Sharing our convictions

A trio of rating upgrades in European financials late last week has highlighted the strength of fundamentals in the sector. With the proportion of the subordinated financials that is rated investment grade continuing to grow, the wider pool of investors targeting these bonds could help to dampen volatility in the asset class.

Job creation, or rather a lack of it, has been in the spotlight recently as weak non-farm payrolls data in the US has driven a rally in government bonds and strengthened market projections for rate cuts.

Accelerating rating upgrades and renewed inflows into the asset class are likely to support EM spreads relative to their historical levels and other credit markets. Absent a major global shock, we expect EM bonds to remain resilient, offering stable carry even if capital appreciation becomes more difficult to capture.

With strong fundamentals, broad region and sector diversification, and a track record of weathering financial crises, emerging-market investment-grade (EM IG) bonds have evolved into a high-quality asset class, in our view. Yet, despite a robust risk-return profile, EM IG remains significantly underrepresented in actively managed, dedicated strategies.

Strong performance of EM local currency bonds has been driven by a bearish US dollar and fundamental factors supporting sustainable appreciation toward a stronger equilibrium.

The next few days could be pivotal to any concerns around the independence of the US Federal Reserve (Fed).

The European Central Bank (ECB) is reportedly accelerating its work on a digital version of the euro (the dEuro), having seen the US pass the Genius Act in July which paved the way for broader adoption of so-called stablecoins.

Markets inevitably shift, but global diversification endures. A thoughtfully constructed portfolio that combines leading US and non-US companies can offer meaningful advantages to long-term investors: enhanced performance potential, compelling valuations and access to growth industries where the US lags.

We have long harked on about the strength of the technical in credit, with solid fundamentals, resilient inflows and defensive positioning continuing to provide a tailwind for the market.

The $5.2tr asset-backed finance (ABF) market represents a growing opportunity to gain exposure to high quality loan pools and the returns they can generate.

Our research shows sectors deliver both top and bottom returns, while factors—especially Quality, Dividend Strength and Minimum Volatility—offer more predictable, diversified, and stable performance. We use sectors tactically based on business cycle signals, but our strategic focus remains firmly on factors for consistent, risk-adjusted returns. Discover the Hybrid Investment team’s view on Minimum Volatility equity strategies over the business cycle at the Quantitative Investment Boutique.

On Thursday, markets received preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) figures for August. As a reminder, PMIs are timely indicators of trends in manufacturing and services, with a number above 50 signalling an expansion and below 50 a contraction.

Restricted Tier 1 (RT1) investors have been woken from an otherwise sleepy summer after Allianz Group, one of the largest insurers and asset managers globally, brought a $1.25bn deal to the market on Tuesday.

Quitting is often misunderstood as weakness. But in investing, selling is the overlooked half of decision-making, hindered by biases like sunk cost fallacy or FOMO. In our view, knowing when to walk away is essential for preserving capital and seizing better opportunities.

Urbaser, a Spanish waste management specialist, came to the market last week with a controversial new deal. The company launched a €1bn payment-in-kind (PIK) toggle note to fund a dividend to its owner Platinum Equity, just six weeks after it issued a new €2.3bn debt package to refinance its existing debt and fund a further €1bn of dividends.

The Bank of England (BoE) delivered a widely expected 25bp cut on Thursday, taking interest rates to a two-year low of 4%. But the real story was in the balance of views on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which for the first time in its 28-year history had to conduct two rounds of voting and has forced markets to reassess the path of future rate cuts.

In describing how markets have been pricing risk in recent months, the word “complacent” has been uttered on multiple occasions. If that was your view, then Friday’s sharp risk-off move could be seen as a wake-up call, or at least evidence that investors are keenly watching for any change in the more benign macro story that has dominated recently.

Over the last week or so, the major UK banks have been reporting results for the first six months of 2025. Considering the noise around the UK’s fiscal situation and some softening in broader macroeconomic conditions, these releases offer another valuable data point for analysing the health of the UK economy and the operating environment of UK banks.

The European corporate hybrid market has been established for some time. It is dominated by investment grade issuers seeking to raise capital with limited impact on their leverage ratios, thanks to rating agency treatment that classifies hybrids as 50% equity and 50% debt from a balance sheet perspective.

The US and the European Union (EU) have reached a trade agreement, averting a worst-case scenario of a more damaging trade war.

In this short video, you learn more about the sources, into which our experts in fixed income investments tap under different market conditions with the aim of generating alpha, the core of active management.

A French CMBS transaction named River Green – a deal we exited a few years ago at a price in the mid-90s as part of a broader review of our CMBS exposure – has come under renewed scrutiny after a new valuation triggered expectations of principal losses on what were originally AAA rated bonds. Here’s how we got here.

The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) issued their monthly summary of the UK government’s income and expenses as well as the impact these have on the budget deficit and fiscal debt levels.

The pace of progress in AI is extraordinary. But will it displace popular music or broader media in the near term? We continue to monitor developments closely, particularly in hybrid human-AI creative workflows, evolving rights frameworks, and new monetization models that could shift competitive dynamics over time.