Bonds can be complex at the best of times. Yields, coupons, duration, quality - these are all elements that need to be considered.
Perhaps more importantly, however, you need to marry the prevalent market conditions, to the characteristics of the instrument you are investing in.
That's what Teiki Benveniste does for the Ares Global Credit Income Fund, choosing between fixed and floating, homegrown and global, short and long duration, and varying degrees of quality.
In this Expert Insights, Benveniste breaks down the credit market along the dimensions discussed above, and explains how and where he is seeing value.
Note: This interview was filmed on Wednesday 9 August 2023.
Edited transcript
Do you prefer fixed or floating rate bonds in the current environment?
Can I say both?
I think, in this environment, both fixed and floating credits have attractive characteristics. They do different things in your portfolio.
We tend to have a bias towards more floating, at the moment. Floating-rate loans have high levels of current yield, are shorter-dated in nature, and so they are less volatile.
We like structured credit as well. Investment-grade structured credit is an interesting space, where we can get excess spread and excess yield over similarly-rated corporate bonds, and in a floating rate format. So we really like that space as well, for that high level of current income generation. So that allows you to keep duration down and have high levels of current yield.
In a fixed rate market, what we like is heavily-discounted corporate bonds that are shorter duration. So we're not going out to 10 years on things like that. We're keeping it in the shorter part of the curve, but they do have deeply discounted prices in the 90s.
So high-yield bonds, single-Bs, are trading at 90 cents on the dollar. If you do your credit selection right, and that credit doesn't default and goes to maturity, you have a pull to par.
So it gets back to a hundred percent of its face value, and gets repaid there. So there's a lot of convexity there and a lot of opportunity. Less current yield and more a play on capital appreciation.
Global credit or the homegrown alternative?
Those markets are complementary. They do different things in people's portfolio. At Ares, we can play across both, across our platform. But for the Ares Global Credit Income Fund, what we were thinking about is that, in Australia, when you look at the local market, you probably have a smaller market. Liquidity in the types of credit instruments that we trade in is not as much as what we can get in the US. Diversification is not as much as what we can get in the US and Europe.
And therefore, we are trying to bring a $6 trillion global opportunity to the Australian market that allows investors to get the benefit of the Australian market environment, which tends to be more supportive of secured lenders, which tends to be in a country that when you compare to other OECD countries that has good growth potential but then doesn't have those other things like diversification, liquidity, and the breadth of the opportunity that you have in global markets.
What is the most attractive part of the market from a relative value perspective?
When we look at our different markets - i.e., corporate loans, floating rates, corporate bonds, and our fixed rate, and then alternative credit - at the moment we do really like the floating rate part that's higher-yielding.
We also find very interesting pockets of relative value. If you look at alternative credit, we're going to favour investment grade alternative credit instruments that are floating rate over similarly-rated corporate bonds. Because on some of them, you can get an extra 300 basis points of current yield so that's pretty significant.
If I take just one example in the market right now, you've got collateralised loan obligations, rated triple-B. So they are not CDOs or like 2008 CDOs, the ones that blew up. They are a very different instrument.
They are trading right now at almost 10% current yield because of a technicality, not a concern on fundamentals. That's for a triple B credit risk. We find this incredibly attractive in our portfolios, and so we've been investing in that part of the market.
Then when you look at the fixed rate part of the equation, so corporate bonds that are fixed rate, we really like those high-yield, single-Bs that are trading at 90 cents on the dollar because of the convexity and the optionality that we have, and the potential capital gains that can come from it.
How are you seeing the opportunity in discounted fixed-rate instruments?
So when we look at our markets, I think we really focus on the US high-yield corporate bond markets and European high-yield corporate bond markets. And in the US, the average price is around 90 cents on the dollar. So if you select the right corporate bonds, that they don't default, they go to maturity or they get taken out earlier because they get refinanced, or there is an acquisition, you get par back. Buy them at 90, you get par back. That's the natural pull to par basically for those bonds. And we feel, in the portfolios we manage, they are a great addition to add that optionality and potential gain in price.
On a current yield basis, they're not as attractive as the loans. So they do something different in your portfolio, but they are great to have as an accent in general, in our multi-asset credit portfolios.
Consistent income throughout market cycles
To learn more about how Ares Australia Management navigates inefficiencies in the market to generate attractive, income producing portfolios please visit our website.
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My passion is equity research, portfolio construction, and investment education. There are some powerful processes that can help all investors identify great opportunities and outperform the market, and I want to bring them to life and share them...
My passion is equity research, portfolio construction, and investment education. There are some powerful processes that can help all investors identify great opportunities and outperform the market, and I want to bring them to life and share them...