Challenger launches high yield fund
Listed financial services groupChallenger Internationalhas launched a new high yield fixed interest fund with a goal to significantly outperform traditional cash and fixed interest markets.
The High Yield Fund, which is already up and running through a $100 million funding injection from Challenger, will actively invest in a diversified portfolio of fixed interest and hybrid securities.
According to Challenger, the fund has produced an absolute return of 7.42 per cent in the eight months to the end of February 2002, 2.5 per cent more than the UBS Warburg Composite Bond Index.
Challenger’s head of fixed interest Paul van Ryn says Australia’s growing high yield market provides active fixed interest managers with considerable opportunity to outperform more traditional fixed interest investments.
Van Ryn says the fund’s investment universe will include bank bills, bonds, commercial paper, mortgages, loans, convertible shares/notes, mortgage and asset-backed securities, structured transactions and floating rate notes, as well as derivatives.
He says the fund will appeal to investors looking for greater diversification in either their fixed interest portfolio or in the alternative assets component of their entire portfolio.
The fund, which will initially be made available only to institutional investors and through wrap accounts, will be launched directly to retail investors in the near future.
Challenger currently has some $500 million invested in high yield fixed interest strategies across its entire funds management and annuities business.
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