The introduction of the new share class follows a similar move with the JPMorgan Asia Equity Dividend Fund and JPMorgan Multi Income Fund, which the fund house said has resulted in “substantial” inflows.
As of 30 May, the JPMorgan Asia Equity Dividend Fund had assets under management of $296m (£174.18m), while the JPMorgan Multi Income Fund had an AUM of $3.93bn (£2.31bn).
Commenting on the inflows, Eddy Wong, head of intermediary business said: “The previous launches of RMB-hedged share class have drawn substantial inflows and are well-received by our distributors and investors.”
The fund house has plans to offer further RMB share classes in other funds, a company spokesperson said, but did not disclose details of the additional funds.
“Yes, we are planning to offer more RMB share classes through the other funds and we will inform you as soon as they are ready,” the spokesperson said.
The RMB-hedged share class for the JPMorgan Asian Total Return Bond Fund, offers investors an option to allocate their RMB holdings to a portfolio that aims to achieve a competitive total return consisting of capital growth and regular dividend income.
The minimum investment in the new share class is RMB16,000 (£1,500, $2,500) and subscriptions can be made through any RMB bank account.
The fund offers other currency choices namely US dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Australian dollar hedged, Canadian dollar hedged, and New Zealand dollar hedged.
According to the fund manager Stephen Chang, the total return bond fund provides diversified risk allocation by focussing on total return ideas within the Asian bond universe.
“With the growing importance of RMB as a global currency and the attractive yield that it offers, the introduction of an RMB-hedged share class allows investors to generate additional potential returns with their RMB holdings,” Chang said.
The fund employs a wide set of Asian fixed income instruments seeking to benefit from Asia’s relatively strong fiscal and debt dynamics, healthy credit fundamentals and potential for currency appreciation and adopts a flexible allocation strategy to capture evolving opportunities across Asian bond markets.
The fund levies an initial charge of 3% and a management fee of 1%. With assets worth $180m as of 30 May, the fund offered an annualized yield of 4.46%.
In terms of sector allocation, high-yield instruments constituted 33.5% of the portfolio while investment grade papers accounted for 22.3% of the scheme’s assets. The scheme held cash levels at 13.4% and maintained average portfolio maturity at 4.6 years.
