Nu Iboxx High Yield Hedge Carry Brl Classe De Indice Investimento No Exterior- Resp Limitada

What it is

HYBR11 is the first locally listed ETF giving Brazilian investors exposure to global high-yield credit without any currency risk. In plain terms: buy one unit on B3 like a share, and you own a slice of roughly 1,319 US corporate bonds — companies that pay higher interest because they carry higher credit risk — while a currency hedge cancels out the daily swings of the real against the dollar.

The underlying index tracks a portfolio of approximately 70% US dollar-denominated high-yield corporate bonds and 30% Brazilian sovereign bonds, with the foreign-exchange hedge built from US dollar futures contracts. The sovereign bonds act as collateral for the futures; the real return comes from American corporate credit spreads plus the interest-rate gap between Brazil and the US — what traders call the “carry.”

HYBR11 was developed alongside its sister fund HGBR11 to be among the first fixed-income ETFs with global private credit in Brazil to offer currency protection in reais. The practical difference from a US-listed high-yield ETF: a Brazilian investor sees returns in reais with no dollar volatility, and pays Brazilian income-tax rules rather than more complex cross-border tax.

Who owns it

HYBR11 is a fund, not a company — investors who buy units on B3 collectively own the assets; there is no controlling shareholder. The fund is a product of Nu Asset Management, which is itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Nubank (Nu Holdings Ltd., NYSE: NU).

Nu Holdings was founded on 6 May 2013 in São Paulo by David Vélez, Cristina Junqueira, and Edward Wible. Nu Asset manages roughly R$6 billion (US$1.2 bn) across 22 investment funds with 1.4 million investors.

The fund is open to individual investors, legal entities, pension funds, insurers, and non-resident investors authorised under applicable law. Units trade on B3 with settlement in one business day (D+1), the same as stocks.

Who runs it

Andrés Kikuchi, the head and Chief Investment Officer of Nu Asset Management, has more than 20 years of experience in investments and has led Nu Asset since founding the division at Nubank in 2020. Before Nu, Kikuchi was portfolio manager and director at UBS Brasil for about six years.

A separate CFO for the fund itself is not disclosed; the fund’s administration is handled by Banco BNP Paribas Brasil S.A., and the auditor is Ernst & Young.

At the parent-company level, David Vélez is Founder, Chairman of the Board, and CEO of Nu Holdings. Guilherme Lago is Nu Holdings’ Chief Financial Officer, a position he has held since February 2021.

The money, in plain words

HYBR11 is an index fund, not an operating company, so the right scorecard is different from a corporate P&L. The total money pooled by investors — the fund’s net asset value — stood at R$26.4 million (~US$5.1M) as of 31 March 2026, a small but growing base for a fund launched only six months earlier.

The fund has returned +5.80% since its 17 September 2025 launch through end-March 2026, modestly trailing its benchmark index (+6.28%) and Brazil’s overnight rate, the CDI (+7.66%), over the same period — normal for a new fund still building scale.

The portfolio’s yield to maturity — the annual return expected if every bond is held to repayment — is 7.1% per year in US dollar terms, drawn from 1,319 individual bonds across sectors including communications, consumer goods and energy. Duration is just 2.1 years, making the portfolio less sensitive to interest-rate moves than longer-dated bond funds — a modest cushion against rate volatility.

The annual running cost is 0.30% — the global fee — with an absolute ceiling of 0.35%. The fund is exempt from Brazil’s IOF tax and the come-cotas periodic redemption levy; capital gains are taxed at a flat 15%, offsettable against losses elsewhere.

What it is doing now

HYBR11 began trading on 17 September 2025, and its most recent published monthly report (March 2026) shows the fund generating a net carry of roughly 105% of the CDI — meaning investors are, for now, earning a little more than Brazil’s benchmark overnight rate from a globally diversified bond portfolio. The primary performance driver, compared with Nu Asset’s investment-grade sibling fund, is the higher credit spread from riskier bonds, which compensates with greater yield.

With this launch, Nu Asset added fixed-income to an ETF shelf that already includes equity ETFs (NDIV11, NSDV11, HIGH11, LVOL11) and a Bitcoin ETF (NBIT11). Market liquidity is supported by two designated market makers — UBS and BTG Pactual — ensuring tighter bid-ask spreads on B3.

What to watch

• AUM growth. At R$26.4 (US$5)M the fund is tiny. A thin pool means higher tracking error and wider spreads; watch whether institutional flows — pension funds, insurers — enlarge the base in 2026.
• US credit spreads. High-yield bonds price in economic stress. A US recession, or a spike in corporate defaults, compresses bond prices and squeezes the fund’s returns even with the currency hedge intact.
• Brazil–US interest-rate gap (the “carry”). The fund’s excess return above US credit alone depends on Brazil’s Selic rate staying high relative to US rates. If the gap narrows, the carry shrinks.
• Currency hedge cost. The hedge is not free — its cost rises when Brazilian rates rise. A sharp Selic hike could eat into net returns even as the gross carry improves.
• Benchmark tracking. Since inception the fund has trailed its index by 0.48 percentage points (our calculation). Persistent tracking error beyond the 0.30% fee would be a flag for passive investors who expect near-exact replication.

This is news, not investment advice.