The Western Asset Global Bond Fund has been rated ‘Highly Recommended’ by Zenith Investment Partners, the only Fund upgrade within the international fixed interest sector during this review period.
The Fund was also upgraded from ‘Bronze’ to ‘Silver’ by Morningstar in their latest review of the Fund.
The Morningstar Analyst Rating™ for Western Asset Global Bond Fund Class A is ‘Silver’ as of 25/02/2022
In their reports, both investment research houses highlight the strength and stability of Western Asset’s team, its consistency of process and proven track record over the long term.
Western Asset is a global active fixed income manager and part of the Franklin Templeton group.
In its report, Zenith notes: “Western Asset’s investment philosophy is premised on long-term fundamental value investing with a focus on capturing multiple return sources. It has consistently applied the same investment philosophy over multiple decades with proven success. The Fund has a range of excess return sources which can be opportunistically deployed, depending on the prevailing environment.”
According to Morningstar Global Fund Report published on 25 February 2022: “The process here is simple but effective. The team aims to identify mispricings within regions, sectors, and securities, allocating risk to areas in which it has conviction while ensuring diversification to damp volatility across market environments.”
The Fund provides investors with exposure to an actively managed portfolio of global fixed income securities. Around half the securities in the portfolio are government bonds and close to 20% are investment grade corporate bonds. More than half (57%) of the portfolio is in US securities. The Fund can hold up to 15% of its assets in sub-investment grade securities. The Fund is diversified, holding between 400 and 500 securities.
Western Asset believes in sourcing investment opportunities from a broad fixed interest opportunity set and has the ability to invest in securities that are not included in the Fund’s benchmark, the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond Index (hedged into Australian dollars).
The Fund’s objective is to outperform the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond Index (hedged to AUD) over rolling three to five-year periods. As of 28 February 2022, the fund comprised AUD $486 million in funds under management.
Matthew Harrison, Managing Director, Franklin Templeton Australia says: “These new ratings showcase the ongoing strength of Western Asset’s investment team and its well-structured process. The foundation of Western Asset’s process is its Global Investment Strategy Committee, which provides centralised views on key decisions, such as duration, yield curve, country selection and currency positioning. In addition, specialist sector teams use their best ideas to populate targeted exposures with security selections.
“The investment team is led by Chief Investment Officer Ken Leech, who has been with Western Asset for 31 years, and responsible for building a long and successful track record,” Mr Harrison says.
Western Asset is among the largest global specialist fixed income managers, with operations in eight countries and employing 133 investment professionals. Global funds under management stands at A$685 billion. Western Asset is one of Franklin Templeton’s specialised investment managers.