Following The Adviser Centre Monthly Review Meeting on 30^th August 2017, Royal London Sterling Extra Yield Bond was added to The Adviser Centre as a Recommended fund.

The fund is managed by Eric Holt, Head of Credit at Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), who has been involved in the management of the fund since its launch.  He is a highly-experienced member of RLAM’s fixed income team, where a collegiate investment process is overseen by Jonathan Platt, Head of Fixed Income and Martin Foden, Head of Credit Research, together with Mr Holt.

Mr Holt’s primary aim is to deliver an attractive income yield relative to the prevailing environment, but not at the expense of volatility in the unit price.  To achieve this, the investment approach emphasises in-depth credit analysis, with the team looking to identify value from across the fixed interest spectrum, including structured/securitised bonds and unrated issues.  The manager is prepared to invest in smaller, less liquid and often esoteric issues and although he seeks to diversify the different sources of income, this feature means that the fund can be sensitive to changes in credit market sentiment.  The corollary of this is that he is in a position to capture attractive higher yield opportunities, thereby supporting the fund’s income objective.

Mr Holt’s long experience of managing credit portfolios means that he is well-placed to understand what is often a fine balance between quality and yield opportunity.  Critically, he has a clear awareness of the risk of investing in less liquid bonds.

We regard the fund as an attractive offering for income-seeking investors who have a longer-term investment horizon and are prepared to accept the potential for some capital volatility. The team’s specialism in assessing structured/securitised and unrated bonds is a differentiating feature of the fund within the IA £ Strategic Bond sector.

For more information about the IA £ Strategic Bond sector, please see our IA Sector Overview.  Click here for more, or visit the  IA Overview section of the website.