L&G’s Dynamic Bond Trust celebrates with OBSR rating

Legal & General's Dynamic Bond Trust (DBT), managed by Dickie Hodges, is celebrating two year's of trading following its anniversary on 30 April 2009.

As of 30 April 2009, DBT had delivered first quartile performance in the IMA Strategic Bond sector over 24 months, delivering returns of 9.34% for investors giving it a 10th percentile ranking. This compares to an average sector performance of -16.44%.

DBT has also doubled in size in 2009, having increased from £84m at the end of 2008 to £172.2m as of 28 April 2009.

Commenting on the fund's performance, manager Dickie Hodges said: "The decision to launch DBT was taken to capitalise on the huge opportunities that we could foresee within the fixed income space.

With the fund's unconstrained approach, I have been able to seek investment opportunities on a global basis and deliver strong returns for the fund's investors. I have extensive investment experience on hand, drawing on the fixed income expertise within Legal & General, which has been key when taking some of the fund's positions."

Legal & General's Sales Director Ben Waterhouse said: "Recent economic uncertainty has led to increased demand for strategic bond funds as intermediaries recognise the benefit of flexible and dynamic global fixed income fund management.

The exceptional out performance of Dynamic Bond Trust over the last two years is testament to both this strategic unconstrained approach and the expertise of Richard Hodges and Legal & General's Fixed Income team. As significant performance dispersion emerges in the corporate bond sectors, advisers should look to proven, well resourced managers with the flexibility to perform."

DBT has also been awarded an A rating by specialist research company Old Broad Street Research (OBSR), recognising the fund's performance and investment process since launch. OBSR selects its funds for ratings through a bespoke process but each fund analysed is broadly looked at under the following headings: group ownership and stability, investment philosophy and objectives, personnel, investment process, research resources and portfolio construction and risk controls.

Gill Hutchison, Investment Research Director at OBSR, commented: "We believe that the manager's skills and experience combined with Legal & General Investment Management's resources renders this an attractive strategic bond proposition."

Investment is available through Legal & General (Unit Trust Managers) Limited as a unit trust only. The minimum investment is £500, there is no maximum limit. Investment is also available through all major IFA platforms.

The initial charge for retail investors is 5 per cent and the annual management charge is 1.5 per cent of the value of the fund (deducted from income). There is no initial charge for institutional investors with a minimum £100,000 to invest and the annual management charge is 0.75 per cent.

The Dynamic Bond Trust pays a commission to advisers of 3 per cent of the sum invested plus 0.5 per cent trail (no commission payable on switches from existing Legal & General investments). No commission is payable for investments made into the Institutional unit class.