Britain’s largest retail investment platform has launched a corporate bond fund as it reacts to investors chasing growing fixed-income yields.
Hargreaves Lansdown last week joined Invesco, Janus Henderson and Vanguard in launching a fund in the past 12 months that is geared towards corporate debt. It followed a 23 per cent increase in demand for corporate funds from Hargreaves’ customers in the year ending May 2023.
While most retail investors choosing bonds stick to gilts, UK government debt, there is growing interest in other products offering higher yields, despite the higher risks. The current yield gap between a gilt and sterling corporate bond is about 0.5 percentage points on 10-year instruments, according to S&P Global.