French asset manager Amundi has launched a “Buy & Watch” fund family to be called Amundi Fund Solutions Sicav, which will invest in fixed income securities in order to deliver on an income target over a set time.
The strategy is based on selecting a diversified portfolio of bonds to be managed by a team of credit specialists which will aim to deliver an income objective over a period of 6 years, and produce some capital appreciation.
The fund will mainly hold investment grade credit securities with maturity or call dates aligned with the fund maturity. The bonds will be selected from a wide range of global credit issuers from all sectors in the developed and emerging markets, and in a range of currencies, though mainly euros, US dollars and sterling.
Ratings of the bonds in the portfolio will be weighted at around 70% for investment grade and around 30% for high yield, with an average rating of BBB-.
Jean-Marie Dumas, head of Fixed Income Solutions at Amundi said: “In a world of persistently low interest rates, investors are looking for new ways to get attractive returns on their investments.
“Target maturity Buy and Watch solutions offer a good alternative to traditional bond funds by capturing attractive risk premia and providing visibility into the future rate of return for a given time horizon.”
The fund is a Luxembourg Sicav which will be registered in various European countries including Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, Hungary.
