| Greg Batey | ||||||
A welcome contribution to the diversity and liquidity of the European credit market? Or just a way for new-issue houses to make money at a time of scarce supply? Two new index-linked products launched by Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan - which offer investors broad exposure to the euro credit market through a single security for the first time - are drawing mixed reviews.
First up in early March was Morgan Stanley's Euro Tracers product - a e510 million ($448 million) offering that provides fund managers with exposure to 30 euro-denominated bonds of at least e1 billion in size.
Two weeks later JPMorgan launched a e500 million tranche of Jeci-100 notes, a product designed to replicate the firm's Maggie (JPMorgan aggregated euro credit index).
Jeci is more broadly based - comprising the 100 most liquid names in the euro credit market, 75 of them industrial and 25 financial.