Vontobel Launches Fixed Income Boutique in US, Expanding Asset Class Offerings

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vontobel has launched three emerging markets fixed income strategies, providing US investors first-time access to the time-tested bond market expertise of its USD 25bn Fixed Income Boutique.

Vontobel’s Emerging Markets Bonds team follows a differentiated, high-conviction and bottom-up focused investment approach. It is based on a contrarian approach, striving to generate consistent and strong risk-adjusted returns for investors by capturing value and event-driven opportunities. Through ESG consideration and integration, the team aims to improve the long-term risk-return characteristics of its portfolios while reflecting its clients’ values.

The following three strategies are now available as separate account vehicles:

• The Emerging Markets Debt Strategy specializes primarily in hard-currency sovereign debt and aims to capitalize on primarily bottom-up value opportunities that occur due to irrational, herd-like investor behavior, while monitoring the liquidity and diversification of the portfolio. The strategy is managed by Luc D’hooge, CFA, and Wouter van Overfelt, PhD.

• The Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Strategy employs a bottom-up and relative-value approach, using in-depth knowledge of issuers to find value opportunities and event-driven situations which may be decorrelated from the broader market and global interest rates. The strategy is managed by Wouter Van Overfelt, PhD, and Sergey Goncharov.

• The Emerging Markets Blend Strategy combines the best ideas from the emerging market sovereign and corporate debt strategies in hard currencies with a local currency overlay—a solution for US investors who desire to outsource their emerging market fixed income allocation. The strategy is managed by an experienced group of portfolio managers within the Emerging Markets Bonds team: Luc D’hooge, CFA, Sergey Goncharov, Wouter Van Overfelt, PhD, Thierry Larose, and Carl Vermassen.

The portfolio managers on these three emerging markets strategies have an average of 25 years of experience, and have been managing these strategies since their respective inceptions.

“Emerging markets fixed income is a key pillar for us at Vontobel. Recurring strong risk-adjusted returns versus peers and the market have allowed us to develop our global client base, with significant growth over recent years,” said Simon Lue-Fong, Head of Fixed Income. “We look forward to sharing these strategies with US investors.”

“US investors are increasingly looking for new solutions that provide yield and diversification while managing risk,” added Thomas Wittwer, Chief Executive Officer of Vontobel Asset Management, Inc. US. “We are pleased to deliver this emerging markets fixed income offering to clients in the region, incorporating our time-tested active approach and drawing on our 37-year foothold in North America and near 100-year history in investment management.”

Vontobel has been offering fixed income solutions since 1988. Its Fixed Income Boutique manages USD 25bn in client assets by offering pertinent solutions in Global Credit, Global Bonds, Emerging Markets and Flexible Strategies. The Fixed Income team consists of 41 investment professionals located in Zurich, New York and Hong Kong.

Vontobel

Vontobel is a globally active investment manager with Swiss roots, specializing in wealth management, active asset management and investment solutions. As an investment-led, multi-boutique asset manager, each of our boutiques draws on specialized investment talent, a strong performance culture and robust risk management. We deliver leading-edge solutions for both institutional and private clients. Our commitment to active management empowers us to invest based on our convictions. We deliver value through our diverse and highly specialized teams. Employing over 440 professionals worldwide – including 180 investment specialists – we operate across 16 locations including Switzerland, Europe and the US and create strategies and solutions covering equities, fixed income, multi-asset, and alternative investments. The goal of achieving excellent and repeatable performance has been fundamental to our approach since 1988. The Vontobel families' close ties to the company guarantee our entrepreneurial independence. We consider the resulting freedom as an obligation to also assume our social responsibility. As of September 30, 2021, Vontobel held USD 226 billion of total client assets.

Legal information This document is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer of any kind. The services described in the document are supplied under the agreement signed with the service recipient. The nature, scope and prices of services and products may vary from one country to another and may change without notice at any time. Certain services and products are not available worldwide or from all companies of Vontobel. In addition, they may be subject to legal restrictions in certain countries.