Axa Investment Managers’ WF Asian Short Duration Bonds, and seeks to provide both institutional and retail investors with exposure to high-yield investment grade corporate credit opportunities.
Managed by Jim Veneau, Axa IM’s head of fixed income Asia, the Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV operates independent of a benchmark, utilising a low-volatility total return strategy to target BB and BBB-rated investments alongside some non-rated enterprises.
Veneau will focus on companies with cash flow transparency, with a view to accruing incremental income via coupon issuance and the reinvestment of generated capital.
Explaining the decision to launch the fund, Axa IM cited ongoing economic growth, low debt, current account surpluses and the regional credit spectrum as key factors.
Veneau said: “The Asian credit market has grown spectacularly in the past decade and Asian credit was one of the better performers in 2014.
“This creates exciting investment opportunities, particularly when approached with a short-duration strategy, which is less sensitive to interest rate and credit spread changes.”
WF Asian Short Duration Bond is the seventh offering available within Axa IM’s short-duration fund range, joining Sterling Credit Short Duration Bonds, WF Euro Credit Short Duration, WF US Credit Short Duration Investment Grade, WF Emerging Markets Short Duration Bonds, IM FIIS Europe Short Duration High Yield and IM FIIS US Short Duration High Yield.
In addition, Matthews Asia has made it Matthews Japan Fund available to UK investors, effective immediately.
Managed by Kenichi Amaki, the Luxembourg-domiciled UCITS vehicle targets long-term opportunities across the cap spectrum, employing a bottom-up investment approach.
As well as investing in large-cap Japanese stocks, Amaki cited improving economic conditions within the market as providing a promising outlook for growth companies.
He said: “Japan has been seen by many investors as a ‘large-cap value’ market over the past 15 years, but we view Japan as a long-term, core investment opportunity and, as such, we invest across the market-cap spectrum.
“The portfolio includes lesser-known small-cap companies with strong and sustainable growing domestic businesses relative to many large-cap peers. We also look at Japan in a regional context, paying particular attention to firms that are poised to benefit from the rising income levels in the region and that are tied into the growth of the Asian household.”
