Lenneke Arts

A fortnight ago, Dutch private bank InsingerGilissen sold a pack of high yield bonds to increase its holdings in investment grade bonds. The bank does not rule out that it will do so again in early 2023. “If you expect risks, there will be a storm in the high yield segment as well,” chief investment officer Gerwin Wijnia told InvestmentOfficer.nl.

Even clients with the most defensive risk profile stand to lose more than -12 per cent at Dutch asset managers this year. “Defensive clients have 2008 experience in their portfolios. And according to many, we are not even at the exit yet.”

The private loan market is being revalued. Risks are becoming more expensive and coupons are shooting up. Positive for pension funds and insurers that stay put until maturity, but investors in this category also sometimes have distressed moments. 

While defensive equity strategies have provided protection during previous downturns, this year’s results have been disappointing in some cases. In particular, strategies with a quality growth style have done considerably worse than the market. 

Providers have been storming into the rapid growth of private equity as an asset class, reflected in the national and international growth of feeder funds and fund of funds. However, these product groups are associated with high pricing and common misalignments, according to Koen van Mierlo and Emile van Thiel of Bluemetric, in a recent interview with Investment Officer NL. 

More lenient EU regulations are about to make it possible for providers to offer private investment funds to private investors. Private products such as semi-liquid funds and European Long Term Investment Funds, or Eltifs - which can be marketed also to retail clients under a European passport, often via Luxembourg - will gradually change the private equity landscape. “The split that the market currently finds itself in will then be resolved,” said Wim Nagler, head of institutional clients at Schroders.

In public markets, a well-known proposition is that at the moment that everyone steps in, the red flag should be raised: probably the best time is over. Investors in private markets, where effects are generally felt later, do not worry so much. Besides, there is not much you can do as a private investor.

Alarmed efforts by European green and microfinance fund providers, led by Dutch firms Triodos and ASN, to get the European Commission to rectify what looks like an omission in its proposed investment fund legislation risk being dismissed as “small beer” and may be overlooked. “We have to keep making noise.”

Product launches for Article 8 and 9 funds, sustainability funds and ESG funds are all over the place, but there is no insight into which fund houses are actually putting a lot of assets to work sustainably. Enquiries with Morningstar show that it is certainly not (only) the usual names that have the most assets in sustainable funds.

In the search for yield, some high yield investors are shifting to a broader mandate to invest in “below B”, the riskiest segment of high yield. PGIM recently repositioned two high yield funds to invest in CCC and CC bonds.