Schroder Investment Management has recently launched its first capital-protected product linked to its emerging market equity fund. The structure uses an option plus a zero-coupon bond, but Richard Lloyd, head of structured investments in London, declined to name the counterparty on the deal. Schroder has strict guidelines to manage banks' hedging of options they write on its funds.
The fund manager has marketed capital-protected funds before, but this is the first one on an emerging market fund, noted Lloyd. Capital protection works well for more risky investments, such as emerging markets, he explained. Schroder is seeing increasing demand for products structured on emerging market bonds and equities and also on specific countries, including Brazil and China
