OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has assigned Fund Quality Ratings (FQR) to four emerging market bond funds managed by BlueBay Asset Management (BlueBay), as follows:

-BlueBay Emerging Market Bond Fund (EMBF): 'Strong' FQR rating
-BlueBay Emerging Market Corporate Bond Fund (EMCBF): 'Strong' FQR rating
-BlueBay Emerging Market Local Currency Bond Fund (EMLCBF): 'Strong' FQR rating
-BlueBay Emerging Market Select Bond Fund (EMSBF): 'Strong' FQR rating

The ratings reflect the funds' research-driven investment approach within a robust risk management platform. The ratings are also supported by the depth of BlueBay's dedicated fixed income resources.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

Fund Presentation
The funds are sub-funds of a Luxembourg Part I SICAV, UCITS IV-compliant. BlueBay has been investing in emerging markets since 2002, and the funds were launched in 2002 (EMBF), 2008 (EMCBF), 2005 (EMLCBF), and 2006 (EMSBF).

Investment Process
The funds implement a well-balanced, research-driven, capital preservation-oriented investment process, combining primarily fundamental and relative valuation inputs in a formalised, disciplined but also flexible and responsive manner.

Fixed income alpha sources result from the implementation of high conviction, mainly relative value trades within well-defined risk guidelines.

Resources
BlueBay has significant resources devoted to emerging markets, with specialisation in sovereign, corporate, or macro analysis. BlueBay's emerging markets team consists of 42 investment professionals with 13 years of industry experience on average.

Track Record
The four emerging market funds have seen mixed performance in recent years, outperforming in some years, and underperforming in others. However, the funds have all generated positive excess returns since inception, gross of management fees.

Fund Manager
Founded in 2001 and now owned by the Royal Bank of Canada (AA/Stable/F1+), BlueBay is a specialist credit asset manager with assets under management of USD62.9bn as at December 2014 (USD17.8bn in emerging markets).

RATING SENSITIVITIES

The ratings may be sensitive to material changes in the investment or operational processes or resources dedicated to the funds. A material adverse deviation from Fitch's guidelines for any key rating driver could result in a downgrade. For example, this may be manifested in significant structural deterioration in a fund's performance or excessive risk-taking. Fitch sees limited key person dependency given the depth of the emerging markets team. Conversely, an upgrade could result from a demonstrated ability to outperform peers consistently on a risk- adjusted basis.

Fitch's Fund Quality Ratings combine Fitch's experience in qualitative fund analysis with rankings and performance data from Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company. Fitch's Fund Quality Ratings offer an independent, forward-looking assessment of a fund's key performance and risk attributes and consistency of longer-term returns, relative to peer group or benchmarks. The ratings focus on the fund manager's investment process, key fund performance drivers, risk management, and the quality of the fund's operational infrastructure.