White papers

How do you build the perfect portfolio? Portfolio construction is a little like gourmet cooking, where quality ingredients are combined to create a balanced meal. Portfolio Manager David Souccar reveals our view on what’s at the heart of that delicate balance between risk and return.

Discover how our Impact Investing team navigates economic shifts and political uncertainty to help drive sustainable change. In our sixth annual Impact Report, we reveal our strategies, methodologies, and results in investing in low-carbon solutions and smart infrastructure.

Over the past decade, private credit has grown from a $400bn niche industry into a $1.6tr market that competes with more traditional asset classes for significant investor allocations.

What is the intersection between geopolitics and climate change? The latest white paper by our Chief Economist Reto Cueni and Senior ESG Analyst Veronika Stolbova explores how these factors shape international relations, industrial policies, and the global power balance.

Our latest papers explore the interplay between financial acumen, sustainability, and cognitive dimensions shaping ESG recommendations.

A thorough consideration of resources, and their pricing, is a key element to a sound investment strategy. Future-proof investing requires an understanding of the world we operate in today and will inherit tomorrow. Resources, quite literally, shape that world.

The wave of alarming headlines can sometimes seem to dwarf the social challenges the world faces. But Impact investing addresses a wide array of important issues that may be a bit more difficult to grasp. The latest Impact Report for Vontobel’s Global Impact Equities strategy provides case studies to highlight the steps towards positive change.

The environmental crisis is undeniable, and the world needs an urgent plan. Investment firms have an important role to play. In the latest Impact Report for Vontobel’s Global Environmental Change strategy, the Impact Investing team assesses how its holdings have helped mitigate sustainability challenges, but also delves a bit deeper: find an overview of the sustainable-finance landscape and an in-depth examination of the regulatory environment into selected key developments.

Favored investment approaches, investor motivation, public and private markets, measuring impact, where the main opportunities and challenges lie.

Last year's bond market disappointments now seem far behind us and investors tell us they are once again bullish on fixed income.

Is it now the time to invest in emerging markets fixed income? As 2023 progresses, there are strong arguments for this asset class. We also believe risk concerns remain manageable. Waiting on the sidelines was perhaps the smartest thing to do in 2022, but may not be the best strategy next year.

In late 2022, financial markets are in the middle of a structural break. This may precipitate a regime change that will alter essential market risk-return features: low inflation, low volatility, and low correlations. This paper tells you why and how investment solutions must adapt to new conditions to continue delivering attractive investment outcomes.

The renewables industry looks set to benefit from tightening regulation in the European Union, or a recently signed US law aiming to decarbonize the US power sector. The nascent “clean energy” industry, which encompasses areas such as electric vehicles, batteries, or hydrogen produced in a sustainable manner, opens new opportunities for investors as well.

We view ESG as integral to a company’s long-term potential – much like safety when driving. If you drive without using the mirrors, it does not mean you will get to the supermarket quicker or slower the first year, but with time the chances of a costly encounter rise.

Having fallen behind other markets in the post-COVID rally due to a lack of direct central bank support, we believe European ABS is set to outperform other parts of fixed income in the coming months as supply wanes and investors look to pick up on what we think could be a compelling relative value opportunity.

Many emerging markets are more resilient to external shocks than in the past and can better withstand the pressures of a stronger US dollar. And so far, many EMs have been fairly conservative in their use of stimulus in response to Covid-19. This increases the potential for prosperous times ahead.

Residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) are an under-utilised asset class for many investors, despite boasting some of the lowest default rates across the global fixed income market and offering higher yields and greater investor protections than vanilla corporate bonds of the same rating.

For fixed income investors, it has been impossible to ignore the proliferation of press coverage about the growth of the triple-B rated corporate bond market, and a coming wave of downgrades for companies rated BBB to high yield, with these ‘fallen angels’ exposing investors to mark-to-market losses at best, and defaults at worst.