State Street Blackstone High Income (AUD Hedged) Active ETF (SBHI) — Review & Analysis

SBHI is a new AUD-hedged active US high-yield credit ETF, listed on the ASX on 7 August 2026 at a 0.70% management fee. It's a rare thing on the ASX: a Blackstone-managed listed vehicle, delivering exposure through the US-domiciled State Street Blackstone High Income ETF, which is sub-advised by Blackstone Liquid Credit Strategies. The strategy targets sub-investment-grade credit across US senior secured loans (~48%), high-yield bonds (~41%), and CLOs (~10%), actively selected top-down and bottom-up. The current portfolio holds 623 underlying positions and delivers a weighted average all-in rate of 6.96% with an average maturity of ~4.8 years and average price of $97 — meaning the portfolio is currently trading at a modest discount to par. SBHI launched with ~$2m AUM.

The credit-quality skew is heavily concentrated in the B-rated middle of high yield — roughly 60% BB, 30% B, and ~4% CCC-and-below — so this is genuine sub-investment-grade risk, not a "just below IG" fund. Sector exposure leans on software & services (14%), financial services (14%), media (7%), healthcare (7%), and energy (7%), and the top 10 underlying loans include familiar LBO names — WarnerMedia, Hologic, UKG, Finastra, athenahealth. Currency is fully hedged to AUD via rolling monthly forwards, and distributions are monthly — the most recent per-unit distribution was around 58 cents on a ~$50 NAV, giving an initial ~12% annualised yield though that will vary. This is unmistakably an income vehicle.

SBHI fills a genuine gap on the ASX — most Australian high-yield credit ETFs focus on domestic hybrids and subordinated bank debt rather than US corporate high yield with the currency hedged out. At 0.70% MER, it's not cheap, but the Blackstone credit team is one of the largest liquid-credit shops globally, and getting them wrapped inside an ASX-listed hedged vehicle is unusual. Caveats: brand new with no track record, ~30% of the portfolio sits in single-B credits which will underperform sharply in a genuine recession, and the fund charges an active fee for a strategy that ultimately tracks a public benchmark (50/50 high-yield bonds and loans). For our take on the full fixed-income landscape and how a fund like SBHI fits alongside pure-play high-yield options, read Every bond & fixed-income ETF on the ASX.