A globally diversified corporate bond strategy, delivering income and capital growth opportunities.
The strategy’s truly global approach increases the opportunity set available versus a regionally-focused strategy. Based on research, the team seeks to identify structural and tactical themes which drive credit markets to achieve compelling risk-adjusted returns. As well as benefitting from no geographical constraints, we are free to allocate up to 20% of the strategy to high yield bonds (no lower than BB at purchase), if the macroeconomic and issuer-specific circumstances look attractive. We typically use this allowance to invest down the capital structure in high yield bonds that are issued by investment grade companies.
The strategy offers a globally diversified approach to investment grade corporate bond investing.
Themes drive over- and underweights across regions, sectors and capital structure versus the benchmark.
Invesco Fixed Income is comprised of 180+ investment professionals averaging 18 years in the industry and 12 years with Invesco.
We focus on investment grade corporate bonds, issued by companies that are highly solvent with strong balance sheets. The default risk on these sorts of securities is typically low, with defaults very rare for investment grade issuers.
Within our portfolios, we invest across a broad range of sectors and geographies. This helps ensure good diversification.
Unlike traditional corporate bond managers, we don’t just focus on market timing and security selection. Instead, we go further. We identify the big themes driving economies and use this analysis to help drive our issuer selection. These themes could include things like:
We also implement “macro overlays” to manage the overall risk of the strategy through the cycle. This involves using derivatives, which help reduce transaction costs compared to trading in and out of corporate bonds.
Our approach to ESG is rooted in a belief that evaluating ESG criteria leads to better long-term risk-adjusted returns. Our credit analysts are tasked with understanding the ESG drivers for the companies they cover and conducting ESG-based analysis along with their fundamental financial analysis.
We also work closely with Invesco’s global ESG team, which coordinates engagement activity across the firm and provides additional support, data and analysis.
Discover our Global Fixed Income Strategy Monthly Report, we offer an outlook for interest rates and currencies and look at which fixed income assets are favoured across a range of market environments.
As economies show resilience, selectivity and care remain critical for bond investors figuring out where to take duration risk and how to think about returns.
While both main replication methods have their own merits, a swap-based approach could offer an advantage over physical counterparts in certain situations. Find out more.
Lyndon Man and Luke Greenwood have led the management of the strategy since 2013, with Matthew Henly joining in 2021. Lyndon and Luke have a combined 50+ years of industry experience and have navigated a broad range of economic cycles. They draw on the resources of Invesco’s global fixed income platform. The platform is made up of over 180 investment professionals, averaging 18 years of industry experience and 12 years with Invesco.
I believe our thematic approach to investing will be key to delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns going forward.
The term “investment grade credit” is used to describe corporate bonds that have been issued by high quality companies. The three main rating agencies use slightly different definitions. Moody’s defines investment grade securities as having a rating of Baa3 or higher. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch define it as BBB- or higher.
Investment grade corporate bonds can play an important role as income generators in investor portfolios. This made them popular with investors in the years following the global financial crisis when the world lived through a sustained period of low yields, or even negative yields on government debt.
They can also be good diversifiers. They represent a large strategy of the global investment universe, which means they allow investors to gain exposure to a broad range of economic sectors and geographies. Furthermore, they typically exhibit significantly lower price volatility than equities.
When the economy takes a downturn, the risk that companies will be unable to meet their financial obligations increases. However, it is worth noting that defaults have historically been very low for IG credit. Even between 2008 and 2009, the default rate peaked at only 0.3-0.4% of the universe. The threat of credit downgrades is more common, but can be mitigated with thorough credit analysis.
When the economy takes a downturn, high quality fixed income assets (government bonds and investment grade credit) tend to outperform more volatile/riskier parts of the market. This is partly because, when markets throw up challenges, many investors prefer relatively “safer” assets, which are able to better navigate periods of slowing growth. IG credit investors can benefit from these moves.
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