OREANDA-NEWS. December 08, 2015. Fitch Ratings has affirmed the following five BlueBay funds at 'Strong':

-- BlueBay High Income Loan Fund
-- BlueBay High Yield Bond Fund
-- BlueBay Global High Income Loan Fund
-- BlueBay Global High Yield Bond Fund
-- BlueBay Global Unconstrained High Yield Funds

The funds are managed by BlueBay Asset Management LLP.

KEY RATING DRIVERS
The affirmation of the 'Strong' fund quality ratings is driven by the funds' disciplined investment processes, broad stability of staff notwithstanding some portfolio manager changes in 2015 and the depth of BlueBay's wider resources.

FUND PROFILES
The BlueBay High Yield Bond Fund and the Global High Yield Bond Fund are sub-funds of a UCITS IV compliant Luxembourg Part I SICAV, BlueBay Funds. These funds were launched in 2002 and 2010, respectively, and had assets under management of USD776m and USD675m as of end-October 2015.

The other three funds (High Income Loan, Global High Income Loan and Global Unconstrained High Yield) are sub-funds of a Luxembourg SICAV-SIF (BlueBay Specialised funds); therefore these funds are reserved for certain well-informed investors only, as defined under Luxembourg law. The funds were launched in 2008, 2013 and 2012, respectively, and had assets under management of approximately US197m, USD28m and USD1,020m as of October 2015.

INVESTMENT PROCESS
The Global Unconstrained High Yield Fund implements a research-driven investment process focusing on bottom-up, trade selection, with a key emphasis on achieving absolute returns. The fund uses derivatives to implement both macro and credit views, and cash is actively used as an allocation tool. Compared with BlueBay's long-only global high yield and global loan funds, this fund invests more in opportunistic and event-driven credits, with a greater use of derivatives.

The investment process for the other four funds is research-driven, transparent, highly idea-generative and collaborative. Portfolio construction is on a bottom-up basis, driven by issuer research and relative value analysis. Portfolio managers overlay the bottom-up portfolio construction with strategic and tactical inputs and market technical factors.

RESOURCES
The lead portfolio manager (PM) of the Global Unconstrained High Yield fund, Anthony Robertson, has 20 years of investment experience, and is Global Head of Leveraged Finance. The co-PM, Richard Cazenove, is the lead PM for absolute return credit strategies with 19 years of investment experience.

The other four funds are managed by Justin Jewell (14 years' experience) and Thomas Kreutzer (16 years' experience), supported by Anthony Robertson. One PM responsible for the High Yield Bond Fund departed the firm in 2015 and was replaced with an internal promotion. This did not materially affect BlueBay's depth of staff or the continuity of its investment process. BlueBay is in the process of making additional hires to expand its leveraged finance team.

All of the funds benefits from the depth of BlueBay's HY and leveraged finance fixed-income resources, with a total of 39 staff, including a credit research team of 13 analysts with an average industry experience of approximately 11 years.

TRACK RECORD
The funds have either met or exceeded their objectives, save for the High Yield Bond Fund which has lagged the index over the last one and three years, although is marginally ahead of peers. The track-record of some of the funds - notably the Global High Income Loan and Global Unconstrained High Yield funds are relatively short. Nonetheless, early indications suggest a close adherence to the funds' stated styles and an ability to achieve their investment objectives.

FUND MANAGER
Founded in 2001 and owned by the Royal Bank of Canada (AA/Stable/F1+), BlueBay Asset Management (BlueBay) is a specialist credit asset manager with assets under management of USD58.1bn as at end-September 2015 (USD6.9bn in global leveraged finance). BlueBay has been investing in HY credit since 2002.

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, notable structural deterioration in the funds' performance or departure of key investment professionals may cause a downgrade.

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.

For more information, please see www.fundmanagement.fitchratings.com

To receive forthcoming Fund Quality Rating research, opt in at http://pages.fitchemail.fitchratings.com/FAMAMhightlightBlankOptin/