Mercer Aspire Global Buy & Maintain Credit

The Global Credit Fund invests in a diversified mix of global corporate bonds through a selection of specialist active managers. Its holdings can include government and corporate debt from different regions, such as the US Treasury, Volkswagen International, and Royal Bank of Canada shown in the factsheet. The fund is actively managed and is not built around a specific benchmark. That means the managers make active choices about which bonds to hold rather than simply tracking an index.

The Global Credit Fund uses specialist managers, including PGIM, Robeco, and Insight, and Mercer regularly reviews how the money is allocated between them. The managers aim to hold selected securities until they mature, which is intended to reduce trading. This makes the fund more focused on long-term bond selection than frequent buying and selling. Because the manager mix can change over time, manager risk is an important consideration.

The Global Credit Fund is aimed at people with more than seven years to retirement and/or investors who can accept rises and falls in value in pursuit of long-term growth. It seeks long-term growth and has a long-term objective of outperforming its benchmark, gross of charges. Because it invests in bonds across global markets, it may suit investors looking for credit exposure rather than a cash-like holding. The fund is not designed for short-term investors who want stable capital.

The Global Credit Fund highlights inflation risk, currency risk, and manager risk. Inflation risk means returns may not keep pace with rising prices, which can reduce what the investment is worth in real terms. Currency risk means changes in exchange rates can help or hurt returns when the fund holds bonds in different currencies. Manager risk means the fund could underperform if the selected managers make poor investment decisions.

Yes, the Global Credit Fund seeks to promote environmental characteristics under Article 8 of the SFDR. Its factsheet says the “do no significant harm” principle applies only to the investments that take into account EU criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities. The remaining investments do not take those EU criteria into account. In practical terms, that means the fund has an ESG tilt, but not all holdings are assessed against the same sustainability standard.