Investment Grade

Chris Bowie at TwentyFour Asset Management describes the third quarter of 2024 as a significant turning point in fixed income markets, marked by the Federal Reserve (Fed) cutting interest rates by 50 basis points (bps) for the first time in many years. This followed an earlier 25bp cut by the Bank of England (BoE), setting the scene for further rate cuts over the coming years.

On the latest Spotlight on ESG webinar, Johnathan Owen (Portfolio Management) from our investment grade team discussed social bonds in more detail and TwentyFour's approach to considering social factors in the companies that we invest in.

TwentyFour Asset Management's Chris Bowie discusses the underweight duration across all of our outcome driven strategies, how this phase is now coming to an end, and why we are beginning to increase our interest rate duration in all of our funds.

Back in April we looked in detail at the challenges and potential outcomes facing Thames Water, the debt-laden UK utility company battling to avoid government intervention. On the back of a lacklustre set of financial results and being placed into a “turnaround oversight regime” by the regulator Ofwat, Thames Water’s situation took a further turn for the worse last week.

Johnathan Owen, Portfolio Management, defines the second quarter of 2024 as another interesting period for financial markets, marked by the first rate cut from the European Central Bank (ECB) in June and President Macron's snap election announcement in France. He outlines what these meant for the Investment Grade (IG) team.

In this Back to Basics webinar, Gordon Shannon (Partner, Portfolio Management) and Johnathan Owen (Portfolio Management) from our Investment grade team provided a comprehensive understanding of the key aspects of corporate hybrids.

TwentyFour Asset Management’s Chris Bowie, takes a closer look at how he is thinking about duration within fixed income portfolios and shows how following conventional wisdom on duration might prove costly for some investors this year.

On this webinar, Gordon Shannon (Partner, Portfolio Management) provided an introduction to our new sustainable, global investment grade fund Sustainable Global Corporate Bond Fund, in light of its upcoming launch.

The term ‘fossil fuel financing’ refers to the provision of capital (including loans, investments, and other forms of capital) to companies involved in the exploration, extraction and production of coal, oil and natural gas.

Following the aggressive rates rally at the end of 2023, Q1 saw notable gains, with inflation surpassing expectations. Johnathan Owen, Portfolio Management, highlights a more promising inflation outlook and its implications for the Investment Grade team. 

After a tumultuous year for fixed income, government bond markets were finally delivering a story of falling inflation in Q4 2023. In our Investment Grade quarterly update, Gordon Shannon reflects on Q4, and in particular the month of December which proved to be one of the strongest months of the year, as hopes of multiple rate cuts in 2024 were accelerated.

After a horrible year for financial markets in 2022, the macro-outlook for 2023 had a lot of consensus views, with most predicting a much better year ahead, helped by supportive rate cuts from central banks and positive returns from both government bonds and credit.