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.
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