Investment consultant Aon has provided £127 million to support the launch of a new UK-domiciled short-duration bond fund by AXA Investment Managers (IM). The AXA ACT Carbon Transition Global Short Duration Bond Fund is an actively managed vehicle providing diversification and dynamic asset allocation across the full short-dated fixed income spectrum. According to the asset manager, the fund leverages investment ideas from its existing suite of 11 short-duration strategies to build a “truly global portfolio”. Built on bottom-up fundamental analysis and top-down asset allocation, the new fund will have a dual objective of financial returns and decarbonisation. It will primarily target investment grade bonds with the ability to invest in high-yield and emerging market debt opportunities. “The allocation to this strategy within several of our solutions continues Aon’s commitment to align its UK fiduciary portfolios to net zero,” said Philippa Allen, Portfolio Manager at Aon. “This new fund will continue to focus on providing investors with strong downside mitigation and ‘natural’ portfolio liquidity, while ensuring that the names we invest in are committed to the net zero transition,” said Nicolas Trindade, Senior Portfolio Manager, who will lead the open-ended fund, and currently manages around £2 billion in global and sterling liquid short-dated fixed income strategies for AXA IM.
