William Blair Investment Management has launched an Emerging Markets Debt Hard Currency SICAV fund to provide investors with exposure to the large and growing opportunity set within developing countries across the world.
William Blair Investment Management has launched an Emerging Markets Debt Hard Currency SICAV fund to provide investors with exposure to the large and growing opportunity set within developing countries across the world.The new fund is managed by an 11-person strong specialist emerging markets debt team, led by Marcelo Assalin, CFA, and Marco Ruijer, CFA. It will combine bottom-up and top-down analysis in order to identify performance drivers within developing countries across the Americas, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and seek to invest in those fixed income securities that have the potential to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns.
The launch of the new fund is the latest addition to the suite of William Blair investment strategies available to European investors. As of 31 December 2019, the company manages USD2.275 billion of assets across Global Leaders, Global Leaders SRI, US Small-Mid Cap Growth, US Small-Mid Cap Core, US All-Cap Growth, Emerging Markets Growth, Emerging Markets Leaders, Emerging Markets Small Cap Growth, and Dynamic Diversified Allocation SICAV vehicles.
“Investors are showing increasing interest in emerging markets, recognising both the ability of these regions to meaningfully contribute to portfolios and the challenges faced by more developed countries,” says Marcelo Assalin, CFA, Head of Emerging Markets Debt at William Blair Investment Management. “We see significant room for further growth and issuance within emerging markets, which we believe currently offer the most attractive value within the fixed income space, and therefore believe investors can benefit substantially from exposure to these highly attractive developing markets.”
“The launch of this new fund further strengthens our well-established emerging markets franchise and expands the range of investment strategies available to European investors,” says Tom Ross, Head of International Distribution at William Blair Investment Management. “We have seen strong interest from asset owners since the appointment of our specialist emerging markets debt team, and are pleased to offer investors the opportunity to benefit from this team’s experience and strong track record.”
