Legg Mason offers second Brandywine bond fund to UK

Legg Mason Asset Management has unveiled its $34m Brandywine Global Opportunistic Fixed Income fund to the UK market.

The fund was originally launched in June 2010 for a trial phase to a limited number of investors, but has now been added to the group's Dublin LMGF (Legg Mason Global Funds) range.

It is the second offering from Legg Mason subsidiary Brandywine Global to be brought to the UK. Its $434m Brandywine Global Fixed Income product has been available to UK investors since September 2003.

Both funds leverage Brandywine Global's top down, value-driven investment process, with the Global Opportunistic Fixed Income fund having the additional ability to invest in the credit and mortgage-backed securities market.

"The Brandywine Global Opportunistic Fixed Income strategy has been popular with US retail and institutional investors for many years and has a long track record of outstanding outperformance," said Legg Mason head of sales Adam Gent.

"With demand increasingly moving towards strategies with the flexibility to invest globally in pursuit of inflation-beating returns, we believe this fund will appeal to UK investors who want diversification and performance through a management team which has the proven ability to deliver in all types of market environment."

The Opportunistic fund is managed by a team led by David Hoffman and Stephen Smith, who also run the Brandywine Global Fixed Income product.

It targets securities with the highest real yields and aims to outperform the Citigroup World Government Bond Index by 2% annually over five-year periods.

Investment will be focussed on the eight to 16 countries Brandywine considers have the best total return potential.

The Legg Mason Brandywine Global Opportunistic Fixed Income fund has returned 12% since launch in June last year, net of charges, against a 7.06% benchmark and 5.12% peer group return.

Meanwhile, the Legg Mason Brandywine Global Fixed Income fund has returned 8.54% year-to-date against its benchmark return of 7.06% and a peer group average of 5.12%.

Brandywine Global's entire Global Opportunistic Fixed Income strategy is $12bn in size, including segregated mandates, institutional and fund money. The minimum investment on the fund for UK retail investors is £1,000.