Lazard Asset Management has announced the launch of the Lazard Emerging Markets Income Portfolio.
The Lazard Emerging Markets Income Portfolio seeks to deliver capital appreciation and income from exposure to emerging-market currency and local debt markets, with a short duration bias. The Portfolio is designed to have low correlation to broad equity and debt indices, which can provide favorable diversification benefits for investors, while its limited duration and credit risk profile distinguish its sources of returns from traditional fixed income assets. The identification of idiosyncratic macro-economic factors, policy variables, and market inefficiencies form the crux of the team’s fundamentally-based approach. The Portfolio is based on an existing strategy that the team has managed since inception in 2011.
The Portfolio is co-managed by Ardra Belitz and Ganesh Ramachandran, Managing Directors and Portfolio Managers on Lazard’s Emerging Income team, which manages short duration emerging markets local currency and debt strategies. Ardra and Ganesh have over thirty years of combined experience in the asset class. We believe this experience provides a unique advantage in their ability to identify well-compensated opportunities from a highly diverse, lowly correlated local market universe and produce superior risk-adjusted results.
“The Emerging Markets Income Portfolio offers an attractive solution for investors seeking yield-based total return from non-traditional sources, while the strategy’s low volatility mitigates entry-point risk relative to other emerging market asset classes,” said Ardra Belitz.
“The Portfolio has the potential to benefit in a period of rising interest rates as global demand conditions improve, given the favorable implications for emerging market local currency valuations following sizeable depreciation in recent years,” added Ganesh Ramachandran.
The Emerging Income team leverages Lazard’s deep emerging market resources across multiple disciplines, including over 60 investment professionals dedicated to emerging markets. As of March 31, 2014, Lazard Asset Management manages over $60 billion in emerging markets equity and debt assets on behalf of clients globally.
Lazard operates from 41 cities across 26 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. With origins dating to 1848, the firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategic matters, restructuring and capital structure, capital raising, and corporate finance, as well as asset management services to corporations, partnerships, institutions, governments, and individuals.
An indirect subsidiary of Lazard Ltd, LAM offers a range of equity, fixed-income, and alternative investment products worldwide. As of March 31, 2014, LAM and affiliated asset management companies in the Lazard Group managed $189 billion worth of client assets.