Jamie Stuttard is pushing Fidelity Investments' [profile] global expansion forward with the launch of two U.S. mutual funds managed from the fund firm's London office.

Fidelity spokesman James Aber told MFWire that the launch of the two bond funds marks a major step in Fidelity's efforts since 2008 to build out its London office.

Stuttard is head of International Bond Portfolio Management and was not available for comment as he is currently in London "getting the funds up and running," said Aber.

Just over a year ago Fidelity hired Stuttard away from Schroder Investment Management as the first PM for its fixed income team in London. At Schroder, he headed up European and U.K. fixed income and served as lead portfolio manager of several global and European investment strategies.

Fidelity now boasts 25 investment professionals in London and that team is continuing to grow. Last week InvestmentNews reported that Charles Morrison, president of the fixed-income division, is looking to hire three new managers for his bond team, including one in London for their global-focused fixed-income portfolio.

Fidelity Global Bond Fund and Fidelity International Bond Fund will invest in sovereign government debt and corporate and securitized credit securities. They will be available both directly to investors and through financial advisors.

In addition, the mutual funds will be measured against a GDP-weighted index, different from the market cap-weight approach more common in the market.

The two mutual funds are Fidelity's only investment-grade global and international strategies.

Fidelity officials also trumpeted a new paper called Transformations in Country Dynamics and the Implications for Global Bond Markets. In the paper, Stuttard -- the lead portfolio manager for the two new funds -- stressed the importance for investors to "pick their bond indices carefully" and "develop appropriate frameworks" for investments. He also highlighted the merits of a GDP-weighted benchmark.

"The global bond landscape is in the midst of significant structural changes that should challenge prevailing assumptions and industry norms behind investing and risk management," Stuttard stated. "In our view, GDP is a better starting point than indebtedness when considering what weighting to apply to a specific country in a bond index. Economic size provides at least a first step in evaluating the available tax base -- and thus revenues -- to service government debt obligations."

The two funds are not Fidelity's first investment-grade global bond funds. Fidelity did previously offer an investment-grade bond fund called Fidelity International Bond Fund. However, that fund was merged into the Strategic Income Fund in 2002.

Aber differentiated the two new bond funds from Fidelity's other global funds such as Fidelity New Markets Income Fund and Fidelity Total Emerging Markets Fund, which both invest in emerging markets but are not investment-grade funds. 

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