Risk Reducing

When market volatility is high and risk assets are making waves, many investors want an anchor in their portfolio that will mitigate risk assets’ poor returns. That “anchor to windward” is core fixed income. Other investors may desire equity returns but with better downside protection. For them, a low-volatility equity strategy may be a suitable risk reducer. Still other investors cannot afford to risk almost any principal; such investors require short-term, very high-quality bond strategies. From the stability investor to the low-vol equity investor, institutional clients can find the right solution among our risk-reducing strategies.

Bonds

Global Plus

 

Global-Plus Fixed Income is an actively managed global bond strategy with a research-driven investment approach. This service invests in the sovereign debt of developed countries, investment-grade credits, agencies, mortgages, commercial mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities, and takes opportunistic positions in high-yield and emerging-market debt, where permitted by client guidelines. Our goal is to outperform the Barclays Global Aggregate Index by 100–200 basis points annually, before fees, over full market cycles.

Global Fixed Income

 

Global Fixed Income is an actively managed global bond strategy with a research-driven investment approach. This service invests primarily in the sovereign debt of developed nations and takes opportunistic positions in investment-grade credits, agencies, mortgages, commercial mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities. Our goal is to outperform the Citigroup WGBI or other global government bond indices by 50–100 basis points annually, before fees, over full market cycles.

US Investment-Grade Credit

 

US Investment-Grade Corporates is an actively managed fixed-income strategy with a research-driven investment approach. Our goal is to outperform the investment-grade corporate market as represented by the Barclays US Corporate Index or a similar benchmark by 50 to 100 basis points annually, before fees, over full market cycles.

Unconstrained Bond

 

Our Unconstrained Bond investment team takes a global multi-sector, risk-focused, long-short approach to investing. The philosophy underlying our team’s approach evolved from research that suggested that enhanced techniques such as an absolute-return orientation, permanent tail-risk hedging, and having the flexibility to go short, could provide potential diversification benefits. This philosophy is grounded in two beliefs: (1) fixed income sectors pay a risk premium over time, and (2) the benefits provided from diversified exposure to assets that have negative-low correlations to one another.

TIPS Plus

 

TIPS Plus Strategy is a service optimized to and benchmarked against the Barclays Capital 1-10 Year TIPS Index, which has a lower duration profile than the Barclays TIPS Index. Our Strategy is designed to offer inflation protection while generating long-term real returns in line with an intermediate duration multi-sector index.

US Short Duration

 

US Short Duration seeks to achieve a total-return advantage over its three-month LIBOR benchmark while providing the safety of high-quality, liquid fixed-income securities. Our goal is to outperform the benchmark by 50 to 75 basis points annually, before fees, over full market cycles. This service generally has a low correlation with other fixed-income strategies.

Global Short Duration

 

Global Short Duration is a low-duration, high-quality, core fixed-income strategy. The strategy seeks to achieve high total investment return by investing in a global portfolio of investment-grade fixed-income securities denominated in various currencies, while maintaining an average duration of five years or less. At least 70% of non–US dollar positions will be hedged into US dollars in an effort to minimize the risks of currency fluctuations. This strategy is available via separate accounts or as a Luxembourg-domiciled, UCITS-compliant fund designed for non-US investors.

Credit Long/Short

 

Our Credit Long/Short investment team has experience seeking investments that provide protection against rising rates and exhibit a low correlation to traditional asset classes. The philosophy underlying our team’s approach is that long/short strategies can offer protection during down markets and strong relative returns in rising rate environments. Our team uses a combination of quantitative and fundamental research to identify market inefficiencies. With a long/short credit approach that emphasizes four key types of trading strategies, our team seeks to minimize beta exposure and to isolate alpha, aiming to generate consistent alpha, regardless of our team’s position in the credit cycle.

Stocks

Global Low-Volatility Equities

 

Global Low-Volatility Equities seek to achieve long-term capital growth. In seeking to achieve the Portfolio’s objective, the Investment Manager identifies equity securities that it believes have fundamentally lower volatility and less downside risks in the future. The Investment Manager uses its proprietary risk and return models as well as its judgment and experience in managing investment portfolios to construct a portfolio that seeks to minimize volatility while maximizing quality exposure. The Portfolio will predominantly invest in equity securities of companies in developed markets; however, the Portfolio is not restricted from purchasing equity securities in any country, including emerging markets.

US Equity Income

 

US Equity Income seeks to generate current income and capital appreciation through investment in a portfolio of dividend-paying companies. Using the firm’s disciplined value process, the portfolio managers seek to identify companies with attractive valuations and a long-term ability to support or grow their dividend payments. Based on a thorough cash flow analysis, the portfolio may invest in non-dividend paying companies that our research suggests have the capability to return cash to shareholders through stock repurchases or the initiation of dividend payments.

Emerging Markets Strategic Core Equity

 

Emerging Markets Strategic Core is an active equity strategy that seeks to achieve balanced exposure across quality, stability and reasonable price. Benchmark insensitive, high active share. Integrated quantitative and fundamental research. Premium driven by stock selection.

European Flexible Equity

 

Our European Flexible Equity investment team focuses on the following three components: 1) sector and security selection; 2) beta hedging that flexibly adjusts net long exposures to individual European countries and sectors; and, 3) positive net long exposure. Our investment team employs a combination of top-down and bottom-up techniques, and it draws on our fundamental and quantitative research capabilities as well as our macro-economic insights.

Long/Short Equity

 

Our Long/Short Equity investment team has extensive experience going long stocks they view positively and shorting stocks they view unfavorably. Our team focuses primarily on large- and mid-cap US stocks, although it may opportunistically invest in non-US issuers and smaller-cap companies. The investment team leverages intensive fundamental analysis and macroeconomic insights to identify potential long and short-sale opportunities. Key to our team’s process is having the flexibility to adjust exposures dynamically based on evolving market opportunities, unconstrained by style or sector.