MetWest Launches Unconstrained Bond Fund

The MetWest Unconstrained Bond Fund is MetWest’s first fund to offer international fixed income exposure. TCW’s combined mutual fund complex has $32 billion in assets and has more than tripled in size since December 2009, when TCW announced the acquisition of MetWest.

“In today’s low interest rate environment, fixed income investors may be better served by looking beyond the traditional benchmarks and interest-rate driven sectors,’’ said Stephen M. Kane, a TCW Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager of the Fund. “We believe the challenging global economic environment creates unique and attractive opportunities for a go-anywhere fund that is not tied to a specific benchmark.’’

The fund is a multi-sector bond fund that will invest across multiple fixed income sectors, including investment grade and high yield corporate bonds and bank loans, mortgage-backed securities, and emerging markets debt. Sector allocation will be determined through an integration of macroeconomic analysis and fundamental research of individual securities. The overall interest rate risk, or duration, of the fund will be allowed to fluctuate significantly over the course of the business cycle. Given the current low level of interest rates, the portfolio managers plan to manage the fund with very limited exposure to U.S. Treasury rates.

Kane and fellow portfolio managers Laird Landmann and Tad Rivelle, TCW’s Chief Investment Officer for fixed income, will lead the MetWest Total Return Bond Fund team. The fund will also draw on the resources of TCW teams that currently manage over $65 billion in fixed income assets. These teams include the group that manages the TCW Emerging Markets Income Fund and the TCW Emerging Markets Local Currency Income Fund.