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Nomura Asset Management
Nomura Asset Management (NAM) has expanded its fixed income capabilities with a new emerging markets corporate bond fund.

The Nomura Funds Ireland – Emerging Market Corporate Bond Fund is managed by Nomura Corporate Research and Asset Management (NCRAM), Nomura's investment boutique specialising in high yield and emerging market bonds.  

The strategy aims to add value through both bottom-up credit selection and top-down country allocation, harnessing NCRAM’s corporate credit and emerging markets sovereign research expertise, the firm said in a statement. The fund is benchmarked against the JP Morgan CEMBI Broad Diversified Index. 

It is managed by NCRAM’s emerging markets fixed income team led by Meno Stroemer, who joined the firm in January 2023. Stroemer has more than 30 years of experience working in emerging markets and credit on both the buy side and the sell side in Europe and the US, the firm continued.  

The actively-managed, hard currency fund combines a top-down approach that considers global macro factors and intensive analysis of individual emerging markets with rigorous bottom-up fundamental analysis of individual companies. The strategy also integrates ESG analysis within the investment process in order to meet the requirements of Article 8 of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), the firm added.  

"Our clients are constantly refining their bond portfolios. Especially after a challenging 2022, they are now looking for broader and more effective diversification. Emerging market corporate bonds can be an important building block in this regard. NCRAM's experienced team has proven in the past that it is able to generate added value in complex bond markets like this with active management," Peter Ball, global head of distribution at NAM said. 

With approximately 2,000 bonds from over 750 issuers worldwide totalling $2.5 trillion as of 31 August 2023, the emerging market hard currency corporate bond market segment (as measured by the JP Morgan CEMBI Broad Diversified Index) offers many investment opportunities across sectors and regions, the firm added.  

NCRAM, as the fund’s sub-advisor, will be responsible for portfolio management of the fund, whilst Nomura Asset Management UK is the lead manager of the fund. 

Headquartered in Tokyo, Nomura Asset Management has additional investment offices throughout the world including London, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Frankfurt and New York.