FIXED INCOME
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Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. The value of investments and the income from them is not guaranteed and may go down as well as up and investors may not get back the amount originally invested. The views expressed are the contributor’s own and do not constitute investment advice. For more information on a fund or the risks of investing, please refer to the fund's factsheet, Prospectus or Key Investor Information Document (KIID), available via the relevant Fund Information page on www.rlam.co.uk. All information is correct at September 2020 unless otherwise stated. Issued September 2020 by Royal London Asset Management Limited, Firm Reference Number: 141665, registered in England and Wales number 2244297; Royal London Unit Trust Managers Limited, Firm Registration Number: 144037, registered in England and Wales number 2372439; RLUM Limited, Firm Registration Number: 144032, registered in England and Wales number 2369965. All of these companies are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Royal London Asset Management Bond Funds Plc, an umbrella company with segregated liability between sub-funds, authorised and regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, registered in Ireland number 364259. Registered office: 70 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland. All of these companies are subsidiaries of The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited, registered in England and Wales number 99064. Registered Office: 55 Gracechurch Street, London EC3V 0RL. The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited is on the Financial Services Register, registration number 117672. Registered in England and Wales number 99064. Telephone calls may be recorded. For more information please see our Privacy Notice at www.rlam.co.uk. AL RLAM P 0022
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t’s been a hugely challenging year for fixed income investors – unprecedented business and economic disruption, falling interest rates, rising credit risks – with a fragile recovery evolving towards 2021 and subsequent years. The relative market
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Exploring new realities
“Covid-19 is a great example of why we spread risks over a range of strategies because you can't see events like this coming”
calm in recent months has an uncanny quality.
In this Spotlight, one of the UK’s more experienced fixed income investors, Royal London Asset Management’s Jonathan Platt, offers his views on strategies that might help manage left-field risks and recovery paths that cannot be reliably forecast.
RLAM has a distinctive credit philosophy so we’ve also asked Martin Foden, Head of Credit Research, to spell out how that thinking might help if recovery turns out to be a roller coaster ride.
Can fixed income find its way?
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For Professional Clients only
t’s been a hugely challenging year for fixed income investors – unprecedented business and economic disruption, falling interest rates, rising credit risks – with a
fragile recovery evolving towards 2021 and subsequent years. The relative market calm in recent months has an uncanny quality.
nvestment markets, turned upside down by Covid-19 in March this year, are being helped back towards pre-crisis levels by government support and monetary easing. But with debt rocketing, GDP damaged, and business models threatened, are we
entering a fragile, looking-glass world?
That’s an urgent question for fixed income investors hoping to preserve capital while also earning returns in an ‘even lower for even longer’ environment. Jonathan Platt, RLAM’s Head of Fixed Income, says the course of the pandemic and the investment implications of alternative macroeconomic scenarios cannot be truly forecast – there are too many variables. But amid market distortions, could fixed income strategies still find the right balance of risk and return?
“This is a seismic change in the level of government debt, equivalent to wartime levels,” he says, “with the flipside that the interest charge on governments is remarkably low.” One key reason is that the clearing price is being artificially set by government agencies. “We’re heading for a situation where the Bank of England will own 50% of the state's stock of debt,” he says.
Eery earthquake
Rocky recovery?
RLAM’s Jonathan Platt on fixed income strategies for troubled times
“At the moment we’re looking at the potential implications for a V-shaped recovery, a more pessimistic scenario, and one which is a lot more pessimistic. The difficulty is understanding what each means in practice. In a sharper recovery, for example, the Bank of England may withdraw support. In the second more pessimistic scenario, perhaps inflation comes into the system because central banks carry on with support for too long – we're looking at how best to protect clients if inflation picks up. “In the third scenario, you might see much higher levels of default in both the investment grade and high yield market. But in each scenario many, many variables come into play. That’s why we try to spread risks widely, obtain protection such as covenants, and collect as much income as possible.”
Platt on scenarios
“Strong covenant protection, asset backing and portfolio diversification – we see this as relatively cheap insurance”
For professional clients only, not suitable for retail investors. The views expressed are the contributor’s own and do not constitute investment advice.
“The great unknown is at what point will investors say this has gone far enough – we're taking on debt we'll never be able to fund?” says Platt, with major knock-on effects on the ability of the state to support consumers and corporations. That day of reckoning seems to be a lot further away than people would have assumed a few years ago, he says, but remains unpredictable.
