The latest news in investment offers, financial products and other services relevant to wealth advisors and their clients.

River Road Asset Management, Boutique Capital Partners
River Road Asset Management and Boutique Capital Partners (BCP) have just launched the CG River Road US Large Cap Value Select Fund, a UK OEIC (open-ended investment company) for investors in the UK. 

Boutique Capital Partners said it has collaborated with River Road to launch the fund for UK investors following the success of River Road’s Large Cap Value Select (LCVS) strategy in the US, which was launched on 1 November 2014. The strategy, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, delivered 12.23 per cent gross of fees.

The fund offers UK investors a concentrated (typically 20 to 30 stocks), highly active, US equity investment strategy, the firm said in a statement. The investment objective of the fund is to achieve capital appreciation over a five to seven-year period. Seeking to provide investors with a truly differentiated US equity exposure, the fund invests in high quality companies trading at attractive discounts.

“We build our portfolio stock by stock, searching less efficient parts of the US market to identify businesses with excellent company fundamentals at compelling valuations. Our investment philosophy seeks to minimise volatility and sits directly between deep value and relative value investing, while aiming to avoid the common pitfalls of each,” Daniel Johnson, portfolio manager, said.  

Vanguard
Vanguard has just launched a new fixed income focused exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Vanguard Global Government Bond UCITS ETF serves as an additional core building block in investors’ portfolios. The ETF will be listed on the London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse, Borsa Italiana, Euronext Amsterdam, and the SIX Swiss Exchange.

The ETF, which aims to track the Bloomberg Global Treasury Developed Countries Float Adjusted Index, will be available to investors in the UK and continental Europe as part of Vanguard’s UCITS range, the firm said in a statement.

The new ETF will be managed by Vanguard’s Fixed Income Group, which manages more than $2.47 trillion in assets across the globe.

“Investors are often tempted to invest locally when it comes to fixed income, largely out of familiarity. However, the added diversity of a global government bond allocation can reduce the risk of an investor’s fixed income portfolio, without necessarily decreasing the expected returns, provided the currency risk is hedged,” Mark Fitzgerald, head of product specialism at Vanguard Europe, said. “By adding global government bonds, investors gain exposure to a greater number of securities, different inflation and economic environments, as well as business cycles from a wider range of markets.”

Janus Henderson Investors
London-headquartered asset manager Janus Henderson Investors has just launched a UCITS vehicle for non-US investors: the Janus Henderson Tabula USD AAA CLO UCITS ETF (JAAA LN). It said that it follows "the success" of its AAA CLO ETF in the US.

JAAA LN is managed by industry veterans John Kerschner, head of US securitised products and Colin Fleury, head of secured credit, alongside securitised portfolio managers, Denis Struc, Jessica Shill and Ian Bettney. The team has a track record in collateralised loan obligations (CLO) investing, the firm said in a statement.

The fund, which  is listed on the London Stock Exchange with ticker JAAA LN, has plans for additional listings in the EU and Switzerland. It will be available in all major European markets.

The fund will primarily invest in UCITS-eligible USD AAA-rated CLOs, offering investors access to the high-quality, floating rate US AAA CLO market, historically only made available to institutional investors, in a liquid and transparent exchange-traded fund (ETF) structure. The fund will also invest in EUR AAA-rated CLOs hedging currency exposure back to dollars.

Building on its track record and success in the US, the firm is extending its global securitised expertise to clients in Europe.

“Historically, accessing the CLO asset class has been challenging, as it typically requires significant scale and specialised expertise to manage effectively,” John Kerschner, head of US securitized products, said. “We have demonstrated the benefits of this product offering to our clients in the US, including diversification, attractive floating-rate yield, high credit quality, and liquidity through various market events. We are thrilled we can now extend our expertise and scale to clients seeking access to this product through a non-US domiciled ETF structure."

Westwood
Westwood Holdings Group has launched an exchange-traded fund that limits exposure to authoritarian regimes while staying diversified – an important consideration considering geopolitical trends.

Westwood, a US investment and wealth management firm, has rolled out the Westwood LBRTY Global Equity ETF (“BFRE”), which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 

The ETF employs TOBAM’s “LBRTY” methodology, an approach that generates returns by systematically cutting exposure to companies that can be subjected to the economically irrational, unpredictable and corrupt behaviour of autocratic governments. (This news service interviewed TOBAM about autocracy risk here.)

The TOBAM approach draws on different streams of data from sources to curb direct and indirect exposure to authoritarian countries, such as China and Russia. Unlike traditional exclusion strategies, this methodology provides a more comprehensive assessment than just removing a country from the investable universe, Westwood said in a statement. 

The approach operates on two levels: at the country level, it excludes stocks listed in nations that lack democratic governance, an independent judiciary and strong civil liberties; at the stock level, it prioritises companies listed in democratic countries with minimal reliance on authoritarian regimes.

“Investors are increasingly seeking solutions that solve for the interconnected nature of global economies. BFRE works to minimise direct and indirect exposure to authoritarian regimes while aligning with investor’s goals and objectives,” Greg Behar, head of managed investment solutions at Westwood, said.

Yves Choueifaty, CEO of TOBAM, added: “BFRE is backed by a wealth of academic research proving the economic superiority of democratic countries. It leverages this research to build sophisticated portfolios designed to improve the long-term risk-reward of our investors by mitigating their exposure to autocratic governments that are prone to destroy value creation.”