Standard Chartered and Barings have developed a sub-fund to enable the bank's wealthy individual clients to invest in investment grade European and US CLO tranches.
The sub‑fund, Signature Select Quality Credit Income, is available only to high net worth clients from Standard Chartered’s private, priority private and priority segments who have accredited investor and/or professional investor status.
At present, it is only offered to clients based in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, but the fund will be launched to other markets in the next few months. During the present initial offer period, clients subscribing get a reduced management fee.
The sub-fund sits within Standard Chartered’s Variable Capital Co platform. “Within the Standard Chartered Funds VCC structure, we have launched a series of sub-funds (six to date), each dedicated to investing in a distinct asset class or strategy,” said Sumeet Bhambri, global head of advisory and managed investments, wealth solutions at Standard Chartered.
“Standard Chartered serves as the investment manager for these sub-funds, responsible for selecting and appointing sub-investment managers who oversee the day-to-day management of the sub-fund in accordance with its investment guidelines and objectives.”
Barings is the sub-investment manager of the new CLO fund.
“Over the past year, Barings has been collaborating with Standard Chartered to bring our clients a high quality, income-oriented solution,” Bo Trant, client portfolio manager, global CLOs at Barings, told GlobalCapital. “This collaboration brings together the strengths of both organisations, with Barings serving as sub‑adviser and offering investors access to more than 25 years of market‑leading CLO investment expertise.”
A source close with knowledge of the fund indicated that it would focus on broadly syndicated loan CLOs, mainly buying the most senior investment grade CLO tranches, with some flexibility to invest opportunistically down to triple-B.