He’s not confident we will see a V-shaped recovery, though it’s one of three central scenarios RLAM considers (see box below). “Damage has been done to the real economy and businesses will take time to adjust business models – a drawn out process with real pain when government support is reduced,” he says.
Recovery realities
For now, “we're in a kind of phoney war with the real economic impact only becoming clear over time,” he says. “We also can’t assume today’s markets are anticipating a particular level or shape of recovery, because they're being significantly driven by liquidity and injections into the financial system,” as well as the perceived resilience of the banking sector relative to the last crisis.
The distortions in the macroeconomic landscape mean different things for different parts of the fixed income market. Returns from investment grade bonds will be significantly determined by what happens to government bond yields, which he thinks, “will likely stay low but trend higher over time, with very low, possibly negative, returns for a couple of years.”
Investment implications
Risk-averse investors may be happy to accept the return of capital rather than a return on capital, especially given present uncertainty. Very long-dated index-linked bonds have been performing well in the market, even though buying them can guarantee negative real returns over the lifetime of the bond, he says.
In this looking-glass world, duration may prove critical: “I think shorter duration strategies might turn out to give the best returns over and above cash – things like short duration investment grade bonds, short duration index-linked bonds, short duration high yield funds – simply because moves in the yield curve over the medium term mean that some longer-dated bonds will likely suffer,” Platt says.
But across the credit spectrum, both risks and their investment implications are difficult to forecast. That’s why he says “RLAM runs very diversified portfolios in terms of both individual security and sector,” with RLAM’s sterling credit funds embracing over 20 economic sectors, notably social housing, utilities and other critical infrastructure.
Surer strategies
Sectoral stories have diverged over the last few months, Platt says, with oil and some other commodities badly impacted alongside consumer sectors such as pubs; whereas other areas, such as pharmaceuticals and telecommunications, have been broadly unaffected.
Senior claims on tangible assets are also designed to preserve RLAM’s seniority in the capital structure if hard-pressed firms need to raise more money. Government support has delayed much of the corporate pain, but he’s not in the camp that thinks it can be dodged permanently.
Ratings rated
Postponing the default rate profile is not the same as flattening it, and Platt points out that “defaults often pick up when economies pick up and more working capital is needed to keep a business going.”
Part of RLAM’s philosophy is therefore also to maximise recoveries in the event of default where practical – for example, through those senior claims on tangible assets – rather than depending on issuer creditworthiness. RLAM has long argued that investors pay undue attention to credit ratings versus recovery rates, undervaluing credit protection in any future economic storm and allowing some high-profile industrial and consumer firms to raise unsecured money at too low a spread.
That market inefficiency might be about to surface. “Covid-19 has probably been the biggest shock to operating models for issuers that we've ever seen,” says Platt.
Shorter shelf-life
“The pub sector for example, where private equity owners have borrowed to increase returns on their equity, is probably going to have to see some element of deleveraging. On the positive side, look at Amazon: this is probably the greatest opportunity they've had to shift gear.” But that in turn may pile pressure on retailers with more traditional business models.
Platt thinks the Covid-19 shock has accelerated a megatrend: business model shelf life is shortening, driven by technology and social changes. That won’t make issuer credit analysis easier. But it complements RLAM’s philosophy of relying less on forecasting and more on carrying a robust umbrella.
What's viewed as acceptable is evolving ever faster. If you don't question each other constructively, you risk being left behind.
Jonathan Platt Head of Fixed Income
“I think shorter duration strategies might turn out to give the best returns over and above cash”
1 “Central banks can be a powerful determinant of market levels, at least for a period. I am surprised at the speed with which central bank intervention has largely ‘normalised’ credit spread valuations, with some variation across different sectors.” 2 “Don’t panic! Back in late March, we faced high yield credit spreads at 10% over government bond yields with parts of the investment grade market very illiquid – the prices you would have had to take to create liquidity would have been very painful. You need an investment philosophy to fall back on to help you make reasoned decisions.” 3 “The most important of all: Diversify and build protection into credit structures. That way, over time, you’ll also be less vulnerable to 1 and 2.”
