Jupiter Asset Management has launched the Jupiter Global Monthly Income Bond fund to invest in global corporate credit, mixing safer higher-quality investment grade bonds with riskier high-yield credit, the firm announced today.
It will be managed by FE fundinfo Alpha Manager Hilary Blandy who has overseen the similar UK strategy Jupiter Monthly Income Bond since September 2020, during which time assets have risen from $50m to $600m. Under her stewardship the fund has also made a top-quartile return in the IA Sterling Strategic Bond sector of 30.7%.
The new global fund will keep duration (the sensitivity to interest rates) at a “moderate” level and aims to provide attractive and consistent income without the big swings in value when markets are volatile, the firm said.
Piers Hillier, chief investment officer at Jupiter Asset Management, said the new fund will use the same manager, credit research team and investment philosophy as the UK fund but will give them a broader international client base.
The new fund does not follow a benchmark approach for asset allocation. It will use the research team to build a portfolio of between 100 and 150 bonds, with the average credit rating of its holdings sitting in the investment grade bucket.
Foreign currency exposure will be typically hedged back to the base currency, which the firm said should minimise the impact of currency swings on returns.
Blandy said: “Since the pandemic, inflation has been stubborn, political risk has been high and government bond markets have been more volatile. This has been challenging for many traditional flexible bond funds, but the upside is that bonds are now paying higher yields.
“We believe that funds like ours, which can potentially earn a healthy yield for taking only moderate interest rate and credit risk, are better suited to this new market environment.”