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Informist, Thursday, Jun. 11, 2026

 

--Manulife Invest Mgmt: India govt bonds attractive, see value in 30-yr gilt

--CONTEXT:Manulife Investment Mgmt Asia fixed income head Collis' comments

--Manulife Invest Mgmt:Mulling more allocation to India bonds post RBI steps

--Manulife Invest Mgmt: See rising foreign participation in India's gilt mkt

--Manulife Invest Mgmt: Set up dedicated India bond fund in early December

--Manulife Invest Mgmt: India bond fund nearing $1 bln

--Manulife Invest Mgmt: Process of setting up fund in India quicker now

--Manulife Invest Mgmt: India bond mkt access better now via MarketAxess

 

By Aaryan Khanna

 

NEW DELHI – Canadian insurer Manulife's asset management arm said the recent measures by the government and the Reserve Bank of India make India's government bonds attractive relative to other Asian fixed-income markets. The fund currently sees value in Indian government bonds maturing in about 30 years.

 

"We like the medium-term macroeconomic fundamentals in India and see potential for rising foreign participation in the Indian fixed income market over time," Murray Collis, head of fixed income, Asia at Manulife Investment Management, said over email. "We are considering the possibility of further increasing the allocation to IGBs (Indian government bonds) given recent market moves and the RBI measures just announced, which we see as improving the relative attractiveness of investing in IGBs." 

 

The comments come after the RBI added the 30-year benchmark 7.24%, 2055 bond to the Fully Accessible Route on Friday, along with all fresh issuances in the tenure, among several measures to attract foreign capital. It also reintroduced 15- and 40-year gilts to the Fully Accessible Route, which are included in global bond indices and allow foreigners to invest without a cap. The Centre also slashed capital gains and withholding taxes on foreign portfolio investment in government securities, effectively enhancing coupon returns on the 2055 bond by around 150 basis points. Foreign portfolio investors only own about 3.2% of outstanding central government bonds in India.

 

Manulife launched an India-specific bond strategy in early December, which is nearing $1 billion in size from third-party retail and institutional investors, Collis said. The Manulife India Bond Fund is managed offshore, with advice from its joint-venture partner, Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund, in India. The fund invests primarily in Fully Accessible Route gilts, with holdings in onshore corporate bonds and other rupee-denominated securities traded offshore, Collis said.  

 

EASIER ACCESS 

Manulife has been registered as a debt FPI in India for about 10 years, similar to the time Collis has spent with the investment manager in his three-decade career. Before the dedicated India strategy, the fund had targeted onshore local-currency bonds within its Asia fixed-income strategies. The approval process for the Manulife India Bond Fund took about a month, with the entry process "smooth". The ease and timeliness of the setup had significantly improved from the debt head's previous experience. 

 

Electronic trading of gilts through portals such as MarketAxess also "has materially enhanced how we access and execute" in the INR-123-trillion Indian government bond market, Collis said. The RBI had granted global bond trading platforms such as MarketAxess and Tradeweb access to and linkage with its bond trading platform hosted by the Clearing Corp. of India in 2025-26 (Apr-Mar). Manulife has actively adopted e-trading platforms in India's bond market, enabling better management of turnover and liquidity.

 

Use of these platforms streamlines pre- and post-trade operations, reducing risk while boosting scalability and price discovery as foreign participation increases, Collis said. The India fund is benchmarked to the J.P. Morgan Asia Diversified Broad India Index and seeks to outperform it through active fund management.

 

"Over time, we believe the Fund can continue to grow as the Indian bond market further opens up and global investors consider diversifying and allocating part of their global fixed income portfolios into India bonds," Collis said. "We believe the Indian bond market will continue to grow in importance in line with the Indian economy and is already an attractive market given India's strong growth prospects and investment grade sovereign rating."

 

The measures that the RBI and the government took last week were aimed at securing the inclusion of Indian bonds in Bloomberg's Global Aggregate Index, a top Indian finance ministry official said Tuesday. FPIs are expected to buy gilts worth over $20 billion by FY28 if India's government bonds are added to the flagship bond index. Since Jun. 4, FPIs have net purchased gilts worth INR 107.03 billion through the Fully Accessible Route, according to data from Clearing Corp. of India.  End

 

US$1 = INR 95.76

 

With inputs from Cassandra Carvalho

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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