SWIP Sterling Credit Advantage fund switches sector

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership's (SWIP) £1.1bn Sterling Credit Advantage fund, managed by Roger Webb, has been moved into the Specialist sector with immediate effect.

The fund has now been reclassified as Webb said it was unfair to compare it with former peers in the £ Corporate Bond sector.

According to Webb, the change was initiated by the fund's main client Lloyds Banking Group.

"As the fund has zero exposure to duration, and the rest of the funds in the sector have higher exposure, it would mean our fund would either be right at the top or right at the bottom depending on how the government bond market is doing.

"As a result we are not showing a fair reflection of what the fund's objective is," he said.

The fund's structure differs from traditional corporate bond funds where one of the key drivers of returns is their interest rate exposure.

It has limited exposure to interest rates as it uses futures and interest rate swaps to hedge this risk.

Webb said: "Moving the fund into the Specialist sector will cut out the extremity of performance. Over the past few years as credit spreads widened and government bond yields have fallen the concern has not been as great, but the current environment is seeing government bond prices falling and pushing up yield and the issue has been raised by a number of parties," he said.

"To compare this fund with traditional corporate bond funds is not a fair and reasonable comparison."

Webb also co-manages SWIP's Strategic Bond fund with Luke Hickmore.