UBS Asset Management has announced Dilkes’ departure but has not replied to a request to comment on the reason of his leaving.
Dilkes was the lead manager of 15 Asian fixed income funds for the Swiss bank, including the Asian High Yield Fund.
Incepted nine years ago, the Asian High Yield Fund has over $3bn in AUM, and a significant exposure to Chinese real estate.
According to the fund factsheet, as of the end of October, the fund invests 39.4% of its AUM in China.
The exposure to the real estate sector is also close to 40%, followed by financials (9.6%) and utilities (8.9%).
Evergrande exposure
The fund holds bonds issued by the beleaguered Chinese property developer Evergrande, which has narrowly avoided default three times during the past month.
Since the beginning of the year, Dilkes’s fund has dropped over 16%, according to FE fundinfo.
Over the last three years, the fund posted an average annual return of 1.36%, compared with the Asia Pacific fixed income sector average of 8.45% and the JP Morgan Asian Credit Non-Investment Grade Index benchmark average of 4.41%.
The size of the fund has shrunk to $3.239bn in November from $3.659bn at the start of September, according to Morningstar data.
The asset manager will be leaving the firm and stepping down from his manager responsibilities effective from 20 January, 2022.
According to Morningstar, his role as the lead manager of the UBS Asian High Yield Fund and the fixed income manager of the UBS China Allocation Opportunity Fund will be taken over by UBS’s head of global emerging markets and Asia Pacific fixed income Hayden Briscoe.
The fund analyst also downgraded the Morningstar analyst rating for the UBS Asian High Yield Fund to average from above average due to “uncertainties surrounding his replacement, and the broader team’s turnover”.
UBS Asian High Yield Fund vs sector average and benchmark
