The strategy will be benchmarked against the JP Morgan Asia Non-Investment Grade Corporate Credit Index, and will invest in companies across Asia in both USD and local currencies.
The launch comes in response to demand from institutional investors, although the fund has both retail and institutional share classes.
The sector has a very low correlation with government bonds and has historically outperformed US high yield, despite better than average credit ratings, and has outperformed Asian equities for around half the volatility.
The fund will be managed by the firm’s fixed income team which is headed up by Kevin Talbot. Tim Jagger will be lead manager.
Jagger said: “The Asian high yield market offers numerous attractions as a standalone asset class and has enjoyed prodigious growth. Over the last three years the market has more than trebled to over $90bn in the USD space alone. Growth in regional currencies, such as CN has also been robust. This makes local expertise critical to delivering consistent risk-adjusted returns.”
Earlier in the week BlackRock revealed it had launched an onshore version of its Asian Dragon Fund.
