The BlackRock Global Funds (BGF) Strategic Global Bond Fund is an actively managed multicurrency global bond fund with a focus on delivering alpha via macro-driven fixed income opportunities worldwide, including rates and foreign exchange across emerging and developed markets.
Allocations to different securities are evaluated and sized relative to a customised benchmark, which consists of 80% Barclays Global Aggregate Index (unhedged) and 20% emerging markets exposure.
The five-strong portfolio management team employ a comprehensive risk management approach, assessing portfolio risk across 4,000 unique risk factors.
Scott Thiel, Deputy CIO Fixed Income at BlackRock and one of the fund’s portfolio managers, said: “The challenges facing global bond investors are greater than ever. Highly accommodative monetary policy has artificially boosted bond markets with yields on higher quality bonds continuing to decline. However, there are opportunities for active managers to identify sources of added value by capitalising on global opportunities and macroeconomic trends.
“We hear from many investors that they want global macro, liquid strategies that can take advantage of the divergence in performance across different markets. We’ve launched this fund in response to this demand.”
The annual management charge of the fund’s D share class is 0.50%, and ongoing charge fee is 0.70%.
This is the fifth fund in BlackRock’s flagship Global Bond fund range, which includes the BGF Fixed Income Global Opportunities fund, BGF World Bond Fund, BGF Global Corporate Bond and BSF Global Absolute Return Bond Fund. Combined, these funds have over $40bn in assets.
BlackRock manages over $1.4trillion in fixed income assets on behalf of global clients, including both active and index strategies. [1]
