IA Clarington Investments Inc. today announced an expansion of its fixed-income offerings with the launch of three new mutual funds investing outside Canada.
IA Clarington Global Bond and IA Clarington Emerging Markets Bond are both sub-advised by newly hired PineBridge Investments LLC, which is based in New York and has more than US$85 billion in assets under management globally.
IA Clarington Global Bond will invest primarily outside Canada in investment-grade and non-investment-grade securities issued by government entities and corporations, as well as bonds issued by emerging-market countries. The fund may also hold other income-producing investments such as senior loans, floating-rate debt instruments, asset-backed or mortgage-backed securities, preferred shares and convertible securities.
IA Clarington Emerging Markets Bond will invest in a combination of the three main fixed-income asset classes in emerging markets: hard-currency sovereign bonds, local-currency sovereign bonds and corporate bonds. According to the prospectus, PineBridge employs independent credit analysis that looks at country, currency and interest-rate conditions.
The third new offering is IA Clarington Global Yield Opportunities, whose primary holdings will be other IA Clarington mutual funds. Its strategy involves broad diversification by geographic region and across a range of income-oriented asset classes. The allocation between equities and fixed income will vary, depending on the managers' analysis of economic and market conditions, as well as interest-rate and credit-cycle analysis.
This fund of funds is co-managed by Clément Gignac, chief economist, IA Financial Group, and Tyler Mordy, president and chief investment officer of IA Clarington sub-advisor Forstrong Global Asset Management. Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. (IAG) is the parent company of both IA Clarington and Forstrong.
The management fees for Series A are 1.45% for the global bond fund, 1.55% for the emerging-markets bond fund and 1.65% for the yield-opportunities fund. Fee-based series and various other purchase options are also available. The 0.25% administration fee, applicable to each retail series of all three funds, covers most fund expenses.
