Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – In this special report on “Alternative Fixed Income,” we cover the much-discussed topic of inflation and how different traditional, alternative, and niche strategies are positioned for the low-return – yet inflationary and rising rate – environment. We also scrutinize how institutional investors have been navigating this increasingly challenging environment.
Sustainability has become a key issue, area of development and focus in financial markets and the fixed-income universe. ATP’s Head of Liquid Markets, Christian Kjær, tells us more about “ATP’s Green Bond Push,” which is seeing the Danish pension fund’s US high-yield credit bond exposure replaced with investments in European green corporate bonds. In the difficult low-yield environment that has become more challenging with the prospect of higher inflation and rates, Peter Ragnarsson, Head of Alternative Investments at PRI Pensionsgaranti, explains why alternative fixed income is “En Route to the Mainstream” in the Swedish insurance company’s portfolio. The portfolio managers of Sissener Corporate Bond Fund, Philippe Sissener and Mikael Gjerding, describe the suitability of their “Tight Ship of Publicly Issued Short Duration” for the current inflationary and rising rate environment.
The credit team at Bergen-based Borea Asset Management, including Peer Hastrup Thorsheim, CIO Willy Helleland, and portfolio manager Magnus Vie Sundal, prove “Yield Pickup Persists in Norwegian Credit Markets.” With high-yielding opportunities in public fixedincome markets being few and far between, Kreditfonden founder Fredrik Sjöstrand introduces “Kreditfonden’s Pockets of Yield,” a product range that features two direct lending funds, a factoring fund, and a closed-ended high-yield bond fund.
Further, founded by Dag Wardaeus and Carl- Johan Nordquist, Swedish fully-digital mortgage lender Hypoteket provides mortgages financed by institutional investors through mortgage funds within the AIF framework. Hypoteket’s Head of Funding and Sustainability, Johan Hasselblad, seeks to answer the question of whether Hypoteket’s Mortgage Funds can serve as “Alternative Fixed Income, or Just the New Traditional?” Jonas Mårtenson of Ress Capital is convinced their strategy investing is US life settlements creates a “Positively Skewed Fixed-Income Alternative,” while Michael Falken and William Wilson, joined by fellow Brummer alumni Gunnar Wiljander, have launched Tidan, a new hedge fund which employs a capital structure relative value strategy focusing on the “The Siloing Effect of Equity and Credit Markets.”
Stuck between low yields, the prospect of higher rates due to rising inflation and the need to include fixed income in their portfolios, Kari Vatanen, the chief investment officer of Finnish pensions insurer Veritas, says the “Next Stop: Complexity and Illiquidity” for institutional investors.
Svein Aage Aanes, Head of Fixed Income at DNB Asset Management, summarizes the evolution of the Nordic high-yield market and describes “DNB’s Journey in Nordic High-Yield.” Martin Hagelskjær Nielsen, the Head of Danish Fixed Income and Euro Covered Bonds at Nordea, explains “The Nordea Hunt for Relative Value Opportunities” with its two relative-value hedge funds: Nordic Rates Opportunity Fund II and European Rates Opportunity Fund.
Hamlin Lovell’s editorial “Wide Dispersion of Returns Opens up Mean Reversion Opportunities in FI Arb” gives us a good summary of recent developments in the “fixed income arbitrage” corner. Lastly, Russell Investments’ latest survey reveals “Fixed Income Managers Expect Inflation to Hasten Interest-Rate Hikes,” among other findings.
We do hope you find the time and opportunity for some interesting reads here in this pre-holiday season. You can access the report HERE.
Title Pic by: SergeyIT—shutterstock.com
