Barclays GlobalAccess Global Corporate Bond Fund

Investing in bonds issued by companies is very different to investing in shares. Investing in shares is about understanding the risks and being able to put up with volatility in the short term for high returns in the long term. With bonds, it’s all about avoiding risks. It’s about avoiding those companies who potentially may not be able to repay their investors. It’s about taking an active approach.

Active managers

The Barclays GlobalAccess Global Corporate Bond Fund is an actively managed fund. This means it is managed by investment professionals, who carry out the diligent work to decide which bonds to invest in, and which bonds to avoid. And Barclays chooses which fund managers to use to carry out this work.

The experts at Barclays have access to what they consider to be the world’s best investment talent, giving them the ability to carefully select the perfect fund managers. The two managers who have been selected to run the Barclays GlobalAccess Global Corporate Bond Fund are PIMCO and Wellington.

PIMCO and Wellington

Half the fund is managed by PIMCO and half is managed by Wellington. The reason why is because they each have a very different style to investing, which means one manager may be investing in one part of the bond market while the other manager may not be.

Over the long term, we believe both PIMCO and Wellington have the potential to outperform the market, but in the short term we hope their different investment styles will mean if one is underperforming, the other has the potential to outperform.

Barclays will always monitor these two managers to ensure they remain the best suited to manage the fund, and will make changes when necessary.

A simple approach

This approach of Barclays selecting the managers means you don’t have to. It’s a simple ‘one-stop’ approach to investing. Known as multi-manager funds, many investors use them to build a diversified investment portfolio. If you don’t have any bond funds in your investment portfolio, the Barclays GlobalAccess Global Corporate Bond Fund could be a fund worth considering, when taking that first step.

How to invest

The Barclays GlobalAccess Global Corporate Bond Fund is one of 13 Multi-Manager funds on the Barclays Funds List. Find out more information about the multi-manager funds as well as other funds that invest in bonds. Find out more information on these funds.

Correct at the time of publishing.

To diversify your investment, you may like to consider our own Barclays Ready-made Investments (RMI). The RMI are just one example of a range of diversified funds which allow you to select the level of risk you are most comfortable with. These Barclays multi-asset funds invest in passive funds across a range of asset classes and regions, offering a globally diversified solution for investors. Ready-made Investments are not the only funds that we offer and they won’t be appropriate for everyone.

Past performance of the fund and its manager are not a reliable indicator of their future performance.

We don’t offer personal investment advice so if you’re unsure you should seek that independently.

Funds are designed for the long term so you should only consider them if you can stay invested for at least five years.

These are our current opinions but the future, as ever, is uncertain and outcomes may differ.

Read the Assessment of Value report [PDF, 3.2MB] for funds run by Barclays.