Today’s bond market is vast and harbours a wealth of opportunities, whether in sovereign or corporate bonds, in both high yield and investment grade and developed and emerging markets. The key to capturing the full potential of this market and turning it into solid risk-adjusted returns is an investment solution that combines asset allocation with bond picking, provided it also has the flexibility to adapt to different market conditions.
Our Carmignac Portfolio Flexible Bond fund offers a solution for managing your bond allocation. The Fund’s two managers since 2019 – Guillaume Rigeade and Eliezer Ben Zimra – have proven the strength of their know-how. Their robust investment process combines flexibility with active risk management and a search for performance.
Our Carmignac Portfolio Flexible Bond fund is designed to offer investors an investment solution for their core portfolio. It takes advantage of the broad diversity in the bond market to outperform its reference indicator2 over at least a three-year horizon. The portfolio is managed with a total return approach, seeking to capture market upswings while hedging against downside risk.
Thanks to this approach, the Fund has outperformed in just about every bond-market segment since the new managers took over in July 2019: corporate debt, emerging-market bonds, and sovereign bonds4.
The Fund’s investment process is based on three pillars: a vast investment universe, an active approach to managing modified duration, and a rigorous process for screening and selecting issuers based on pooling together a range of expertise.
Combining an unconstrained asset allocation with currency hedges
Carmignac Portfolio Flexible Bond can invest in the entire bond-market universe, meaning its managers can seize opportunities in a range of market segments and geographies while systematically hedging against currency risk. This flexibility enables its managers to adjust their positions at each stage of the business and financial-market cycle.
From theory ...
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We started the year by investing primarily in assets with an attractive carry, such as high yield corporate bonds and financial subordinated debt, in light of the stretched valuations. Then as Trump’s Liberation Day approached, we took profits on some of these positions and shored up our hedging strategies on high yield bonds.
By tactically reducing our exposure to risk assets in this way, we were able to ride out the spike in risk aversion in the first quarter. After this stress peaked early in the second quarter, we sold some of our high yield hedges and positioned the Fund for a market rebound, which we captured in the latter part of the second quarter, in line with our focus on total return.
We also invested in inflation-linked bonds, which proved to be another significant performance driver as long-term yields rose and inflation expectations remained relatively low in light of the stimulus plans announced by various governments.
Our carry and directional strategies have contributed equally to our performance so far this year.
Moving swiftly in response to interest rate movements
Carmignac Portfolio Flexible Bond has a wide modified duration range (from –3 to +8), which gives its managers the flexibility to benefit from both rising and falling interest rates while implementing hedging strategies when needed.
From theory ...
This performance driver has been particularly effective over the past few months, when our modified duration ranged from –2.9 to 4.5. This flexibility in managing our positions reflects our in-depth reading of the fundamentals and market prices.
In the first quarter, our short positions on European bonds generated significant absolute and relative returns after German bond yields rose on the back of the infrastructure and defence spending plan announced by new Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
We adjusted our positions on US bonds in response to the signals sent out by the Trump administration. We were initially long, as investors expected American exceptionalism to continue, but switched to a short position (on both long- and short-dated issues) after Liberation Day when investors became overly bearish on the growth prospects for the US economy.
We are still short Japanese bonds – a position that continues to benefit our performance – as yields are being pushed upwards by the changing inflationary environment in the country and the Bank of Japan’s new cycle of monetary tightening.
Building a portfolio of our strongest convictions
The Fund Managers of Carmignac Portfolio Flexible Bond work closely with the entire Carmignac fixed income team, and in particular with our credit and emerging market debt specialists, tapping into their knowledge to identify the most promising opportunities within each of their respective areas.
From theory …
FLEXIBILITY: A KEY STRENGTH IN RISK MANAGEMENT
Thanks to the Fund’s vast investment universe and the considerable flexibility it offers in setting asset allocations, we are able to actively manage the portfolio’s financial risks. This is especially useful in times of high volatility, such as during the sharp bond market corrections in the eurozone and the US in March and April of this year. Our Fund Managers use sophisticated analysis software and draw on the expertise of Carmignac’s risk management department, which is integrated directly into our front office. This department plays an important role in monitoring and improving our overall portfolio construction.
In addition to financial criteria, we also evaluate potential investments according to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, in order to mitigate potential risks in these areas. For instance, we screened out 20% of the investment universe by excluding the worst-rated issuers on ESG metrics, based on both our own analyses and data from external providers. We also meet with some of the companies whose bonds we hold in order to help them improve their ESG practices.
1Guillaume Rigeade and Eliezer Ben Zimra joined the Carmignac bond team on 09/07/2019.
22Reference indicator: ICE BofA Euro Broad Market Index (income reinvested) since 30/09/2019, replacing the EONCAPL7 index. Returns are calculated using the chaining method.
3Morningstar category: EUR Flexible Bond.
4 Sources: Carmignac, ICE Bank of America, Bloomberg, 30/09/2025. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Global corporate bond index: Bloomberg Global Aggregate Corporate Total Return Index Hedged EUR; emerging-market bond index: Bloomberg Barclays MSCI EM Hard Currency Aggregate EUR; high-yield bond index: Bloomberg Global High Yield Total Return Index Value Hedged EUR; sovereign bond index: Bloomberg Global Aggregate Treasuries Total Return Index Hedged EUR.
*Escala de Risco do KID (documentos de informação fundamental). O risco 1 não significa um investimento isento de risco. Este indicador pode variar ao longo do tempo. **O Regulamento SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation) 2019/2088 é um regulamento europeu que exige aos gestores de ativos que classifiquem os seus fundos como, entre outros: «Artigo 8» que promovem as características ambientais e sociais, «Artigo 9» que fazem investimentos sustentáveis com objetivos mensuráveis, ou «Artigo 6» que não têm necessariamente um objetivo de sustentabilidade. Para mais informações, visite: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2019/2088/oj?locale=pt.
Carmignac Portfolio Flexible Bond | 0.1 | 1.7 | -3.4 | 5.0 | 9.2 | 0.0 | -8.0 | 4.7 | 5.4 | 4.6 |
Indicador de Referência | -0.3 | -0.4 | -0.4 | -2.5 | 4.0 | -2.8 | -16.9 | 6.8 | 2.6 | 1.1 |
Carmignac Portfolio Flexible Bond | + 6.7 % | + 1.9 % | + 1.7 % |
Indicador de Referência | + 3.2 % | - 2.0 % | - 1.1 % |
Fonte: Carmignac em 30 de set de 2025.
O desempenho passado não é necessariamente um indicador do desempenho futuro. Os desempenhos são líquidos de comissões (excluindo eventuais comissões de subscrição cobradas pelo distribuidor).
Indicador de Referência: ICE BofA Euro Broad Market index