Fund Objective

The Fund aims to generate a combination of long-term capital growth and income.

View on Past Performance

The past few weeks have shown just how significant the credit crunch has become. During September we witnessed an unprecedented impact on financials globally and several large firms have been consigned to history. Banks and Governments around the world are under significant pressure to stabilise the financial system and inject new capital into financial institutions.Credit markets have been volatile and illiquid with subordinated financials in particular underperforming. The Secondary market has all but dried up as banks try to reduce inventory and investors remain risk averse. New issues should start to come back to the market as bank lending diminishes and corporates are forced to tap the capital markets.

Future Expectations

The near term outlook for corporate bond markets remains challenging. Furthermore the economic backdrop continues to deteriorate with the significant slowdown in growth forecasts across all major developed economies. Poor equity market performance also continues to have a negative impact on credit markets.The UK government's injection of cash into some major financial institutions is certainly encouraging but the long term effects are yet to be seen.Despite the negative short-term outlook think that there are still opportunities and we are actively seeking investments which are well placed to benefit from the current adverse conditions.

Fund Details