With almost 25 years’ experience in emerging market debt (EMD) investing, we manage $7.8 billion of assets across a range of funds that span the EMD universe (as of 31 December 2024). These include pooled sovereign bond funds both in ‘hard-currency’ (mostly US dollar denominated) and local currency, hard-currency corporate bond funds, as well as bespoke, blended and segment-specific long-only and total return solutions.
Why invest?
EMD represents a critical, yet underappreciated, component of global fixed-income portfolios. As the asset class grows in significance, driven by stronger fundamentals and favourable macroeconomic conditions, it offers investors a powerful opportunity for diversification and yield enhancement. Given the breadth and diversity of the EMD universe, investing with an unbiased, flexible and disciplined approach can help to identify the most attractive opportunities.
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 is a diverse, and fundamentally improving asset class. It’s a critical component of global fixed-income portfolios and offers a powerful opportunity for diversification and yield.
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Funds referred to may not be available in all jurisdictions.
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.
Alpha generation uncorrelated to high-yield versus investment-grade spread differentials.
Enhanced capital preservation results in a smoother path of returns than peers and the benchmark.
A process that can generate positive excess returns throughout market cycles.
This fund 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.
Efficient management of currency volatility and opportunities.
Allowing for a blend of qualitative and quantitative proprietary indicators.
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.
Unbiased & balanced
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.
Risk astute
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.
Robust 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.
Emerging-market debt has proved a rare bright spot so far this year as investors struggle to assess the impact of US political upheaval. In this article, Carmen Altenkirch and Nafez Zouk advance reasons why the market is well placed to weather ongoing market turbulence.
Why investors should consider emerging market hard-currency sovereign debt as a long-term strategic allocation.
Seeking attractive, sustainable returns from some of the world's most dynamic economies.
Investment thinking that brings together the collective insight of Aviva Investors’ teams from across the globe on the key themes influencing markets.
28 Nov 2025
Market and economic trends are challenging the idea that emerging market (EM) bonds should trade at a discount to developed economy debt.
10 Nov 2025
This month’s Bond Voyage looks at the Bulk Purchase Annuity (BPA) market in the UK – the quiet market making loud moves.
9 Oct 2025
In this month’s Bond Voyage, we introduce SHIELD – the downside protection framework used by our fixed income division. SHIELD is designed to ensure our portfolios remain resilient in challenging market conditions while maintaining capital efficiency.
5 Aug 2025
In this month’s Bond Voyage, our solutions team explores the implications of a “higher for longer” US interest rate environment and what it could mean for investment grade (IG) investors.
10 Jul 2025
In this month’s Bond Voyage, our emerging market (EM) debt team explains why, after a few false dawns, the stars seem to have aligned for EM local currency debt to outperform other global fixed income assets.
19 May 2025
Emerging-market debt has proved a rare bright spot so far this year as investors struggle to assess the impact of US political upheaval. In this article, Carmen Altenkirch and Nafez Zouk advance reasons why the market is well placed to weather ongoing market turbulence.
6 May 2025
In May, our EMD team discusses the most effective way to manage fixed income through episodes of heightened uncertainty.
4 Apr 2025
This month, our fixed income teams discuss the drivers behind emerging and developed market convergence, what the US hybrid boom has in store, the continued popularity of money-market funds, and the ups and downs of high yield.
18 Mar 2025
Offering comparatively attractive yields and diversification benefits, emerging-market debt (EMD) could have a bigger role to play in Asian insurers’ fixed income portfolios as risk-based capital regimes continue to be rolled out across the continent.
10 Mar 2025
This month, our fixed income teams discuss the boom in hybrid issuance and weigh up the risks and opportunities of potential tariffs, interest rate moves and fiscal dynamics.
10 Feb 2025
As we negotiate an uncertain landscape, our fixed income teams reflect on potential sources of resilience.
13 Jan 2025
With a new US president poised to take office, central banks diverging and ongoing political uncertainty, how are the key fixed income asset classes positioned for the year ahead?
9 Dec 2024
This month, we explore how US Treasuries are taking a breath, why 2025 could be the year of carry for high yield, what increasing dispersion means for emerging markets, and how surging M&A activity could affect investment-grade bonds.
6 Nov 2024
Aviva Investors fund managers Edward Hutchings, Liam Spillane and Max Burns offer their initial thoughts on what the US election means for financial markets.
4 Nov 2024
This month, our fixed-income investment teams discuss US elections, IMF meetings, US versus European high yield, managing declining rates for cash, and what the future might hold in store for gilts.
30 Oct 2024
In our latest private markets deep dive, our research team crunches the data to see how evolving macro conditions are reflected in private debt returns.
Each month, our freewheeling fixed-income newsletter gathers insights from our high-yield, investment-grade, emerging-market and global sovereign bond teams.
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.
Join us for a webinar where we explore the evolving landscape of emerging market debt (EMD), discuss its resilience in uncertain market conditions and why it should be a core allocation in your investment portfolio.
For further information on the risks and risk profiles of our funds, please refer to the relevant fund documents.
Investment/objective risk
The value of an investment and any income from it can go down as well as up. Investors may not get back the original amount invested.
Currency risk
The fund is exposed to different currencies. Derivatives are used to minimise, but may not always eliminate, the impact of movements in currency exchange rates.
Emerging markets risk
Investments are 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.
A dedicated EMD team with over 20 years' experience in designing and managing the full spectrum of EMD products.
Head of Capital Opportunities Group and Co-Head of Emerging Market Debt
Co-Head of Emerging Market Debt and Senior Portfolio Manager
Senior Portfolio Manager
Senior Portfolio Manager
Fixed income is an indispensable building block for meeting a variety of investment goals, including income, inflation protection, liability management and capital appreciation.
Note for UK Investors: This Fund is domiciled in Luxembourg and is authorised by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). The Fund is recognised in the UK under the Overseas Funds Regime but is not a UK-authorised Fund and therefore is not subject to UK sustainable investment labelling disclosure requirements. UK investors should be aware that they can make a complaint about the fund, its management company, or its depositary. However, complaints may not be eligible for resolution by the UK’s Financial Ombudsman Service and any claims for losses related to the management company or depositary will not be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). UK investors should consider seeking their own financial advice before making any decisions to invest and refer to the scheme prospectus for further information.
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