
Strategy – Thematic Approach

The strategy is actively managed and focuses on delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns through the implementation of strategic investment themes. Portfolio managers have the output of the IFI platform at their disposal in order to help them identify the most appropriate investment themes. These themes are designed to isolate relative value opportunities within corporate bond markets globally through recognising what are believed to be the key drivers of credit markets going forward. Themes are populated using security selection in order to best represent the view and capture the highest risk-adjusted returns within the guidelines of the Strategy.
Predominantly the investment themes drive positioning across the following thematic risk factors versus the benchmark:
- Regions
- Sectors
- Currency of the bonds
- Credit Curve Term Structure
- Capital structure
The themes are long term in nature, and whilst herding behavior in markets can result in bouts of volatility during periods of uncertainty, often these have little to no influence on our long-term views. The team state they must not allow short-term uncertainty to cloud their long-term judgement unless there is a fundamental change to their view.