US fixed income manager Performance Trust Asset Management is set to enter the European market with the launch of an actively managed fixed income strategy via white labeller HANetf.
The Performance Trust Total Return Bond UCITS ETF – which will mark HANetf’s second fixed-income strategy – is set to launch in early October.
The ETF mirrors Performance Trust’s $8bn Total Return Bond fund in the US, which launched 14 years ago.
Sean Dranfield, CEO and principal at Performance Trust Asset Management, said the success of its US total return bond fund lies in its “secret sauce” of “repeatable, math-based methodology”.
Dranfield added while bond managers focus on predicting interest rates and use yield as a proxy for returns and duration as a measure of interest rate risk, Performance Trust’s ETF contains bonds that are much less sensitive to interest rate changes and offers protection whether rates rise or fall.
This is done through its ‘shape management’ approach, which ignores rate predictions and focuses on understanding the bond's underlying price drivers, modelling total returns across different rate scenarios.
Dranfield said the ETF could serve as a complement to other core bond allocations in a portfolio, given its lack of sensitivity to interest rate changes.
Performance Trust Asset Management entered the ETF market in the US in April, launching the actively managed Performance Trust Short Term Bond ETF.
The ETF white-label market has recently gained momentum, with Guinness Asset Management, Harbor Capital Advisors, and Harwood Capital Management launching their first ETFs.
Additionally, Waystone ETF acquired Northern Trust's Irish platform, and Goldman launched Baader Bank’s AI-driven ETF.
