Brunel Pension Partnership launches multi-asset credit fund

The new portfolio, with £2.1bn allocated from partner funds, is divided across three separate mandates: 60 per cent is managed by Neuberger Berman, 20 per cent by Oaktree Capital Management, and 20 per cent by CQS. 

David Cox, head of listed markets at Brunel, said: “After a rigorous search and analysis process, we identified three managers who displayed the investment expertise and responsible investment acumen we were looking for — as well as providing a diversity of styles.”

The portfolio will invest in a variety of specialist bond sectors, such as high-yield corporate bonds, bank loans, asset-backed securities and emerging market debt.

It aims to gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of enhanced credit opportunities with modest-to-low exposure to interest rate risk. Selective exposure to investment-grade corporate bonds is also permitted.

Daniel Spencer, senior investment officer at Brunel, said: “The portfolio is very different from our other portfolio offerings, enabling our clients to reduce risk while still achieving reasonable returns through the use of diversified credit.”

Alignment with Brunel’s climate change policy was a fundamental theme throughout the manager selection process, it stated.

Spencer added: “During the interview process, we only considered managers who showed awareness of whether companies are aligned with the Paris Agreement.

“We also questioned them closely to ensure they knew where carbon data was weak in specific bond sub-sectors, and how they could work towards meeting Paris alignment despite these issues.”

The multi-asset credit fund’s performance objective is to outperform the Sterling Overnight Index Average, or Sonia, by 4-5 per cent over a rolling three to five-year period. 

This article originally appeared on MandateWire.com