Standard Life Investments unveils emerging market debt proposition

Standard Life Investments (SLI) has launched an emerging market debt fund for Richard House as it looks to take advantage of growing interest in the asset class.

The launch of the fund marks SLI's first foray into the emerging market debt space and the firm believes there is plenty of value to be found in the asset class. It sees the sector as an important diversifier, providing access to expanding economies which have not yet had fiscal improvements priced in.

The Standard Life Emerging Market Debt fund, available to both retail and institutions, aims to deliver income plus some capital growth. It does not target a specific yield, although it will offer a yield of around 4.7% at launch.

House and his team will invest in sovereign debt denominated in dollars in the fund, which will be benchmarked against the JP Morgan EMBI Global Diversified index.

The investment process will be based on a research-driven, top-down view, using country analysis to build a portfolio of best ideas.

SLI said the asset class also has a diversified investment universe of over 50 countries and constitutes around 12% of the global bond market.

Euan Munro, executive director responsible for fixed income, said in a statement: ‘Richard and his team bring a robust and repeatable investment process that is very much in keeping with our focus on change investment philosophy.

‘They combine quantitative research with broader qualitative and market insights to identify those areas of the emerging debt opportunity set where their views are most divergent from consensus and where there are some identifiable triggers that will cause the market to change its mind.’

House, who left Threadneedle in April this year, joined SLI with two former colleagues, Mark Baker and Nicolas Jaquier, who are both investment directors in the new team.

House was at Threadneedle from 2007, prior to which he was a trader of emerging market bonds and currencies at Wadhwani Asset Management.