“The Evernord Bond Fund, an open-ended fund for informed investors within the Evernord Group, has surpassed EUR 10 million in size and is now on track to reach its target size of EUR 50 million. The bond fund was launched in July last year. The fund’s portfolio currently includes 30 different corporate bonds.
The fund is currently invested in corporate bonds from 14 different industry sectors and the issuers of the bonds in the portfolio are from 12 different countries.
At the end of February, the Evernord Bond Fund’s investments by sector were dominated by manufacturing (15%), financial services (13%) and other services (10%). By country, the Fund invested mainly in Germany (22%), Latvia (14%), Spain and France (11% each). In Lithuania, 8% of the fund’s current value was invested.
“Evernord Bond Fund’s strategic objective is to offer investors a wide selection of bonds from different sectors, while reducing the risk of concentrations of securities from the real estate (RE) sector in client portfolios. The Fund has set a target that the share of real estate in the total portfolio should not exceed 15%.
“We consider it a great success that we have managed to raise more than EUR 10 million in the first half of the year and we expect to continue our strong growth. The fund is attractive to investors because it can offer a very broad diversification of investments by sectors and regions, thus significantly reducing the risk in the home market – the Baltic States. We have a strict investment structure and aim for a share of 2-3% per position in the portfolio,” notes Gintaras Rutkauskas, Manager of Evernord Bond Fund and Director of Evernord Asset Management. – Now is still a good time to lock in interest on bonds, as the yield on debt securities is comparable to the long-term return on equities. Particularly in the volatile economic environment under US President Donald Trump, the price stability of bonds is significantly better than that of equities.”
Rutkauskas adds that the macroeconomic environment is also driving the search for attractive investment avenues. On 6 March this year, the European Central Bank (ECB) lowered its base interest rate to 2.5%. Markets expect at least two more cuts to 2% in 2025, and if economic growth slows down, it is possible that the ECB could cut interest rates even faster. These actions will have a positive impact on corporate finances, but yields will fall, so it is important to lock in higher interest rates, says the manager of Evernord Bond Fund.
“Evernord Bond Fund is the first fund of its kind in Lithuania to have a limited investment period of 1.5 years from the start of distribution until the end of this year. At the end of the investment period, a portion of the fund’s units will be redeemed and dividends will be paid out on a quarterly basis, thus generating a recurring income for the fund’s investors every quarter. The fund aims at an annual return of 8-9%.
“Evernord Bond Fund bonds are selected and evaluated by a team of professionals with extensive experience in the corporate finance sector. The fund’s team has a long-standing partnership with the Finnish Evli Group and other Scandinavian financial market players to ensure bond diversity. The Scandinavian bond market currently exceeds EUR 300 billion and is the second largest in Europe.