Winners rationale

As investors seek to insulate their portfolios in times of substantial and prolonged volatility, longer duration investment grade bonds with conventionally low yields continue to play a prominent role in portfolio construction, despite contending with snowballing borrowing costs as interest rates ratchet up.

In a bid to alleviate investors’ anxiety in times of uncertainty, PIMCO developed its Asian distribution of investment grade bonds that occupy the sweet spot between high yield or riskier investments and safe haven assets, offering investors a balance between stability and income generation as they navigate the choppy waters of today’s market environment.

PIMCO’s seasoned line-up of investment grade credit portfolio managers and industry-specific credit analysts targets the relative value opportunities between sectors and companies to generate returns, favouring companies with high barriers to entry, superior growth potential, robust pricing power, superlative asset quality, and management terms that are supportive of bondholders.

Investing predominantly in creditworthy corporate issuers possessing a debt rating of BBB- or higher from reputable credit-rating agencies, PIMCO’s Investment Grade Credit strategy adopts a disciplined approach in credit selection with a clear aim of sustaining long-term performance. Apart from corporate bonds, its credit universe includes investment grade sovereign bonds as well as supranational issuers. The fund has demonstrated its ability to deliver over the long run, outperforming the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Credit Index (USD Hedged) over both ten-year and since-inception periods on a net-of-fees basis.

Unlike typical fixed income strategies where returns are elicited primarily by interest rate fluctuations within a specific country or region, PIMCO’s Investment Grade Credit strategy offers investors exposure to investment grade credit while PIMCO continually makes tactical sector, industry, and issuer decisions, enabling optimal exposure amid fluctuating economic and market environments.

Having employed investment grade corporate bonds as a key component of its investment arsenal for core fixed income portfolios since 1971, PIMCO has been voted Asian Private Banker’s Best Fund Provider – Investment Grade Bond.