Mindful that interest rates could rise in the next year or so, a short-duration bond fund is brought to market by the investment management giant.

BlackRock, the listed asset manager with almost $6 trillion of assets under management, has launched an emerging markets short duration bond fund set up for investors seeking protection from future interest rate hikes.

The BlackRock Emerging Markets Short Duration Bond Fund holds short duration bonds across different sectors and countries globally. It has freedom to allocate between sovereign, corporate and local currency bonds with an average duration of no more than three years.

Sergio Trigo Paz will be the lead portfolio manager, with Michal Katrencik and Michal Wozniak as co-managers. They will work alongside BlackRock’s emerging market debt team; in total, the team oversees about $24 billion of emerging debt assets. 

“Our clients tell us that emerging market exposure have gone from being a nice-to-have to a must-have for the modern portfolio. Historically seen as an opportunistic asset class, emerging market debt is increasingly being used by investors as a long term strategic allocation due to improving fundamentals and strong diversification benefits,” Sergio Trigo Paz said.

The fund is a sub-fund of BlackRock Strategic Funds.