Active with immediate effect, the Asian Debt Hard Currency Fund will provide exposure to government and corporate bonds across the debt spectrum, ranging from investment grade to high yield.
The Dublin-domiciled UCITS is managed by members of Neuberger Berman’s emerging market debt team – Prashant Singh, Nish Popat and Jennifer Gorgoll.
Singh commented: “Asia is the deepest and most liquid of the emerging debt capital markets, partly as a result of the concerted efforts of the authorities to bolster themselves against a repeat of the financial crises of the late 1990s.
“Trading volumes and bid-ask spreads on government bonds have improved consistently over the last decade, and are in some cases even better than in some developed markets, adjusted for market capitalisation.
He continued: “Since 2008, growth of corporate bond markets has outpaced that of government bonds by nearly three times, and we anticipate local-currency corporates to be the fastest-growing sector in emerging Asia debt for the foreseeable future. Corporates already account for two-thirds of Asia’s hard-currency market, with China’s state-owned enterprises leading the way.”
