1. Sterling Aggregate Bond Fund

    Sterling Aggregate Bond Fund

  2. Overview

    The Sterling Aggregate Bond Fund aims to outperform (after deduction of costs) an index comprising 50% of the FTSE Actuaries UK Conventional Gilts All Stocks Index and 50% of the ICE Bank of America Sterling Non-Gilt Index by 0.65% per annum over rolling three-year periods. There is no guarantee that this objective will be achieved over any time period and actual investment returns may differ from this objective, particularly over shorter time periods. 

    The manager believes this is an appropriate benchmark given the investment policy of the Fund and the approach taken by the manager when investing. In addition, the manager believes an appropriate performance comparison for this Fund is the Investment Association Sterling Strategic Bond Sector.

    A predominately sterling portfolio of government and corporate bonds created holistically to represent our best and strongest fixed income investment views. Our sterling aggregate bond strategy is driven by active bond selection based on country and company fundamentals. Our intention is to look across markets, and to exploit anomalies in fundamental values created by investors operating differently from us.

    Performance & Portfolio

    Periodic Performance

    All figures to 29/02/2024

    6 Months

    1 Year

    3 Years

    5 Years

    Class B-Acc 4.8%3.6%-5.9%-1.6%
    Index* 4.7%3.3%-5.9%-1.8%
    Target Benchmark** 5.1%4.0%-5.3%-1.2%

    Figures for 3 and 5 years are shown as the annualised rate of return. This is the average yearly return over the specified period.


    Annual Discrete Performance to 31 December each year

    Annual percentage return (Updated Quarterly)

    31/12/2018
    31/12/2019

    31/12/2019
    31/12/2020

    31/12/2020
    31/12/2021

    31/12/2021
    31/12/2022

    31/12/2022
    31/12/2023

    Class B-Acc 8.9%9.5%-3.6%-22.0%7.2%
    Index* 8.2%8.3%-4.1%-20.8%6.1%
    Target Benchmark** 8.9%9.0%-3.5%-20.3%6.8%
    Sector Average*** 9.3%6.6%0.8%-11.0%7.8%

    Please bear in mind that past performance is not a guide to future performance.
    The value of your investment may go down as well as up, and you may not get back the amount you invested.

    Source: FE, Revolution, FTSE, ICE Data Indices. Total return net of charges, in sterling.
    Share class returns calculated using 10am prices, while the Index is calculated close-to-close.
    †04 September 2017.
    *50% of the FTSE Actuaries UK Conventional Gilts All Stock Index and of the 50% BofA ML Sterling Non-Gilts Index.
    **50% of the FTSE Actuaries UK Conventional Gilts All Stock Index and of the 50% BofA ML Sterling Non-Gilts Index +0.65%.
    ***IA £ Strategic Bond Sector.

    Top Ten Physical Bond Holdings* - 29/02/2024

    Fund %
    1 UK Treasury 1.625% 22/10/2028 5.8%
    2 UK Treasury 4.75% 07/12/2038 3.7%
    3 UK Treasury 3.5% 22/01/2045 3.4%
    4 UK T Bill 22/04/2024 3.3%
    5 Bund 2.4% 19/10/2028 2.9%
    6 UK Treasury 0.625% 31/07/2035 2.1%
    7 UK Treasury 4.25% 7/12/2055 2.0%
    8 UK T Bill 08/04/2024 2.0%
    9 UK T Bill 13/05/2024 1.9%
    10 UK Treasury 0.125% IL 22/03/2051 1.9%
    Total 29.0%

    Meet the Managers

    Sally Greig

    Sally is head of the Emerging Market Debt Team and chief of investment staff for the Multi Asset and Income area. She joined Baillie Gifford in 2005. Before joining the firm, she worked at the Bank of England from 2001 as an economist in the Foreign Exchange Division and provided regular analysis to the Monetary Policy Committee. Sally graduated MA in Economics and Statistics from the University of Edinburgh in 1998 and MSc in Finance and Econometrics from the University of York in 2003.

    Paul Dilworth

    Paul is an investment manager in the Credit Team, co-manging the Investment Grade and Sterling Aggregate strategies. He joined Baillie Gifford in 2019. Before joining the firm, Paul worked for almost 13 years at Kames Capital where he was responsible for managing a broad range of fixed income mandates, including Global Financial Credit, Global Absolute Return and Investment Grade Credit. Paul graduated BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from Heriot-Watt University in 2006 and is a CFA Charterholder.

    Documents

    You can access any literature about the Fund here, either by downloading or requesting a copy by post (where available).

    To download any document you will need Adobe Reader. Please note that we can now provide you with Braille and audio transcriptions of our literature on request. It may take up to 10 days for the transcription to be completed dependent on the size of the document.

    Complaints

    In the first instance, clients should contact their normal Client Contact with any concerns. Alternatively, or for those clients who do not have a direct client contact assigned, complaints can be emailed to Baillie Gifford’s Compliance Department at: InstitutionalComplaints@bailliegifford.com. A summary document which contains details on Baillie Gifford’s complaints management policy is available upon request. All material complaints are recorded in an in-house incident management system and are escalated to, and dealt with by, members of staff of suitable seniority, independent of the area from which the matter arose.