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Platt’s corona crisis credit lessons
His best guess is that the medium-term government response will eventually combine, “an extension of quantitative easing on a global basis, higher levels of government debt, and tax rises targeted at income, but potentially also wealth, and the more resilient areas of the corporate economy.” As the banks discovered in the 2007-9 global financial crisis, government support comes with strings attached.
The great unknown is at what point will investors say this has gone far enough – we're taking on debt we'll never be able to fund?
We're in a kind of phoney war with the real economic impact only becoming clear over time
Compared to government and investment grade bonds, high yield bonds are clearly riskier but offer the chance of better returns – if the risks can be controlled. “The need for us as managers of people's assets to generate some income for them is going to be really important,” he says.
“Covid is a great example of why we spread risks over a range of strategies because you can't see events like this coming – it was essentially ‘unanalysable’ when it first struck,” he says. But diversification is only part of the risk management jigsaw.
“Our preference is also for bonds that have strong covenant protection,” he says. In the present environment, companies may ask for covenant waivers to help with urgent cash flow issues, “but that puts us in a position to negotiate with the issuer to protect our clients' interests.”
“We see this as relatively cheap insurance,” he says. “If without much price premium you can buy highly covenanted bonds, or bonds with strong asset backing, and diversify that risk in your portfolio, you are in better stead when something truly left field disrupts economies.”
Will the pub sector need deleveraging?
“Clients are looking at the performance of funds taking account of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors and other sustainable strategies over the last six months and asking: Is this hard evidence that sustainable investing is actually just better. My answer is that this is much too short a period in which to judge that. “That said, I do see a great opportunity for RLAM in fixed income ESG. We’ve invested heavily in our responsible investment team and have integrated ESG across our fixed income strategies, including those not labelled as sustainable. Assessing the governance process is crucial within our fixed income framework.
Fixed income ESG – A good war?
Jonathan Platt's view
“A lot of sustainable analytics are aimed at equity investing. Many bonds we invest in don't have that data available – so we’ve become used to doing our own work. We can show clients how we've embedded ways to identify ESG leadership and benefits to society. “With many companies now coming to debt markets much more than they come to equity markets, our influence on corporate ESG practices is becoming much greater. Utilities, for example, are very conscious of the cost of capital. Telling a company that we are considering its removal from the list of bonds eligible for our sustainable funds can now spark a useful dialogue.”
“Financial services have come through the remote working challenge remarkably well, including our well-established teams in fixed income. The ease of transition has probably taken senior leaders by surprise. “Two screens in front of me replicate the screens in 55 Gracechurch Street. What I feel I don't quite have is that social interaction and team dynamic. Teams in transition, with new people coming in, will have found it harder. “One challenge facing businesses now is how to build a longer-term hybrid model, in which some people are in the office and some work from home. How can we keep communications going?”
Platt on running remotely
Our fixed income approach
funds for all seasons
The value of investments and the income from them is not guaranteed and may go down as well as up and investors may not get back the amount originally invested. Source: RLAM
Over many successful years, Royal London’s Fixed Income Team has gained a reputation as one of the UK’s leading managers of government and corporate bonds, currently managing over £80 billion of cash and fixed income assets (30 June 2020).
Range of funds
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We believe we cover all the parts of the fixed income market that can deliver benefits to investors, from the most conservative cash funds, through government bond funds and sterling investment grade, to more volatile global high yield credit markets.
investment philosophy
We believe our patience, expertise and experience sets us apart in the fixed income sector. We believe that different approaches are more suited to different parts of the fixed income universe, but all of our strategies are underpinned by a simple philosophy of identifying and exploiting inefficiencies in those markets. Perhaps the best example of this is our Sterling Credit philosophy.
key benefits
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RLAM’s range of fixed income strategies offers exposure across the fixed income universe, with flexible and asset class specific solutions that meet a broad range of investor needs.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results
The Sterling Credit Team is one part of RLAM’s highly respected Fixed Income Team, which collectively manages credit, government bonds, high yield and cash portfolios, with expert ESG and Sustainable inputs.
Fixed Income Team
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The Fixed Income Team is a compact one, led by extremely experienced individuals with proven success through numerous market cycles. Our team of 27 investment professionals has an average level of experience of over 20 years, with a deep insight into investing across all stages of the fixed income cycle.
