Loomis Sayles Investments Asia Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers, has launched its Asia Bond Plus strategy.

Asia Bond Plus is Loomis Sayles’ first multinational co-managed strategy. The strategy expands Loomis Sayles’ emerging markets capabilities line-up and extends the firm’s reach in Asian markets. The strategy is co-managed by Elisabeth Colleran in Boston and Thu Ha Chow in Singapore, who each have more than 20 years of credit research and investment experience.

Loomis Sayles manages approximately US$17.0 billion in emerging markets debt assets, and its institutional Asia credit and emerging markets corporate debt strategies each have a track record of over ten years, among the longest in the industry. The Loomis Sayles emerging markets debt team currently manages more than US$2.5 billion in dedicated emerging markets debt portfolios across a range of strategies, including emerging markets corporate debt, local currency debt and short duration credit.

Based on its experience in Asia credit, Loomis Sayles believes there are three key reasons to invest in the region: strong macro fundamentals and growth, a growing issuer universe and regional market dynamics that offer lower correlation to global credit indices.

The Asia Bond Plus strategy invests in emerging markets corporate, quasi-sovereign and sovereign issues across the Asia bond universe. Outside of Asia, the strategy also includes countries in emerging Europe, the Middle East and Africa, providing exposure to neighbouring markets to reduce the vulnerabilities of a highly concentrated investment universe and increase diversification. Currently, the strategy’s investment universe offers exposure to 50% of world GDP and captures 75% of the world’s GDP growth that is underrepresented in major bond indices.

Jae Park, chief investment officer comments, “Through the Asia Bond Plus strategy, we offer investors an opportunity to leverage long-term structural growth in Asia and beyond.”

Elisabeth Colleran is a vice president of Loomis, Sayles & Company and portfolio manager for emerging markets debt portfolios, focusing on investment strategy, portfolio construction and risk management. She earned a BA in Economics from the University of Rochester and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire.

Thu Ha Chow is a portfolio manager and senior credit strategist for the emerging markets debt team at Loomis Sayles Investments Asia Pte. Ltd. She joined Loomis Sayles in 2016 as a senior credit research analyst and has 21 years of investment industry experience.

Thu Ha started her career in corporate finance at Credit Suisse First Boston. Thu Ha earned a BSc (Hon) Economics and an MSc Economics and Philosophy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.