medirectalk explores potential of high yield bonds in 2023

A recent medirectalk saw senior representatives from specialist fund management firm Liontrust address investors in Malta on the potential of high yield bonds. Organised regularly by MeDirect Bank, medirectalks provide a free and unique opportunity for investors to hear directly from some of Europe’s most experienced fund managers on a broad range of investment strategies and asset classes.

Liontrust’s Co-Heads of Global Fixed Income, Phil Milburn and Donald Phillips, together with Sharmin Rahman, Investment Manager within Liontrust’s Global Fixed Income team, were the guest speakers at the latest event which took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in St Julian’s.

Starting with an overview of the macroeconomic context, Milburn explained Liontrust’s views on the outlook for inflation and interest rates and how these will continue to impact the broader global economy throughout the current year.

This presentation was followed by a more detailed look at Liontrust’s own GF High Yield Bond Fund with Phillips presenting an analysis of the Fund’s performance as well as Liontrust’s current thoughts and positioning for the fund given what is currently happening within the investment sphere. Philips also discussed the outlook for the rest of 2023, highlighting why Liontrust believes there is considerable positive potential in quality high yield bonds. Rahman provided details on the holdings within the Fund and the rigorous selection process adopted by Lionstrust when choosing which bonds to invest it.  The presentations were followed by a question-and-answer session and a drinks reception during which attendees continued to discuss their investment options with representatives from both Liontrust and MeDirect.

James Beddall, Head of International Sales at Liontrust, who moderated the Q&A session, said, “2023 has, without doubt, already provided its fair share of challenges as investors continue to grapple with how the higher inflation and interest rates which we are currently experiencing will continue to impact the real economy.  Our overall outlook now is for interest rates to peak at a lower level than previously anticipated and for a mild recession in the latter part of this year. In this context, there are real opportunities to make money from the quality end of the high yield bond market over the long term, but investors need to be careful in choosing where to invest in as the risks of default by weaker companies increase.”

Liontrust was launched in 1995 and is headquartered in London with offices in Luxembourg and Edinburgh. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1999 and entered the FTSE 250 in 2020. At the end of 2022, the company had a total of €36.8 billion in assets under management, of which €441 million were managed by the Global Fixed Income Team.

Ingrid Micallef, Head – Products & Marketing at MeDirect Malta, said, “Our third medirectalk of 2023, which was also our first in person event of the year, tackled a very specific topic, that of high yield bonds. At the same time, the event gave investors the opportunity to hear first-hand from the global experts at Liontrust on how they see the global economy evolving this year. This combination of detailed information about particular investments, coupled with broader economic insight from a wide variety of sources is what makes the medirectalk series so popular. In an uncertain world, MeDirect will continue to provide high quality information and insight to empower investors to make the best financial decisions for them.”

A recording of this medirectalk, as well as of prior events are available on https://medirect.com.mt/invest/medirectalk.