Mackenzie Investments today announced the launch of four new U.S.-dollar-denominated mutual funds, along with a global bond fund emphasizing high-quality credits.
The U.S.-dollar funds are aimed at investors who have U.S. currency to invest, or wish to hold investments in that currency. The new offerings bring to eight the number of funds in Mackenzie's suite of funds that invest primarily in U.S. securities and are denominated in U.S. currency.
The new U.S.-dollar funds are:
- Mackenzie USD Ultra Short Duration Income, investing in short-term, high-quality corporate and government fixed-income securities issued in the United States. Mackenzie said the fund will be managed to have lower volatility and interest-rate sensitivity than traditional short-term bond funds. The fund's manager is Felix Wong of Mackenzie's fixed-income team in Toronto.
- Mackenzie USD Global Tactical Bond, investing in fixed-income securities issued by companies or governments of any size, anywhere in the world. The fund's security selection, credit quality and currency decisions will be made from the perspective of a U.S.-dollar investor. Managed by Mackenzie fixed-income manager Konstantin Boehmer and colleague Wong, the fund's holdings are similar to that of Mackenzie Global Tactical Bond, which is denominated in Canadian dollars and for which the portfolio managers can choose to hedge foreign-currency exposure back to the Canadian dollar.
- Mackenzie USD Global Strategic Income, which will hold a combination of income-oriented equity and fixed-income securities of issuers anywhere in the world. The equity portion will focus on quality dividend-paying companies believed to be trading at discounts to their fair value. The fixed-income portion's credit quality and yield, and its exposure to various countries, industry sectors and currencies, will be actively managed. The fixed-income managers are Steve Locke, head of the Mackenzie fixed-income team, and his colleague Boehmer, with Mackenzie's Darren McKiernan responsible for the equity portion. Other than its U.S.-dollar characteristics, the fund is similar to Mackenzie Global Strategic Income.
- Mackenzie USD Convertible Securities, investing primarily in convertible securities of U.S. companies. As Mackenzie noted, convertible securities have some of the upside potential of equities while benefiting in down markets from the contractually guaranteed income from convertible securities. The fund is sub-advised by Boston-based Putnam Investments, an affiliated company.
The new global bond fund, Mackenzie Global Tactical Investment Grade Bond, will maintain an average credit quality of A- or higher.
Within its self-imposed constraints on credit quality, the fund's mandate is to invest primarily in a diversified portfolio of investment-grade fixed-income securities. The issuers can be companies or governments of any size, and the fund can invest in both developed and emerging markets.
The portfolio managers are Boehmer and Wong of Mackenzie's fixed-income team. Their investment process involves analyzing the global macroeconomic landscape and conducting credit research on individual securities.
