Compared to the current volatility of many stock markets, Nordic corporate bonds offer attractive spreads in environments where country risks are low. The Nordics provide low country risk, as all three of the main Nordic economies have received the highest rating from the three major rating agencies: S&P, Moody’s and Fitch. The region also boasts a robust and supportive banking sector, adding another layer of security for companies operating in the Nordics.
With the Espiria team’s market experience and truly local presence and the ability to identify opportunities at an early stage.
“We have a large international client base that has actively been looking for an opportunity to access the Nordic markets. We believe this new fund provides a spot-on opening that will attract a lot of these international investors”, says Nikodemus Dahlgren, Head of Investor Relations at East Capital Group.
The launch of the Nordic Corporate Bond fund represents yet another step towards realising Espiria’s ambition to be a leader in investment strategies that combine global equity and Nordic fixed-income investments. Espiria’s Nordic Corporate Bond fund relies on proprietary unbiased research with an integrated ESG approach to help find unique investment opportunities.
“The quality and sustainability of each investment is assessed using a model that we developed ourselves and that we call the Espiria Quality & Sustainability Score (EQSS). The framework covers a range of sustainability indicators to measure the environmental and social characteristics promoted by the fund”, says Stefan Pari, Portfolio Manager at Espiria.
The fund’s main investment theme includes high-yield bonds with lower liquidity and limited interest rate risk. The second major building block consists of higher liquidity investment grade bonds with moderate interest rate risk and value creation. Around 5-10 percent of the fund will be allocated to money market instruments.
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