Muzinich & Co launches two new bond funds

Corporate credit specialist Muzinich & Co has launched an absolute return global tactical credit fund and an emerging markets short-duration corporate bond fund.

The absolute return global tactical credit fund will target a return of Libor plus 5-7%, while also protecting capital in falling markets. The fund’s lead manager, Mike McEachern, commented: “The prospect of rising interest rates has prompted demand for nimble, multi-asset fixed income strategies as a complement to more traditional investments. We believe in-depth credit research is the long-term driver of attractive risk-adjusted returns. We perform our own bottom-up research and we do not rely on the views of other external providers.” The fund is an Ireland-domiciled UCITS fund and has range of sterling, dollar and euro share classes available.

Muzinich’s emerging markets short- duration bond fund will invest in a diversified portfolio of short-duration investment grade and high yield corporate bonds from emerging markets-focused issuers. George Muzinich, founder and CEO of Muzinich & Co, said: “The potential returns from emerging markets are very compelling. But due to the divergence of returns between countries and issuers, high quality active management is typically required to add real alpha.”

He added that by focusing on shorter-term debt, the fund would have better control of volatility, which can be higher in emerging markets than in more established ones.