Objective
The fund aims to provide a combination of capital growth and income, net of the Ongoing Charge Figure, higher than that of the average return of the IA £ Corporate Bond Sector over any five-year period.
Investment policy and strategy
Core investment: At least 70% of the fund is invested, directly or through derivatives, in investment grade bonds issued by companies from anywhere in the world, including emerging markets. These bonds are denominated in Sterling or hedged back to Sterling.
Other investments: The fund may invest in government bonds, high yield bonds, asset-backed securities, other funds (including funds managed by M&G) and cash or assets that can be turned into cash quickly.
Derivatives: The fund may invest via derivatives and use derivatives to reduce the risks and costs of managing the fund.
Strategy in brief: The fund manager selects investments based on an assessment of macroeconomic, asset, sector and stock-level factors.
Spreading investments across issuers and industries is an essential element of the strategy.
Benchmark: IA £ Corporate Bond Sector
The benchmark is a target which the Fund seeks to outperform. The sector has been chosen as the benchmark as the fund is a constituent of the sector. The benchmark is used solely to measure the fund’s performance and does not constraint portfolio construction.
The fund is actively managed. The fund manager has complete freedom in choosing which investments to buy, hold and sell in the fund.
The benchmark is shown in the share class currency.
You can find more information about the fund in the Prospectus.
Risks associated with the fund
The value and income from the fund's assets will go down as well as up. This will cause the value of your investment to fall as well as rise. There is no guarantee that the fund will achieve its objective and you may get back less than you originally invested.
Investments in bonds are affected by interest rates, inflation and credit ratings. It is possible that bond issuers will not pay interest or return the capital. All of these events can reduce the value of bonds held by the fund.
High yield bonds usually carry greater risk that the bond issuers may not be able to pay interest or return the capital.
The fund may use derivatives to profit from an expected rise or fall in the value of an asset. Should the asset's value vary in an unexpected way, the fund may lose as much as or more than the amount invested.
The fund is exposed to different currencies. Derivatives are used to minimise, but may not always eliminate, the impact of movements in currency exchange rates.
In exceptional circumstances where assets cannot be fairly valued, or have to be sold at a large discount to raise cash, we may temporarily suspend the fund in the best interest of all investors.
The fund could lose money if a counterparty with which it does business becomes unwilling or unable to repay money owed to the fund.
Operational risks arising from errors in transactions, valuation, accounting, and financial reporting, among other things, may also affect the value of your investments.
Further details of the risks that apply to the fund can be found in the fund's Prospectus.
Other information
The Fund allows for the extensive use of derivatives
The performance webpage for this fund is currently being reconfigured. In the interim, for performance information, please refer to the latest Fund Factsheet which can be found in the Literature section.