After reading about where I’m seeing future problems for debt investments, it would be possible to think I’m pessimistic about the investment outlook for my clients. That couldn’t be further from the truth. On a global basis credit seems quite stretched, yet for an Australian manager opportunities in non-vanilla credit... Show More
One of the unlikely outcomes from what we now might call the “franking credits scare” that dominated the election campaign has been the realisation among many investors that they need to look further for income.Many investors have yet to fully explore bonds, especially high-yield bonds. A high-yield bond is one... Show More
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a chart is worth a million of them. So we asked the experts to isolate the charts you need to be watching right now. Read on to see 5 charts that Australia’s investment experts never take off their screens, and to... Show More
Notwithstanding the franking debate last year, ASX hybrids were the second-best performing asset-class behind long-dated government bonds in 2018 with an attractive 4.9% gross return, smashing the AusBond Floating-Rate Note Index (2.3%) and the Aussie equities market including dividends (down -3.5%). Show More
At the end of 2018 the US Federal Reserve backflipped on their plans to continue hiking interest rates. Why? Well to put it simply, it seems that they underestimated the effects that tightening monetary policy would have across asset markets. Show More
In 2007 Howard Marks released a memo titled The Race to the Bottom, the note shared his view that investment markets are like an auction house, the item that’s up for sale goes to the person willing to pay the most. When buyers are scarce the items for sale go... Show More
It has been a very active half year in the Australian Alternative Finance (AltFi) market. Since my previous wire on the key themes expected for 2018, the market has continued to grow and evolve. The themes were: 1) Continued Growth, 2) Consolidation of Lenders; and 3) Transparency via Listings. Show More
Once upon a time, the high yield bond market was for speculative companies and investors. Today, the market is where Virgin, Netflix and Hertz raise capital from institutional investors. In this short interview, Vivek Bommi from Neuberger Berman discusses how perception is still catching up with reality in this fast... Show More
The US high yield market has grown larger and riskier since the financial crisis. Issuers of debt have the whip hand as buyers compete to gain an allocation in the face of surging demand from CLOs and retail funds. Companies are emboldened to seek ever weaker covenants and are taking... Show More
You know it’s late in the credit cycle when credit investors give away their key protections in return for just a little more yield. This acquiesce comes in different forms, including higher levels of leverage, longer dated debt, subordinated debt and weakened or eliminated covenants commonly referred to as “covenant... Show More
