BlueBay reports big flows into investment grade

UK-listed credit manager BlueBay Asset Management says it saw a surge of subscriptions into its investment grade funds in the second half of 2009. Net inflows of $6.6 billion helped take its investment grade assets under management to $18.5 billion by the end of the year.

High yield and distressed debt, by contrast, saw modest outflows, while emerging market assets under management were up. BlueBay now has assets under management across all categories, including convertibles and multistrategy, of $34.3 billion.

The company said that many of the new investments in the high grade sector were for what it describes as “constrained” strategies, these are more passive investment mandates than its usual style of actively managed portfolios consisting of only a small number of credits.

New funds launched by the manager in the second half of last year include the multi-strategy BlueBay Global Diversified Corporate Bond Fund, the financials-free BlueBay High Yield Corporate Bond Fund and the BlueBay European Distressed Opportunities Fund, which is described as a long/short fund targeting the more liquid spectrum of the distressed debt universe than the existing BlueBay Value Recovery Master Fund.