Standard Life Investments launches Strategic Bond Fund

Leading fund manager, Standard Life Investments has announced the launch of its Strategic Bond Fund.

The Fund, which is available to retail investors with immediate effect, has a flexible mandate that embraces a holistic approach to investing in fixed income. It is anticipated that this approach will facilitate the outperformance of the fund throughout the economic cycle.

The Fund offers investors the flexibility to invest across the fixed income spectrum, including government bonds, investment grade credit, high yield and index-linked bonds, both in the UK and overseas. It can also take positions in derivatives including futures, inflation or interest rate swaps and credit default swaps, to further enhance returns and minimise risk. The asset mix of the Fund is expected to change significantly over time in order to take advantage of these different areas.

Andrew Sutherland, lead manager of the Strategic Bond Fund and Head of Credit at Standard Life Investments, said: "Different types of bonds perform well at different stages in the economic cycle. We believe that investors will reap the benefits of the holistic approach adopted by the Strategic Bond Fund and by our Focus on Change investment philosophy, which recognises that different factors drive markets at different times in the investment cycle.

"As a manager of over £47.4bn (Standard Life Investments as at 31/12/08) in fixed income markets around the world, our ambition is to continue to create genuine alpha for our clients across a broad range of fixed income activities. The addition of the Strategic Bond Fund to our current mutual fund offering does much to help us to achieve this."

Jacqueline Kerr, Head of Mutual Fund Investments at Standard Life Investments, said: "Offering a complete fixed income solution, this new fund is an exciting proposition for retail investors looking to reap the returns and comparative stability fixed income funds are providing during these periods of extreme market volatility. We expect the fund to be of most interest to investors with a long term time horizon who are keen to invest in an actively managed fixed income strategy or are looking to form the core fixed income element of their portfolio.

"Performance across our full range of fixed income OEIC funds is strong*, reflecting the breadth of expertise of our 20 strong team - which includes government bond, inflation-linked bond, corporate bond, treasury and actuarial investment professionals. The strength of our fixed income process has also been recognised by ratings agency Standard & Poor's, which has awarded ‘A' or ‘AA' ratings to our corporate bond mutual fund range."