William Blair launches local currency EMD fund
Follows launch of hard currency fund
William Blair Investment Management has launched a local currency emerging markets debt fund, further expanding its range of funds available to European investors.
The William Blair Emerging Markets Debt Local Currency SICAV fund provides investors with exposure to countries in local currencies and interest rates across the Americas, central and eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, utilising both bottom-up and top-down analysis to "assess performance drivers".
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Managed by Lewis Jones, Dan Wood, Yvette Babb and Johnny Chen, and supported by the wider EMD team led by Marcelo Assalin and Marco Ruijer, the launch of the local currency fund follows its hard currency equivalent in April 2020.
Assalin, head of emerging markets debt at William Blair, said: "Despite the recent Covid-19 pandemic, fundamentals within emerging market debt remain both very strong and underappreciated, creating an attractive entry point into the asset class and substantial investment opportunities.
"With a considerable portion of the investible EMD universe trading below what we perceive to be fair value, there has rarely been such an attractive opportunity for long-term investors to benefit from exposure to these developing markets."
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Tom Ross, head of international distribution at William Blair, added: "We have seen significant interest from asset owners in our specialist emerging markets debt capabilities and the launch of a local currency fund is therefore a natural extension to our existing offering.
"We are pleased to further expand our well-established emerging markets franchise and provide investors with the opportunity to benefit from the experience and strong track record of our EMD team."
