An actively managed fixed-income fund with a focus on corporate bonds issued in the Nordic countries. With its broad mandate, the fund has a bigger toolbox to better adapt to different market scenarios. The fund invests across the entire fixed-income capital spectrum.
The fund invests mainly in Nordic fixed income securities. The fund applies negative screening for sustainability criteria and consequently avoids long positions in companies that produce tobacco, alcohol, commercial games for money, pornography, coal, or weapons. Derivatives are used in management to protect fund capital and increase return opportunities. The fund is expected, over time, to have low co-variation with the equity market and may thus both raise the expected return and lower the expected risk in a traditional equity and fixed income fund portfolio. In structuring the portfolio, strong emphasis is placed on spreading risk and preventing any individual holding or sector from having excessive influence on fund performance. Investments are based on fundamental analysis of individual companies and traditional macroanalysis. The risk level will vary depending on Catella’s assessment of prevailing market conditions. The fund’s target is to generate annual return of 3-5 % with a standard deviation of 5% over time.
We still believe that the world will continue to grow and that inflation will be somewhat higher during the year, leading to less expansionary monetary policy by central banks.
Stefan Wigstrand, 2018-05-31
Fund manager comment
The net asset value of the fund fell 0.39% in May. The fund was positioned this month for rising interest rates and a steeper yield curve. We still believe that the world will continue to grow and that inflation will be somewhat higher during the year, leading to less expansionary monetary policy by central banks. The political unrest in Italy had an impact on the market mainly through sharply falling government interest rates, which negatively affected the development of the fund. The current return on corporate bonds compensated for the slightly wider credit spreads, and overall corporate bonds contributed positively to the fund's return.
Our belief is that the environment of stable growth and reduced deflationary risks will continue during 2018. We predict that the world’s central banks will move in pace with continued interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve. We also expect less expansionary monetary policy in Europe. The so-called "portfolio channel" with rising asset prices has supported economic growth ever since the last recession in 2009. There are two major questions that may be answered in 2018: will low inflation persist despite lower unemployment, and how will asset markets react to less expansionary monetary policy?
Fund facts
Risk Indicator
The risk and reward indicator illustrates the link between risk and potential returns from an investment in the Fund. The indicator is based on how the fund's value has changed over the past five years or the highest permitted risk for the fund. Category 1 does not imply that the fund is risk-free. Over time, the Fund’s risk indicator may change both upwards and downwards. This is because the indicator is based on historical data for the Fund’s model portfolio, which is not a guarantee of future risk/reward.
Fact
Catella Credit Opportunity is designed to meet a challenging interest-rate environment and to be better able to adapt to different market scenarios.
The fund is an absolute return special fund and has a focus on fixed-income securities. The fund has a broad investment mandate, which allows investments across the entire fixed-income capital spectrum. At least 50 percent of the fund's assets are invested in Nordic holdings.
The fund invests predominantly in owned bonds, convertible debentures, preference shares and cash management. The fund's independence of any benchmark allows for business-based and flexible decisions. The fund uses derivatives both opportunistically and to protect its capital against the two primary risks, interest-rate risk and credit risk.
The fund is a further development of the successful and award-winning Catella Nordic Corporate Bond Flex fund. The new fund has an even broader management mandate and takes more risk in its investments, but also has greater potential to make use of derivatives for protection.
