Eastspring Investments Bhd on 29 May 2017 announced the gross income distribution for Eastspring Investments Asian High Yield Bond MY Fund. The Fund is a wholesale feeder fund which aims to maximise income and capital appreciation by investing in the Eastspring Investments-Asian High Yield Bond Fund (Target Fund), which invest primarily* in Asian high yield bonds.
The distribution rates for each currency class are as follows:
All unit holders who have maintained their unit holdings in the Fund as at 26 May 2017 will be entitled to the income distribution.
Market Outlook from the Investment Manager of the Target Fund
Credit spreads of Asian high yield bonds have seen significant tightening over the past year, rendering valuations less attractive. Nonetheless, credit spreads remain higher than the extreme lows observed before the Global Financial Crisis.
The current credit spreads are reflective of the more benign credit market conditions. Asian high yield bond issuers are operating in an improving economic environment. The turnaround in global growth is expected to help to boost corporate earnings; this is in turn positive for credit fundamentals and is evident in the recent stabilising trend for rating actions.
Eastspring Investments Singapore Limited will focus primarily on security selection and continue to buy on dips while participating in new issues which we think are attractive. We’ve switched out of select credits we felt were expensive and moved into some new issues which have weakened. We generally maintain our overweights in Chinese property HY but we do see this reducing over time as bonds get called early or mature.
We remain tactically overweight in select local currency bonds such as INR for better higher carry and generally better fundamental outlook among its peers in Asia.
*primarily means at least 66% of the Target Fund’s net asset value.