Wells Fargo adds investment grade strategy

Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM) has expanded its global investment grade credit strategy with the launch of the Global Investment Grade Credit Fund, a sub-fund of the Wells Fargo (Lux) Worldwide Fund.

The new vehicle is managed by portfolio managers Henrietta Pacquement, Scott Smith, Jonathan Terry, and Alex Temple. The launch follows an announcement by NEST Corporation, the trustee that runs the NEST pension scheme, that it has appointed WFAM to manage a global investment-grade credit strategy. NEST plans to allocate approximately £500 million over the next 12 months to the mandate, which has been designed specifically to adhere to NEST’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements, said Deirdre Flood, head of WFAM’s international client group.

The fund’s objective is to seek total return, maximising investment income while preserving capital through disciplined security selection, a rigorous fundamental research process, and opportunistic relative-value assessment, Flood noted.

The global investment-grade credit universe offers a broad universe for diversification across currencies, countries, sectors and maturities. By coupling a global approach to portfolio construction with local-market execution expertise, the strategy seeks to take advantage of inefficiencies in the global investment-grade credit market in an attempt to generate alpha.