Insights

The coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices have led to a surge in ‘fallen angels’, companies downgraded from investment grade to sub-investment grade. We look at how this is affecting European high yield credit markets and what the implications may be over the longer term.

Our paper examines the main sources of deal flow across Europe’s broad and dynamic private debt markets in 2019, highlighting some of the key observations or themes influencing deal activity in different parts of the market. We also discuss the broad themes that we believe are key to investing in private debt and can help well-positioned lenders access and align opportunities that can deliver the specific outcomes sought by investors.

The Covid-19 pandemic has created unprecedented uncertainty, but even during this time it’s important not to lose sight of the long term.

Economic disruption is feeding through to real estate markets, with the impact of the crisis currently most evident in occupier markets. Though partly mitigated by unprecedented government intervention, investors must adapt to the new ‘normal’ and prepare to navigate both the challenges and opportunities that turmoil may bring. In this paper, we shine a light on the initial impacts on real estate markets.

Credit markets have continued to develop in recent weeks as participants digest events and various official intervention strategies, and consider the ramifications for taking credit risk in the future.

We believe that the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic will play out quite differently to the global financial crisis. While the past decade was arguably the decade of the corporation, could this be the decade of the consumer? In this paper, M&G’s Specialty Finance team examine the reasons why they believe this to be the case and discuss what that means for investment strategies.

In light of the extreme price moves in European ABS, we ran a number of Covid-19-specific stress-tests on securities. This paper details the outcomes.

Despite the clearly tragic short-term impacts of the coronavirus, could the outbreak be an unintended agent of change? In this month’s video, Investment Director, Ritu Vohora looks at the potential silver lining amidst the fear and the value of ESG to long-term investors, providing an important and alternative perspective on major issues affecting markets and economies today.

Pricing in credit markets continues to react and move rapidly, and we are using that price action to identify and take advantage of opportunities as they arise.