Wells Capital Management is moving to drum up new Asian clients for its international fixed-income product, which invests in non-U.S. sovereign debt. The firm will eventually look to hire new officials in its existing offices in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and start new offices in Manila and Singapore, says Graham Allen, the firm's director of global fixed-income. He says a widespread shift among investors into international bonds and a sense that the dollar may be topping are among the reasons behind the push. Wells Capital hopes to land $200-400 million in new Asian business for the product over the next 18 months.
Allen argues that Wells Capital's product is superior to most of its peers. He cites statistics from Callan Associates, a San Francisco-based fund consultant, that show median returns for non-U.S. fixed-income products at -2.66%. Wells Capital's product has returned +4.04% over the same time period, he says.
Allen is particularly excited about opportunities in the Philippines, where he says $7.2 billion is repatriated annually. His marketing efforts there included a six-hour lunch with Imelda Marcos. He says his girlfriend, who joined them at the meal, asked if she could bring along a new pair of shoes he had bought her and ask the wife of the former dictator to autograph them. Allen says he suggested Marcos start her own brand of shoes. "I said, 'Imelda, when people think of shoes, they think of you.' She said she'd consider it. She's a smart lady and has a keen business sense," says Allen.