On 30^th September 2015, and following The Adviser Centre Monthly Review Meeting on 4^th September 2015, Aberdeen Strategic Bond was added to The Adviser Centre as a Recommended fund.

Co-managed by Roger Webb and Luke Hickmore, the fund is a diversified fixed income offering, through which attractive risk-adjusted returns are sought from strategic asset allocation positioning, credit selection and tactical tilts.

In spite of the fund’s unconstrained mandate, the managers are always thoughtful about the portfolio’s overall risk exposures, hence the fund’s diversified nature.  Furthermore, whilst there is no target allocation, there is typically a bias to investment grade credit.  They identify market-driving themes to help in shaping the fund and determining the preferred split between government, investment grade and high yield bonds.

The managers previously worked at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and joined Aberdeen Asset Management upon the firm’s acquisition in 2014.  They are members of the Pan-European Credit team and supported by the well-resourced, globally-based fixed income team.

Mr Webb and Mr Hickmore are experienced fixed income practitioners, who have a strong working relationship and a pragmatic and risk-aware approach to managing this flexible fund.  We are pleased to add the fund to our Recommended list.

Within The Adviser Centre, we feature the fund in our “Dynamic” category in our IA Sector Overview for the £ Strategic Bond sector.  For this sector, we classify our featured funds according investment approach, as follows:

• Diversified
• Dynamic
• Value
• Structural High Yield Exposure
• Income Objective.

Please see our IA Sector Overview for the £ Strategic Bond sector for further details.  These documents are helpful in providing sector perspectives and in assisting with the blending of funds for portfolios.