iM Global Partner and Polen Capital launch an active high yield European ETF
15 JUN, 2026
By Joanna Piwko from RankiaPro Europe
iM Global Partner (iMGP) and its partner Polen Capital have launched on Euronext Paris the iMGP European High Yield Fund R EUR UCITS ETF, a vehicle that seeks to offer institutional investors access to the highest quality tranche of European leveraged credit with daily trading. The product represents the first active fixed income ETF from iMGP in Europe and comes at a time when part of the institutional market is reviewing its exposure to private credit due to the compression of illiquidity premiums, “mark-to-model” valuations and limitations on redemptions.
The fund is classified as Article 8 under the SFDR regulation and becomes the fourth product of the active UCITS ETF platform that iMGP has developed in fifteen months in alternative assets, equities and fixed income. The manager's global active ETF franchise, between Europe and the United States, currently totals about 4.5 billion dollars in assets under management.
An active strategy focused on European high yield
Management is sub-delegated to Polen Capital's Leveraged Credit team, led by Ben Pakenham, former head of European High Yield and Global Loans at Aberdeen. According to the firm, in his previous stage his team managed more than 2 billion dollars in European and global high yield assets.
The strategy aims to generate a performance premium of between 75 and 100 basis points over the ICE BofA Euro High Yield Constrained index, relying on a fundamental and bottom-up selection of bonds, a concentrated portfolio of between 70 and 90 issuers, disciplined risk management backed by a top-down macro view and the integration of environmental, social and governance criteria inherent to the Article 8 framework.
The vehicle was initially launched as a Luxembourg SICAV in July 2025 with the backing of a large French insurer. The new ETF class now expands access to the product without modifying the investment process. In addition, the fund is marketed with a total cost of 0.70 %.
A liquid alternative to the rise of private credit
The launch of PEHY comes in a context where European high yield is seeking to position itself as an alternative to private credit. iMGP and Polen Capital argue that, after years of expansion, private credit today offers a narrower illiquidity premium, while maintaining structural risks linked to valuation and lower exit flexibility.
In response to this, the firms highlight several strengths of European high yield: superior credit quality within the leveraged credit universe, reduced exposure to the technology sector —around 4% in software and IT, compared to about 25% in private credit—, daily prices with stock exchange compensation and greater liquidity for the investor. They also highlight the recent performance of the segment, with approximate advances of 2% in April 2026 and 1% in May 2026.
With this positioning, the new ETF aims to capture the interest of European investors who are looking for active management, transparency and daily liquidity in fixed income, in a listed format and oriented to the highest quality segment of the high yield market.
It's a statement of intent. European high yield is an asset class in which conviction-based active management has long been underrepresented in ETF format; the PEHY closes that gap. It's our first foray into fixed income on our active ETF platform, and it won't be the last. Ben Pakenham and his team bring a wealth of experience built over many years and, since the fund's inception in July 2025 with the backing of a large French insurer, investor demand for this format has been unequivocal.
Julien Froger, General Manager, Head of Europe, iM Global Partner
European high yield is an important segment of the leveraged credit universe, offering both attractive returns and daily price transparency. Our process is based on fundamental credit selection: identifying mispriced bonds, managing risk with discipline and seeking a consistent yield premium throughout the cycle. Making this strategy available in ETF format is a natural evolution: it broadens access without changing anything in the way we manage the portfolio.
Ben Pakenham, Portfolio Manager, Polen Capital
