AXA Investment Managers has launched a Global Strategic Bond fund, an onshore version of the global fixed income strategy it has been running for the past nine years.
The UK-domiciled fund aims to provide investors with an unconstrained, total return mandate which can invest across the multi-trillion dollar fixed income universe, mirroring the existing offshore AXA WF Global Strategic Bonds fund.
AXA says the fund is “fully ESG integrated” and invests in fixed income assets “with a view to finding growth opportunities which can provide an ongoing positive return for investors”.
Managed by Nick Hayes, with Nicolas Trindade as deputy, the fund’s strategy combines top down, strategic asset allocation based on the team’s global macro outlook with bottom up regional and sector-specific credit selection, utilising the wider skillset across AXA Investment Managers’ fixed income capability to provide a “best ideas” portfolio of a variety of fixed income assets.
Split into risk categories, the fund is made up of assets the team considers to be either defensive, intermediate or aggressive, offering a transparent and liquid core holding for clients looking to get ongoing, diversified exposure to fixed income assets.
Commenting on the launch, Nick Hayes said: “The strategy delivers exposure to the global fixed income market via a flexible and transparent process and approach which adapts to the current conditions to capture returns, whilst minimising the volatility experienced by individual sub-asset classes within the wider universe. With so much uncertainty facing fixed income investors at the moment, we believe now is the optimum time to hold such a flexible strategy.”
