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Asian Fixed Income, Ready for the Next Level Celebrating 15 Years of History, 15 Years of Growth
Today we are celebrating the 15th anniversary of ABF Pan Asia Bond Index Fund (PAIF), the region's first and largest Asian fixed income ETF1. Launched in 2005, PAIF pioneered the Asian fixed income ETF industry. It provides an innovative, easy-to-access and cost-efficient solution to invest in a diversified portfolio of Asian local currency government bonds in one single trade.
15 Facts About PAIF
1. PAIF is the first Asian local currency bond ETF.
2. In 2005, PAIF was launched as part of an important initiative by Asia Pacific's 11 leading central banks and monetary authorities to strengthen the region's bond markets.
3. PAIF is benchmarked to the Markit iBoxx ABF Pan-Asia Index.
4. PAIF invests in the sovereign and quasi-sovereign local currency bonds of eight major Asian economies, including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
5. Domiciled in Singapore, PAIF was listed in Hong Kong in 2005 (SEHK stock code: 2821) and cross-listed in Japan in 2009 (TSE stock code: 1349).
6. PAIF is currently the largest fixed income ETF in Asia Pacific1.
7. Since launching, PAIF's assets under management has grown more than 3.5-fold to US$3.6 billion2.
8. PAIF has been generating positive returns since its inception, delivering an annualized return of 4.31%3.
9. PAIF has delivered positive returns in 12 out of the past 15 calendar years4.
10. PAIF provides investors with a potential stream of income, with the current yield at 2.59% per annum5 (Dividend amount or dividend rate is not guaranteed).
11. Offering easy and low-cost access to Asia's local bond markets, PAIF allows investors to diversify their portfolios with more than 350 local currency bonds in one single trade2.
12. With relatively low expense ratio of 0.19%6, investors can keep more of what they earn.
13. PAIF's portfolio has an average credit quality of A+2.
14. China's local bonds comprise around 25% of PAIF's exposure2, which allows the fund to benefit from the gradual opening up of China's bond market and the inclusion of Chinese bonds in global indices.
15. PAIF is a crucial part of the initiative to develop Asia's local bond markets. It started to participate in securities lending in June 2018 to deepen secondary market liquidity.
Why Invest in Asian Local Currency Bonds?
Favourable Risk-Return Profile
The macro fundamentals of many Asian governments remain robust, and they will likely continue to be a growth driver as the global economy recovers. Investors, therefore, have an opportunity to obtain a good yield pickup without taking on excessive risk. In fact, Asian bonds have historically demonstrated a risk-return profile that is proportional to that of US Treasuries.
Potential for Additional Yield via Local Currency Appreciation
We expect currency appreciation will continue to be an important source of potential returns moving forward. Current US-dollar strength has depressed currency gains in Asian local currency bonds, but over the medium to long term, there is a good chance of a rebound. In the meantime, dollar strength presents attractive entry opportunities for Asian local currency bonds.
A 'Back to Basics' Diversified Portfolio Construction Strategy
In the increasingly interconnected world, correlations between Asian local currency bonds and other major asset classes have inevitably risen. Still, they remain low enough to allow such assets to add valuable diversification benefits to investors' portfolios.
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1. Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P., as of 31 May 2020.
2. State Street Global Advisors, as of 31 May 2020.
3. State Street Global Advisors, as of 31 May 2020. Past performance information is not indicative of future performance. Investors may not get back the full amount invested. The computation basis of the annualized performance is based on net-of-fees returns in USD terms on NAV-to-NAV basis, with all distributions reinvested. Fund Inception Date: 29 June 2005. Past performance information: -0.09% (Year-to-date as of 31 May 2020), 7.91% (2019), 0.11% (2018), 9.35% (2017), -0.54% (2016) and -3.35% (2015).
4. State Street Global Advisors, as of 31 May 2020. The computation basis of the calendar-year performance is based on calendar year end, NAV-to-NAV, with dividend reinvested. Calendar-year performance shows by how much the PAIF increased or decreased in value during the calendar year being shown. Performance data has been calculated in USD, including ongoing charges and excluding subscription fee and redemption fee you might have to pay.
5. State Street Global Advisors, as of 31 May 2020. Current yield = (Total Dividend Per Unit in the Past 12 Months / Closing NAV Per Unit) x 100%. Dividend amount or dividend rate is not guaranteed.
6. Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P., as of 31 May 2020. The ongoing charges figure is based on expenses for the year ended 30 June 2019. This figure may vary from year to year. The ongoing charges figure is calculated by adding the applicable charges and payments deducted from the assets of the PAIF and then dividing by the PAIF's average net asset value for the financial year.
