The £79.6m fund, managed by FE Alpha Manager Andrew Lake, was launched in September 2008. Since this time it has made 66.71 per cent, comfortably beating the 47.1 per cent returned by the IMA Sterling High Yield sector over the same period.
Performance of fund vs sector since Sept 2008
Source: FE Analytics
The fund has been more volatile than its sector, however, over one and three years.
Jason Hollands, managing director of business development and communications at Bestinvest, says investors who want exposure to fixed income markets should concentrate on funds in the IMA Sterling High Yield sector and that Aviva High Yield Bond is a quality example.
"We like high yield as an asset class," he commented.
"Recently, we have seen little value in the most part of the bond market, but we see funds in the high yield sector that have good and sustainable yields."
He added: "We especially like funds that have a short duration focus, like the Aviva High Yield Bond fund."
"You can see that it has delivered good performance in a sector we like. However, we tend to use AXA Global High Income in the Sterling High Yield sector."
Aviva High Yield Bond invests across a range of fixed income asset classes, including both global corporate bonds and government securities.
Its largest position is in international bonds, with large individual weightings in the debt of multi-nationals Renault and the Reynolds Group.
The fund pays out 6.5 per cent, making it the eighth-highest yielding fund in the sector. Out of those eight, Aviva High Yield has only been beaten by JPM Global High Yield Bond over three years in capital growth terms.
The fund is a second-quartile performer over one and three years and is top quartile over six months.
It is regionally underweight the UK in comparison with the IMA Sterling High Yield sector.
It has a much higher exposure to continental Europe, with more than 30 per cent of its assets in the region compared with a sector average of 15.6 per cent.
Lake also heads up the five crown-rated Aviva Managed Income fund and co-manages the offshore-recognised Aviva Global High Yield Bond portfolio.
Jason Hollands is a fan of Lake’s management style.
"Andrew has a strong track record, having previously worked at Merrill Lynch and F&C investments. He has a good and credible track record where he has delivered strong returns over a long period of time."
Since the beginning of Lake’s career in fund management, he has significantly outperformed his peers.
Performance of manager vs peer group composite since May 2003
Source: FE Analytics
The manager has returned 103.6 per cent compared with 69.39 per cent from his peer group composite. However, Lake had a rockier 2008 compared with his peers.
Aviva High Yield Bond has a total expense ratio (TER) of 1.14 per cent and a minimum investment of £1,000.