What rotation? Liontrust raises £120m for Mabbutt's global bond fund

Liontrust Asset Management has defied the 'great rotation' and raised £120 million for Michael Mabbutt's new global bond fund.

The Dublin-domiciled Liontrust GF Global Strategic Bond, which was launched by Mabbutt on 6 February, has attracted most of this interest from wealth managers.   

Mabbutt combines top down and bottom-up strategies to find investments for the fund. He has the flexibility to invest across the globe and within in any credit type, including unrated instruments.

Liontrust will be particularly pleased with fund-raising given the general lack of sentiment towards bond funds at the moment.

This was confirmed by annual figures from the Investment Management Association, which showed equity fund sales outstripped their bond counterparts in each of the last four months of 2012.   

To empahise this trend, the rotation out of bonds into equities is one of the highest conviction themes at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Liontrust recruited Mabbutt, who was one of the co-founders Thames River, at the end of last year to launch a global credit division for the firm.