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In this update, TwentyFour Partner and Portfolio Manager Ben Hayward addresses some of the key reasons he thinks investors should consider allocating to ABS sooner rather than later.

European ABS primary markets have started 2021 at the solid pace that most market participants expected. The market saw a patchy Q4 in which activity petered out early, not helped by the dominant UK market suffering some hesitation whilst tightrope Brexit deal talks went to the wire, but also as a result of a rather more simple fatigue that appeared to have set in.

In our view the rationale for the premium is certainly weakening and, of course, we can no longer call it a ‘Brexit’ premium.

George Curtis discusses credit markets in Q4 2020 and provides his outlook for the year ahead

TwentyFour AM partner and portfolio manager Douglas Charleston discusses Q4 performance for ABS markets and provides his outlook for 2021.

TwentyFour AM partner and portfolio manager Chris Bowie looks back at investment grade credit market performance in 2020 and provides his outlook for 2021

For high yield issuers 2021 has started in a similar vein to 2020, with the technical backdrop providing an attractive environment for capital raising.

Our analysis indicates European ABS investors can carry forward little concern about nasty default surprises, and this is likely to be important when considering total returns for 2021.

At the moment CLO spreads are tightening, as they are right across credit. However, we haven’t had any CLO primary deals come to market so far in 2021, so we are operating in a bit of an informational vacuum, at which point these cross-asset class comparisons can be useful.

As we have said many times over the past few months, this cycle is likely to be remembered (among other reasons) as being exceptional for its unprecedented momentum.

After a tumultuous 2020 which nonetheless delivered strong returns in many asset classes, fixed income investors are expecting a more normalised trading environment in 2021.

The biggest mover so far this year in fixed income markets has been US Treasuries. The curve has bear steepened, with the short end remaining unchanged while longer maturities have sold off by anything between 10bp at the five-year point of the curve and just over 20bp in the 30-year.