Loomis Sayles revamps emerging market debt team

Fixed income fund managers Loomis Sayles has announced a wave of changes on its emerging market debt unit with a new co-portfolio manager named for its local currency bond fund.

At the forefront of the changes is the internal promotion of product manager Peter Frick, who is now a named manager on the Loomis Sayles Emerging Debt & Local Currencies fund.

Frick, who had covered global bonds and EMD, will co-run the Luxembourg-domiciled fund alongside Edgardo Stemberg and Euro Stars A-rated manager David Rolley.

Elsewhere, Loomis Sayles has also added a host of analysts, researchers and product specialists to its emerging market debt team. This includes Hank Lynch assuming Frick’s role as product manager.

In addition, it will see technology credit specialist Matt Welch turn to focus solely on emerging market credit research, Lynn Parker appointed as a full-time EM markets strategist and trader, and Li Ping Yeo added to Loomis Sayle’s Singapore office as a senior credit analyst to oversee Asian credits.

The changes to the emerging market debt team follow a high profile departure from the firm’s high yield team, after Kathleen Gaffney opted to join Eaton Vance last month.

Commenting on the changes to the EMD unit, Egardo Stemberg said: ‘We believe the emerging markets can offer superior growth opportunities compared to many developed markets.'

'In general, they are younger, more populous nations which have benefitted from strong economic tailwinds over the last decade thanks to lower labour costs and strong demand for commodities.’

The Loomis Sayles Emerging Debt & Local Currencies fund has returned 27.82% in the three years to the end of October 2012. Over the same period, its Citywire benchmark, the BofA Merrill Lynch Global Emerging Markets Sov TR, rose 43.23%.