RL Sterling Extra Yield Bond Fund
RL Global Opportunities Bond Fund
RL Short Duration Global High Yield Bond Fund
RL Absolute Return Government Bond Fund
Unconstrained, diversified with strong income track record
Globally diversified, strong income track record
Lower volatility approach, strong income track record
Lower volatility, absolute return government bond strategy
higher inflation
lower inflation
higher growth
lower growth
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RL Short Duration Gilt Fund RL Short Duration Global Index Linked Fund RL Duration Hedged Credit Fund RL Short Duration Credit Fund RL Investment Grade Short Dated Credit Fund
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RL Corporate Bond Fund RL Sterling Credit Fund RL Ethical Bond Fund RL Global High Yield Bond Fund
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RL International Government Bond Fund RL UK Government Bond Fund
RL Index Linked Fund RL Global Index Linked Fund
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Falling real yields Rising inflation premium Falling corporate revenues
Index-linked bonds
Government Bonds
Rising interest rates Inflation premium
Short duration bonds
Rising corporate revenues Lower input costs
Credit
Rule-based index construction Weightings based on indebtedness
Benchmarks
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Constraints imposed upon the market result in mispricing of key attributes of assets
What are the inefficiencies?
Not comprehensive: focus on default, not recovery Increasing inflexibility
Ratings
Third party data not debt specific Accessible ESG tools have clear flaws
ESG
Market undervalues security Targeted analysis of structure & covenants to identify value
Security
Investors generally over-value liquidity Long-term investors can exploit heightened illiquidity premium
Liquidity
Sterling Credit Universe
Corporate bonds yield significantly more than gilts
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1. Higher income
Differentiated philosophy means our portfolios look very different to the rest of the fund universe
2. Unique approach
High exposure to security through covenants and asset backing
3. Reduced long-term volatility
Lower exposure to quasi-government bonds that we see as poor value, helps push yield higher than on main credit market indices
4. Increased yield
Proven managers and processes that have performed through good markets and bad
5. Proven track record
Highly diversified credit exposure, different to main credit indices that we see as inefficient. High active share
6. Reducing risk through diversification
Riding the recovery roller coaster
Martin Foden, Head of Credit Research, on a credit philosophy for white-knuckle times
It’s felt like a rapid series of accelerated mini-cycles. First, huge dislocation when we went into lockdown. Swathes of the economy went from 100% to zero output, obliging credit analysts to dust off cash burn analysis and consider truly accessible liquidity versus unavoidable fixed costs.
What’s it been like to lead a credit research team through Covid-19?
Credit markets tend to fixate on the more superficial and transitory characteristics of bonds: point-in-time ratings, i.e., default probability but not loss rates; position in an index; or perceived liquidity.
How does your approach differ from other credit investors?
From a fundamental point of view, we feel, without being complacent, relatively robust given our portfolio diversification and emphasis on the most secured bonds. In terms of mark-to-market, performance has been more muted. A certain large marginal buyer in the market is buying the highest profile, rated, most accessible, commoditised, unsecured corporate bonds, which is certainly skewing near term returns!
How are the portfolios performing?
Meet the Sterling Credit Team
Our Multi-Asset team, responsible for constructing and managing the portfolio day-to-day, works in close collaboration with our 19-strong Responsible Investment team. The collaboration includes carefully integrating ESG factors within our investment processes, driving improvement through engagement, and monitoring for new sustainable issues and themes.
Martin Foden Head of Credit Research
Paola Binns Senior Fund Manager
Eric Holt Head of Sterling Credit
Jonathan joined RLAM in 1985 and became Head of Fixed Income in 1992. Jonathan has managed a range of funds throughout his tenure and has overseen the development of both the fixed income process and the highly respected Fixed Income Team. Jonathan is a director of RLAM.
Martin joined RLAM in 1998. He initially joined RLAM's UK Equity Team, with both analyst and management responsibility. This experience greatly enhanced RLAM’s credit research capabilities when he joined the Fixed Income Team in 2003. Since then, he has been instrumental in developing RLAM’s analytical process.
Paola is responsible for managing corporate bond portfolios. She brings over 33 years’ experience in bond markets to RLAM, having joined in August 2007 from Credit Suisse Asset Management where she managed sterling credit assets. Paola has wide experience of managing bond assets including European corporate bonds, government bonds and emerging market debt.
