Searching for attractive, responsible returns in emerging market debt

With almost 25 years' experience in emerging market debt (EMD) investing, we manage over $8 million of assets (as of 30 June 2024) across a range of strategies that span the EMD universe: from pooled, hard-currency sovereign, hard-currency corporate and local-currency sovereign strategies to bespoke, blended and segment-specific long-only and total return solutions.

Why invest?

The conventional view of emerging markets (EM) is that they are more economically vulnerable than their developed-market counterparts. While broadly that may hold true, in our view, the increasing strength and impressive growth prospects of many EM nations, coupled with the diversification benefits they offer, mean EMD investing warrants some consideration. Whilst there is divergence across the universe, and risks that are arguably more dynamic in nature than those in developed markets, an experienced, active and disciplined approach is an important differentiator.

Diversification

EMD provides access to regions and countries across sovereign and corporate issuers in hard and local currencies.  Each segment has unique risk and return drivers, helping to provide diversified returns for investors.

Structural advantages

EMD investing taps into higher economic growth rates, lower debt and other factors such as positive demographics and rapidly expanding consumerism.

Alpha opportunities

Inefficiencies within EMD create opportunities for active managers across countries, issuers, yield curves and currencies.

Disciplined approach

Our approach offers potential to achieve a smoother path of strong risk-adjusted returns and can be attractive for investors seeking to build a strategic allocation to an asset class.

Emerging market debt strategies

Strategies referred to may not be available in all jurisdictions.

Aviva Investors Emerging Markets Bond Strategy

This strategy aims to deliver positive and consistent excess returns throughout market cycles by investing mainly in bonds issued by governments and corporations in emerging-market countries. It is benchmarked against the JP Morgan EMBI Global Index.

Uncorrelated alpha

Alpha generation uncorrelated to high-yield versus investment-grade spread differentials.

Smoother path of returns

Enhanced capital preservation results in a smoother path of returns than peers and the benchmark.

Consistent outperformance

A process that can generate positive excess returns throughout market cycles.

Aviva Investors Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond Strategy

This strategy aims to deliver positive and consistent excess returns throughout market cycles by investing mainly in the currencies of emerging-market countries and bonds issued by companies and governments in these countries. It is benchmarked against the JP Morgan GBI-EM Global Diversified Index.

Clear separation of currency and duration decisions

Efficient management of currency volatility and opportunities.

Flexible process

Allowing for a blend of qualitative and quantitative proprietary indicators.

Aviva Investors Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Strategy

This strategy aims to deliver positive and consistent excess returns throughout market cycles by investing mainly in bonds issued by corporations in emerging-market countries. It is benchmarked against the JP Morgan CEMBI Broad Diversified Index.

Uncorrelated alpha

Alpha generation uncorrelated to high-yield versus investment-grade spread differentials.

Smoother path of returns

Enhanced capital preservation results in a smoother path of returns than peers and the benchmark.

Consistent outperformance

A process that can generate positive excess returns throughout market cycles.

Investment philosophy

We believe opportunities exist across the entire investable universe – not just within the higher-yielding segments of the market.  We harness our expertise to better understand the idiosyncratic risks across sectors and prioritise a balanced approach to portfolio construction, targeting diversified sources of return with a constant focus on risk and reward.

No biases

In our view, there are long standing and significant structural biases within the EMD manager universe, leaving investors overly exposed to the riskiest issuers. Our approach seeks to utilise the full breadth of opportunities, without any predetermined risk biases.

Deep understanding of EM risk

Emerging markets exhibit high levels of idiosyncratic risk and are characterised by periods of high volatility that many traditional risk metrics fail to capture. A deep understanding of emerging market-specific risks, combined with a blend of traditional and non-traditional risk metrics, is crucial to delivering superior client outcomes.

Focus on portfolio construction

Our proprietary risk allocation process uses custom portfolio sectors to provide a clear separation between market and asset-specific risk and exposure, enabling portfolios to perform throughout the market cycle.

 

A differentiated approach to emerging market debt

Power play: Why political risk matters for emerging-market debt investors

In this article, we explore why measuring and continually monitoring geopolitical risks is essential for investors in EM debt.

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Standing tall: Three factors behind the resilience of emerging-market debt

In this article, we explore what’s behind emerging markets’ impressive performance in the face of global economic volatility, and investigate how EM debt investors can take advantage.

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Aviva Investors Emerging Market Debt: Range-in-brief

PDF 1.9 MB 9 pages

Seeking attractive, sustainable returns from some of the world's most dynamic economies.

Investment insights

Investment thinking that brings together the collective insight of Aviva Investors’ teams from across the globe on the key themes influencing markets.

An unbiased approach to finding opportunities in emerging market debt

Consistency in emerging-market debt may be elusive for many managers, but it doesn’t have to be that way, as Barney Goodchild and Aaron Grehan explain.

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House View

No one can predict the future. But our quarterly House View sets out the collective wisdom of our investment teams on the current state of global markets – and where they might be heading.

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Key risks

For further information on the risks and risk profiles of our funds, please refer to the relevant KIID and Prospectus.

Investment & currency risk

The value of an investment and any income from it can go down as well as up and can fluctuate in response to changes in currency and exchange rates. Investors may not get back the original amount invested. 

Emerging markets risk

Investments can be made in emerging markets. These markets may be volatile and carry higher risk than developed markets. 

Credit & interest rate risk

Bond values are affected by changes in interest rates and the bond issuer's creditworthiness. Bonds that offer the potential for a higher income typically have a greater risk of default. 

Derivatives risk

Investments can be made in derivatives, which can be complex and highly volatile. Derivatives may not perform as expected, meaning significant losses may be incurred. 

Illiquid securities risk

Some investments could be hard to value or to sell at a desired time, or at a price considered to be fair (especially in large quantities). As a result their prices can be volatile. 

Sustainability risk

The level of sustainability risk may fluctuate depending on which investment opportunities the Investment Manager identifies. This means that the strategy can be exposed to Sustainability Risk which may impact the value of investments over the long term.

Emerging market debt team

A dedicated EMD team with over 20 years' experience in designing and managing the full spectrum of EMD products​.

Contact us

Our distribution team is here to help with any questions you may have.

Phone

+44 (0)20 7809 6000*

  • *Calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes, and to comply with applicable law and regulations.

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