Author profile
Lu Yu
Years in the bond markets: 10
Specialist subjects: High Yield corporate bonds, corporate ESG, credit research
Likes: Playing piano, traveling, Chinese calligraphy, coffee and design
Heroes: Sun Wukong
High yield case study: McLaren – a car crash averted
Covid-19 has taken lives, dramatically reshaped the way we live and work, and challenged our view of a safe and stable world. Those of us who work in investment management, especially high yield fund managers like myself, have seen the pandemic put many businesses under severe financial stress. British high-end sports car maker McLaren was one of them. The company’s activities have been badly …
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Beware of the debt binge
A decade of low interest rates has given companies, governments and households an excellent opportunity to cheerfully load up debt – until now. As interest rates rise and are projected to continue to do so in most major economies over the next three years, higher interest costs may soon send a stark reminder that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Highly indebted companies are most at ris…
Read the articleCan ESG analysis help improve high yield returns?
Some of the worst performing bonds in the European high yield index in 2017 all had weak Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores according to MSCI. Is this is a coincidence or is it indicative of a relationship between poor ESG metrics and bond performance?
To find out the answer, we analysed the 2017 total returns of the 365 bonds in the European high yield market that were ESG rat…
Read the article2017 High Yield Review – Another Solid Year
Good performance after an exceptional 2016
2017 was another good year for high yield investors with the global high yield index delivering a total return of 8.0% (in USD terms), albeit this was less exciting than the 16% achieved in 2016. The US continued to outperform Europe but at a far more modest rate compared to 2016, with a 7.5% local currency total return vs Europe’s 6.7%, although much …
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