The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relevant to wealth advisors and their clients.
PIMCO
PIMCO, a specialist in
active fixed income with expertise across public and private
markets, has launched the PIMCO GIS Global Bond Opportunities
Fund (GBOF), a flexible, global core bond strategy within the
PIMCO GIS UCITS range. The fund is designed for investors
having to manage a complex macroeconomic environment.
GBOF aims to unlock the full potential of the global bond market
by allocating across regions, yield curves, sectors and
currencies. It builds on PIMCO’s global bond capabilities,
leveraging a platform managing more than $150 billion in global
bonds.
Positioned alongside PIMCO’s flagship global bond strategies,
GBOF is designed for investors seeking a more flexible core fixed
income allocation, while drawing on the same global investment
process and portfolio management team that underpin the broader
PIMCO Global Bond suite.
Unlike traditional benchmark-aware core bond solutions, GBOF is
not designed to track a bond market index. It seeks core
bond characteristics – including a positive duration anchor,
an up-in-quality bias and a focus on capital preservation
– while offering greater flexibility across rates, credit,
securitised and currency strategies.
“With global bond yields near their highest levels in over a
decade, we believe today”s fixed income landscape offers a
compelling opportunity for active investors,” Andrew Balls,
managing director and CIO global fixed income, said. “At the same
time, we believe a more complex global backdrop means flexibility
is increasingly important when building a core bond allocation.
Asynchronous monetary policy cycles, fiscal policy divergence,
and geopolitical tensions are creating different dynamics across
regions, curves, and sectors. A flexible strategy that can
dynamically allocate across these dimensions is well positioned
to capture investment opportunities as they arise.”
GBOF will be managed by a team of four portfolio managers:
Balls; Sachin Gupta, managing director and portfolio
manager; Lorenzo Pagani, managing director and portfolio manager;
and Martin Svorc, executive vice president and portfolio
manager. GBOF is available in the UK, Switzerland,
Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, amongst others.
WisdomTree
WisdomTree, a
global financial innovator, has launched the WisdomTree Global
High Dividend UCITS ETF (WDIV). WDIV, which aims to track the
price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the
WisdomTree Global High Dividend UCITS Index, has a Total Expense
Ratio of 0.35 per cent. WDIV is listed today on Xetra, Borsa
Italiana, SIX Swiss Exchange and lists on the London Stock
Exchange.
The proprietary strategy gives investors exposure to
high-dividend companies across developed markets through a
fundamentally weighted approach, the firm said in a statement.
Unlike traditional market-cap-weighted indices, the strategy
selects companies based on dividend yield and weights them by the
dividends they pay, aiming to increase exposure to the high
dividend and value factors while preserving diversification and
valuation discipline.
The WisdomTree Global High Dividend UCITS ETF applies a
transparent and systematic process rooted in academically-driven
research. Eligible companies must meet liquidity, dividend and
ESG requirements before being ranked by dividend yield. A
proprietary composite risk score, which incorporates quality and
momentum metrics, is then used to screen out higher-risk
companies and potential value traps, as well as to reward those
with better fundamentals in the selection and weighting
processes. The highest-yielding 300 companies are selected and
weighted according to their adjusted dividend stream, with
diversification controls applied across stocks, sectors and
countries.
Companies that pay sustainable dividends often exhibit stronger
free cash flow discipline and a greater commitment to returning
capital to shareholders. Dividend-paying stocks can also provide
investors with a tangible source of return, helping improve
portfolio outcomes through a combination of income generation and
capital appreciation.
“High dividend strategies have long been recognised as an
effective way to access both income and value characteristics
within equity markets,” Pierre Debru, head of research, Europe,
WisdomTree, said. “By combining dividend yield with quality and
momentum screens, this strategy seeks to provide investors with a
more disciplined approach to high dividend investing, helping
avoid some of the risks associated with simply chasing the
highest yields.”
The new ETF complements WisdomTree’s existing range of High
Dividend ETFs in Europe, which includes European, US and emerging
markets exposures.
Pictet Asset Management
Pictet
Asset Management has launched its first European range
of AI Enhanced Equity Index Active ETFs. The new ETFs are listed
on XETRA (DE) and Euronext (ITA) with additional listings on LSE
(UK) and SIX (CH) exchanges to follow.
The new suite includes:
PQWD – Pictet AI Enhanced World Equity UCITS ETF
PQWX – Pictet AI Enhanced World ex US Equity UCITS
ETF
PQUS – Pictet AI Enhanced US Equity UCITS ETF
PQEU – Pictet AI Enhanced European Equity UCITS ETF
The launch follows Pictet – Quest AI-Driven Global Equities,
a Luxembourg-domiciled UCITS fund introduced in March 2024. It
has raised more than $3 billion and returned 50 per cent in
dollar terms since inception to end May 2026, ahead of its
benchmark, the MSCI World Index, which returned 45.9 per cent
over the same period. The strategy is also available to
institutional investors through segregated mandates, the firm
said in a statement.
The enhanced equity index strategies are designed to outperform
their benchmark indices by around 1 per cent a year, net of fees,
while tracking the index, with a targeted tracking error of up to
2 per cent and a beta of 1.0 (meaning returns are designed to
move broadly in line with the market). At the core is Pictet’s
proprietary AI model, the engine driving every stock pick, paired
with automated portfolio optimisation. The process is rigorously
overseen by Pictet’s team of quantitative experts, who developed
the model, to ensure quarterly training cycles, and monitor the
portfolio. The result is a factor-neutral strategy independent of
market and economic cycles.
Each ETF aims to outperform passive strategies without materially
increasing risk and at minimal extra cost. This makes them well
suited as core portfolio holdings for investors seeking low-risk,
lower-cost, compounding outperformance.