Eric has extensive knowledge of investment grade and high yield corporate bonds, gained over a career of more than 40 years. He heads RLAM’s Sterling Credit Team, as well as managing the Sterling Extra Yield Bond Fund and the Ethical Bond Fund. He joined RLAM in 1999.
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BMO’s long heritage in responsible and sustainable investing
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BMO launch first retail ethical fund in Europe
BMO’s Responsible Investment Advisory Council (RIAC) established – 6 external experts
UN agrees the SDGs
BMO celebrates 200th year
3.3bn AUM in responsible funds (as at 31 Aug 2019)
BMO launch Sustainable Universal MAP range
“ESG integration largely originated in the equity market. Of a typical fixed income benchmark, possibly only 40% of those issuers will have public equity listings. So if you delegate ESG research to third parties, not only is the coverage too narrow, but it anchors you in in the highest profile issuers where, we argue, the opportunity to add value through active management is dissipated. “That’s why we’ve invested so heavily in our fixed income ESG capabilities for years and are careful how we organise the teams.
We are agnostic as to where ESG risk identification comes from, so we build a common ethos, shared philosophy and team structure that encourages collaboration between the responsible investment team, credit analysts and credit fund managers. “Critically though, once those risks have been identified, risk evaluation, pricing and mitigation takes place on the credit desk with asset specialists who understand the lending structure and are able to make better and more informed decisions.”
Has RLAM’s credit philosophy shaped its ESG approach?
Martin Foden's view
You can buy attractive bonds with protective features at higher yields than you might otherwise think likely because of the market distortion
That phase changed quite quickly because of the speed and scale of government intervention. But the analysis enabled us to pinpoint high impact sectors, e.g. aviation and leisure sectors exposed to discretionary consumer spending, high fixed costs and often high leverage, to understand potential portfolio risks and, just as critically, the opportunities for investment as markets reacted fairly indiscriminately.
It may be fine to have some high impact exposure if you have credit mitigation at the point you bought the bond – security, ideally senior secured, and strong covenants. The first crisis phase was a visceral reminder of why our focus on the sustainability of the lending position is so critical.
All that stuff commoditises the investment decision. And loses sight of what we love about this job: the idiosyncratic nature of the asset class, which repays bottom-up, fundamental analysis.
The net result of the market fixating on superficial characteristics is that we can typically source and buy credit-enhanced bonds without compromising portfolio yield in the way economic theories might lead you to expect. That means we look for security over tangible assets, strong covenants that give us control and visibility, and a robust lending structure in terms of seniority.
That philosophy manifests itself in our portfolio structure and our team structure. Depending on the fund, over half of our credit portfolios might be invested in secured positions, compared to a typical benchmark index of about 10% to 15% in secured bonds.
We also have a very experienced team that's seen many cycles, but not so large that insight is dispersed or siloed. We don’t think the value of that insight necessarily lies in forecasting what's going to happen – the precise risk trigger. It lies in understanding the specific nature of credit risk, potential impacts on lending positions and building in effective mitigants.
What practical effects does that thinking have?
In the eye of the storm. It’s calm but feels uneasy because the government will have to slowly pull away the struts, the support. High impact companies are tentatively re-emerging to test out where they can operate in terms of breakeven cash flow, but it’s early days. Bond markets, from a pure pricing point of view, are relatively peaceful – for now. But it would be naïve to think this is the end game. Whilst government intervention may have dampened and delayed the immediate impact of Covid-19, as analysts, we have to consider that the wider impacts – economic and societal – will be playing out for a long time.
That said we don't necessarily expect defaults to get up to the global financial crisis level again because of the very rapid and deep intervention of government. The fall out will likely be sector-specific: there are high impact sectors and others that are more immune. One thing we do know – fundamental credit analysis remains vital!
Where are we now?
Directly, in terms of bond pricing: relaunching the asset purchase scheme meant the Bank of England suddenly became a very large marginal buyer of billions of pounds worth of sterling corporate bonds. Very large marginal buyers who buy only debt with certain characteristics introduce huge dislocations and distortions in bond pricing.
Does government intervention introduce distortions?
For example, there are some housing association bonds that are on the list, while some are not invited to the party – on the face of it for arbitrary reasons. Bonds on the list may sometimes have tightened in credit spread terms by almost 20% more than those that aren't on the list. These are long-dated instruments. Small moves in credit spread can have a disproportionate impact on bond price and may have nothing to do with underlying fundamentals.
