FUNDVIEW-Fortis bets on corporate debt, emerging markets

AMSTERDAM, June 10 (Reuters) - The asset arm of Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis (FOR.BR) is going overweight in corporate and emerging market debt after sharply lowering its equity weightings.

"After Bear Stearns, we took our profit and went underweight (in equities)," global Chief Investment Officer of Fortis Investments William de Vijlder said.

He was referring to the rescue sale in March of Bear Stearns BSC.N to JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) after the U.S. investment bank saw its funding dry up.

Fortis Investments, which at latest count had 245 billion euros ($381 billion) in assets under management, recently merged with ABN AMRO Investments and is half-owned by China's Ping An Insurance Co Ltd (2318.HK).

Vijlder said Fortis Investments was betting that corporate bonds would deliver higher returns. Overall, Fortis Investments was underweight on stocks globally and overweight on debt.

"The challenge we will have is assessing good value at companies," Vijlder said, adding that the asset manager's analysts were delving deeper into company financials, in addition to looking at ratings, to identify corporate debt investments.

In March, Ping An deepened its ties with Fortis, announcing the purchase of half of Fortis Investments for 2.15 billion euros. That deal included the April merger of the asset management arm with ABN AMRO Investments which Fortis is getting as part of last year's 70 billion euros takeover of ABN with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Santander (SAN.MC).

In terms of regional allocation, Vijlder said that the asset manager remained pessimistic on the outlook for the U.S. economy, saying that a deep and long recession there is likely.

Fortis Investments is also bearish on Japan, mostly neutral on Europe and bullish on emerging economies, he said.

Vijlder did not disclose specific percentage allocations, but admitted that the investment manager had significantly shortened its investment timeframe from 12 months to 4 to 6 months to shift allocations better to take advantage of volatility across all market classes and regions.

Fortis Investments has teams in Brazil, India, China and Russia to seek out investment opportunities in those emerging markets, Viljder said. (Reporting by Reed Stevenson; Editing by Gerrard Raven)