BlueBay opens Euro bond arm
FIXED-income asset manager BlueBay has launched a new European rates business to take advantage of the turbulence in the eurozone sovereign bond market.
The new division will be run by Mark Dowding, who joins as a senior portfolio manager from Deutsche Asset Management, where he was European head of institutional fixed income.
Dowding will work alongside Raphael Robelin, BlueBay’s head of investment grade credit, with whom he previously worked at Invesco.
“Recent macro developments have introduced for the first time a significant credit element into the management of developed market government bonds; a feature that looks set to stay,” BlueBay said in a statement.
“Going forward, investors will need to ensure that those managing government bond portfolios on their behalves possess not only rates expertise, but also high quality credit skills.”
BlueBay plans to launch two new funds after Dowding joins in September, including a European government bond fund and a European aggregate fund, combining sovereign and corporate credit plays.
Chief executive Hugh Wills said BlueBay wanted to “capitalise on the significant opportunity that the firm sees in offering investors new generation government bond and rates products”.
BlueBay was founded in 2001 and manages a cross-section of long-only and alternative products across investment grade corporate debt, high yield corporate debt, emerging market debt, convertible bonds, distressed debt and multi-strategy debt products.