The BNY Mellon Global High Yield Bond Fund focuses on achieving a total return from income and long-term capital growth, primarily by investing in US and European high-yield bonds.

The portfolio managed by its boutique subsidiary, Alcentra, is US-centric and is diversified across over 120 holdings. The investment process emphasizes fundamental credit research with disciplined portfolio construction and a noticeable strong sell discipline. It has rewarded the Fund with outperformance through credit selectivity and active risk management like other strategies that typically perform better during volatile periods. The Fund, under these circumstances, has a better chance to create more significant relative value opportunities where valuations may dislocate from underlying fundamentals.

We noted the integration of ESG into their investment process is advanced, particularly for the fixed income space, as was engagement and stewardship activities. All potential investments are scored and evaluated for ESG, including some higher-yield issuers with less developed ESG reporting and disclosure.

This Fund has been reviewed by five industry veterans of the Benchmark judging committee.