Investment Objective
Risk-adjusted returns
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Fund Characteristics
The William Blair Emerging Markets Debt
Fund seeks to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns relative to the Fund's
benchmark.
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Investment Approach
- Invests in a diversified portfolio of debt instruments issued by government or corporate issuers in developing countries.
- The majority of investments are in South and Central America (including the Caribbean), Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
- Seeks to invest in countries where we can assess specific political, economic and ESG-related risks.
- ESG analysis is fully integrated into our disciplined investment process. Based on multiple ESG factors, our portfolio managers and analysts develop a proprietary ESG score for each issuer, which helps inform our risk-management approach.
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Why Consider This Fund?
- The historical yield advantage of emerging markets debt over developed markets debt provides the potential for attractive risk-adjusted returns.
- A combination of bottom-up and top-down expertise deepens our understanding of performance drivers, improving the decision making process.
- The breadth of the team allows for specialization and regional focus, enhancing our ability to identify opportunities and to avoid unattractive risks.
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The Fund involves a high level of risk and may not
be appropriate for everyone. The Fund's return will vary, and you could lose money by investing
in the Fund. Investing in the bond market is subject to certain risks including
market, interest rate, issuer, credit, and inflation risk. Rising interest
rates generally cause bond prices to fall. Sovereign debt securities are
subject to the risk that an entity may delay or refuse to pay interest or
principal on its sovereign debt because of cash flow problems, insufficient
foreign reserves, or political or other considerations. High–yield,
lower–rated, securities involve greater risk than higher–rated securities;
portfolios that invest in them may be subject to greater levels of credit and
liquidity risk than portfolios that do not. Investing in foreign denominated
and/or domiciled securities may involve heightened risk due to currency
fluctuations, and economic and political risks. These risks may be enhanced in
emerging markets. Derivatives may be subject to certain risks such as
leveraging, liquidity, interest rate, credit, counterparty, management and the
risk of mispricing or improper valuation. The Fund is non-diversified and may
be more susceptible to adverse developments affecting any single issuer held by
the Fund.