Legg Mason Global Asset Management last month teamed up with Brandywine Global Investment Management to launch the Legg Mason BW Global High Yield Fund.
The fund will bet on high yield securities of corporate or sovereign issuers, denominated in local currency or the U.S. dollar. Gary Herbert, Brian Kloss and Regina Borromeo are the co-portfolio managers of the fund, which sports net operating expenses of 85 basis points.
In an e-mail statement, Kloss said the firm believes that the appetite for global high yield will continue the strong demand it has seen over the last two years. “Global central bank policy (zero interest rate) continues to create an environment that is favorable for income oriented strategies given the liabilities and cash needs of large institutional investors (both globally and domestically) as well as individual investors who have been struggling to reach their own current income objectives,” he said.
“We believe that money managers are doing a disservice to their clients if they are beholden to one fixed income market (i.e., the U.S. market) and fail to consider the opportunities that are available to them around the world. We believe that our country and currency analysis provides investors the opportunity to generate significant alpha over and above a manager that invests in only one country (equities have adopted the global approach to investing, why not fixed income?).”
