Major Europe asset manager Amundi has launched its Amundi Funds – Asia Income ESG Bond fund that invests across all Asian fixed-income segments with a focus on both credit and local rates markets.

The fund, which will be diversified across corporates and sovereign issuers, will target high-income generation with an optimized risk return profile, and employ a robust environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework to reduce extra-financial risk while also seeking ESG opportunities.

Classified as SFDR Article 8, the fund will actively invest, the company notes, in a broad, diversified investment universe across local and external debt, using active currency management. The Asian bond universe comprises of 10 plus sovereign and quasi-sovereign issuers and over 500 corporates across 15 countries.       

The fund will be managed by Joevin Teo, head of Asian fixed income and the EM debt team.

The asset manager’s emerging market (EM) team manages over €38.6 billion (US$41.6 billion) of assets and is made up of both fixed income and equity specialists. This cross-asset set-up, the company argues, enables the investment teams to capture a wide breadth of EM investments and better understand the full cost of capital, helping to unearth and generate unique investment opportunities.

“EMs are expected to grow faster than developed markets, with Asia taking the lion’s share of this growth,” says Yerlan Syzdykov, the company’s EM head. “As we navigate this ongoing market regime shift to a higher rate environment, the increased volatility and uneven repricings offer what we believe to be great investment opportunities.

“With a growing demand for green and social bonds in the region, the appeal for Asian bonds is strong, and we are offering investors in Europe and Asia access to this maturing and increasingly diversified market.”