BlackRock Expands Its Range of Active iShares Enhanced ETFs With the Launch of Two Enhanced Fixed Income Funds: the iShares $ Corp Bond Enhanced Active UCITS ETF and the iShares € Corp Bond Enhanced Active UCITS ETF. Under the UCITS format, these vehicles offer investors access to “low-cost key asset allocation components that have consistent potential to generate alpha at the core of their portfolios.”
The asset manager explains that both strategies leverage the expertise of its systematic investment platform, with over $300 billion and 40 years of experience, to uncover the insights that drive future returns. The investment team’s process combines the power of big data and advanced technologies with human expertise to deliver predictable and repeatable alpha.
In the opinion of Jeffrey Rosenberg, Senior Portfolio Manager of Systematic Fixed Income at BlackRock, the current market environment has led investors to reconsider the role of fixed income in their portfolios to capture the attractive income opportunity we see today. “Our robust investment process allows us to identify and target bonds with attractive spreads to deliver more attractive risk-adjusted returns than investment-grade indices and active managers, while our quality selection approach helps to reduce downside risks,” says Rosenberg.
In this regard, the asset manager highlights that the new funds are designed to offer the most efficient use of the risk budget by taking hundreds of small evidence-based positions, in order to minimize unwanted risks (sector, duration) and achieve high information ratios. This disciplined approach can be used to complement existing core indexed strategies or to diversify investment styles in a volatile market context. Specifically, the enhanced fixed income investment methodology is based on a technology-driven process that analyzes more than 3,000 issuers daily, focusing on high-credit-quality companies trading at attractive valuations, with the goal of achieving superior total and risk-adjusted returns.
“Investors continue to turn to iShares in their search for innovative ETF solutions and can now access an efficient tool in both indexed and active strategies to achieve their financial objectives. Using active ETFs as core components of an active portfolio allows investors to allocate to proven sources of alpha over time to drive their asset allocation,” concludes Jane Sloan, Head of iShares and Global Product Solutions for EMEA at BlackRock.
For Funds Society, Madrid