Not indefinitely! From an active management point of view, it can clearly be a near-term opportunity. We can favour bonds that aren't on the list and assume the same credit risk but earn a higher return for our clients. You can buy attractive bonds with protective features at higher yields than you might otherwise think likely because of the distortion.
Ultimately, however, direct purchasing of corporate bonds is, we feel, coming to an end. A large proportion of the companies benefiting already have remarkably low funding costs because the Bank is focusing on the largest, highest-profile issuers of corporate bonds. We understand the broad need that the market had for this early intervention. But the continuing distortion does not feel entirely healthy and risks turning credit into a policy tool rather than an investment market.
Are these distortions that you want to continue?
But on a long-term basis, as the true economic impact hits, as wider downgrades and defaults come through, being in the more robust, fundamentally more secure bonds, where we have enhanced control, feels like the most comfortable place to be.
Secured lending offers an early trigger for interaction with borrowers. If you were lending unsecured, companies impacted by Covid-19 would be talking to other creditors, typically banks who lend on a shorter-term basis. Those banks would secure those positions to your detriment, barring covenants to prevent that.
There's clearly no ‘Covid playbook’ for this. But what we're trying to achieve is balance between being responsible lenders during a period of unprecedented social impact and protecting our clients’ interests. We're not receptive to an issuer being opportunistic.
Are you under pressure to waive covenants due to the extraordinary nature of the crisis?
Measures should be time limited and linked to the economic impact of Covid-19. We may want to see additional equity from the sponsor; additional liquidity; a sign that dividends are being locked up. When we get to the other side, the aim is to be in the same position as before lockdown.
Our way of lending gives us the opportunity to say ‘No.’ The cruise ship industry offers a great example of how much this matters: the subordination of unsecured creditors, combined with the substantially increased cost of debt service on new money raised in a difficult period, can create a massive transfer of value from old to new investors. (1)
What are your criteria in that regard?
Contrast that with some of our senior secured lending to certain firms in the pub sector – where Covid 19 has also had a huge impact. Due to our pre-emptive control and seniority, new liquidity has had to come in at a more subordinated level to us, preserving our position in the companies’ capital structures. The benefit of this cannot be over-stated.
Covid-19 should not have been the catalyst for asset managers to take ESG risk seriously. Asset owners have been charged by regulators with having much more visibility on their asset managers and underlying portfolios. So there was huge momentum well before lockdown around demonstrating effective ESG integration.
ESG is just a label for certain types of risk, isn't it? Good credit analysis should address any risk that can impact sustainable cash flow generation. We’ve worked for years to integrate ESG risk analysis and fixed income credit analysis, due to our focus on the sustainability of our lending position. Getting this right is as critical as it has always been (see box above).
Has Covid-19 altered how you see the trend towards ESG?
We’ve worked for years to integrate ESG risk analysis and fixed income credit analysis
For professional clients only, not suitable for retail investors. The views expressed are the contributor’s own and do not constitute investment advice. Note: (1) For example, see Martin Foden, Carnival Corporation – An Unimaginable Event with Imaginable Consequences, RLAM, 2020: bit.ly/34VxOaB.
Rachid Semaoune Senior Fund Manager
Rachid joined RLAM in 2015 as a Credit Fund Manager within the Fixed Income Team. Rachid joined from UBS Asset Management where he managed investment grade credit portfolios. Previously, he was a deputy credit fund manager at Old Mutual Asset Management. Rachid began his investment career in 2001 at Gulf International Bank.
Shalin Shah Senior Fund Manager
Shalin joined the Fixed Income Team in 2008. Prior to becoming a credit Fund Manager Shalin was involved in a variety of areas including LDI (Liability Driven Investment) and risk management. Before joining RLAM, Shalin worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where he was involved in advising clients on a variety of investment solutions.
Richard Nelson Senior Fund Manager
Richard joined RLAM’s Fixed Income Team following the Co-op Asset Management (TCAM) acquisition in 2013. He has been managing government bonds since 2000 and corporate bonds since 2005.
Good credit analysis should include ESG risks that can impact sustainable cash flow generation
RLAM has worked for years to integrate ESG and credit risk analysis
