening of a Shanghai office. In addition, the firm has hired Sunny Huang as a Relationship Manager who will be responsible for new business development and the collaboration between clients and the firm.
“Our continued growth in China supports investor’s desire to gain immediate access to a financial services centre perfectly suited to meet the demands of those who are looking to venture into the global financial markets,” said Mark Hedderman, CEO, Custom House Global Fund Services. “With a considerable amount of wealth generated in China over the recent years, investors are looking to diversifying into global investment opportunities, amid concerns of future lower domestic growth and threat of potential currency devaluation.”
“We are excited about the opening of our new office and having Mrs. Huang on board to strengthen our partnership with our valued clients and provide a local presence for quality fund administration solutions to clients in the Shanghai region managing offshore funds,” said Tony Kan, Managing Director of Custom House Fund Services Hong Kong Ltd.
“Harvest Wealth Management has been working with Custom House since May 2015. In the past year, Custom House helped set up our overseas investment platform in the Cayman Islands and acted as the fund administrator for five funds launched on the platform. The efficiency, resourcefulness and client focused professionalism they have demonstrated are truly superb and beyond our expectations. Custom House has become one of our go-to partners when conducting our business overseas,” said Thomas Huang, Deputy CEO of Harvest Wealth Management. Harvest Wealth Management Limited is the subsidiary of Harvest Fund Management Limited. Both companies are regulated by China Securities Regulatory Commission.
Before joining Custom House, Huang was a client advisor assistant at UBS AG in Hong Kong where she was responsible for the day-to-day administration of onboarding clients and providing updates on their portfolios. Huang holds a Master of Finance (Investment Management) from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, PolyU and a Bachelor of Economics from East China Normal University in Shanghai. She will report to Allen Li, Director of the Hong Kong office.
