Interest in ESG strategies has grown rapidly in recent years as investors have looked for ways to ensure their investments can have a positive societal impact. While fixed income ESG investing has traditionally lagged behind the equity market, demand has increased recently as investors have recognised the importance bond markets can also have in helping to promote sustainability and how they can influence a company’s overall cost of capital.

In this virtual session, Chris Bowie (Partner & Portfolio Manager) will introduce our sustainable, short duration credit fund; ‘Vontobel Fund - TwentyFour Sustainable Short Term Bond Income’. Launched in January 2020 and now GBP 80m in size, the Fund is designed for investors looking for low volatility income with a focus on sustainability. Chris will describe the quantitative work carried out ahead of launch, and give a live demo of ‘Observatory’ - our proprietary ESG scoring and engagement database. We will then look at portfolio positioning.

In this virtual session, partners & portfolio managers Ben Hayward and Aza Teeuwen will run through the fund’s performance and positioning, as well as yield opportunities they are seeing in the pan-European ABS market.

Rob Ford and Douglas Charleston, partners and portfolio managers for UK Mortgages Ltd, will provide an overview of the recent successful securitisation of the Keystone Finance mortgage pool, followed by an update on the rest of the portfolio.