The current market environment is challenging: high inflation, high interest rates, and an increase in geopolitical tensions. The search for yield has transformed to a search for stability. There is a high degree of variety in investing in alternative fixed income, shaped in terms of yield, risk, liquidity, duration, and ESG factors amongst others. By considering these characteristics, investors have an opportunity to select those assets which best fit their particular needs. During this workshop Egbert Bronsema, senior investment manager within Aegon Asset Management’s alternative fixed income team will share his views on European asset backed securities (ABS) and will address the benefits that this asset class can offer within a portfolio – including low sensitivity to interest rates, attractive risk/return characteristics, and diversification.

Workshop Objective: Introduce one of the few fixed income sectors that are not affected by the end of monetary stimulus, offering both relative and absolute value without increasing risk.

Company Profile: Aegon Asset Management is an active global investor. Our 390 investment professionals manage and advise on assets of EUR294 billion (as of 30 June 2023) for a global client-base of pension plans, public funds, insurance companies, banks, wealth managers, family offices and foundations. 
We organise our investment capabilities around four focused investment platforms where we have deep asset-class expertise: fixed income, real assets, equities, and multi-asset & solutions. Each platform has dedicated teams, organized globally and committed to maximizing client benefit from their specialist areas. These platforms are supported by teams dedicated to responsible investing and multi-management.

Climate risk has been identified as a significant financial risk. The Paris Agreement’s 2 degree goal has set the direction and companies will need to implement concrete and quantifiable measures to show progress. The distinction between leaders and laggards will become clearer. This offers stock picking opportunities and will allow investors to put their money where their values are.

We provide evidence on how bottom-up driven active management and active engagement with companies can consistently add value towards climate and financial goals over time.

Company Profile: Allspring Global Investments™ is an independent asset management firm with more than $547 billion in assets under advisement*, over 20 offices globally, and investment teams supported by more than 460 investment professionals. Allspring is committed to thoughtful investing, purposeful planning, and inspiring a new era of investing that pursues both financial returns and positive outcomes. For more information, please visit www.allspringglobal.com.
*As of June 30, 2023. Figures include discretionary and nondiscretionary
assets.

The market for smaller companies in the US is roughly the same size as the entire European equity market. Yet, it is often falsely overlooked by investors although mid-caps show the best historical risk-adjusted return profile. We believe they deserve to play a more significant role in investors’ portfolios. During the presentation, we will explain why it is important to invest in this interesting area of the market. We will then show how investors can take advantage of this asset class, by investing in the BL American Small & Mid Caps fund that was launched eight years ago.

Raise awareness among potential investors of the potential of small and medium-sized American companies.

Company Profile: BLI - Banque de Luxembourg Investments is the asset management company of Banque de Luxembourg. Over the years, BLI has acquired a recognised experience in asset management, mainly in international asset allocation through three main classes: equities, bonds and multi-asset strategies. BLI designs investment solutions that make sense: active management, patience, quality, risk sensitivity, ESG responsibility (environmental, social and governance responsibility). BLI manages a range of more than 35 investment funds with total assets under management of EUR 14.40 billion as at 30 June 2023.

BayernInvest Renten Europa-Fonds pursues an investment approach for euro bonds that operates free of a benchmark. The active management of duration, bond asset classes and country and rating allocation are key value drivers of the fund's return.

Workshop Objective: BayernInvest shows how important and valuable an active approach in managing a bond portfolio is and how investors can benefit from the exceptional momentum in the bond markets.

Company Profile: As a German ESG specialist, BayernInvest relies on impact-oriented investments and thus optimizes the financial and social returns.  BayernInvest is both an asset manager and Master-KVG. The company was founded in 1989 as a 100% subsidiary of BayernLB and manages assets of around EUR 100 billion. Customers include insurance companies, pension funds, credit institutions, companies, foundations and church institutions. In 2019, BayernInvest defined the wholesale sector as a further mainstay and is gradually expanding it.

Mark Sherlock, Lead Portfolio Manager of the Federated Hermes US SMID strategy explains why a structurally higher rate backdrop and multi-year valuation opportunity together offer a compelling investment opportunity in this asset class. With its focus on bottom up, high quality investing, the team are excited about exposure to companies who are the backbone of the US economy and are set to benefit from a number of supportive tailwinds.

Bearish? Bullish? Uncertainty seems high on the S&P 500 as there seems to be just as many data points to support either market view. Already up ~15% in 2023, investors face the rest of 2023, while then entering into the 2024 presidential election. Interest rates, inflation, valuations and recession risks seem to be coexisting with an AI -driven productivity boom, a potential bottom in Earning Per Share and a view that the worst is behind us. Interest Rates may appear to be peaking/have peaked. Long term investors should be wary that a 15% correction seems equally as likely as a 15% rally from here. Can
an investor have their cake and eat it too? First Trust will unveil a potential solution, a strategy that can safeguard equity investments in downturns, offering a predefined downside buffer over a specified period. Learn how we leverage growth opportunities in up markets while limiting risk to a predetermined cap.

Workshop Objectives:

•    Communicating First Trust’s economic forecast
•    Understanding the mechanics of target outcome ETFs
•    Highlight CBOE Vest Strategy’s potential downside protection and upside participation
•    Introduce First Trust’s suite of Target Outcome UCITS ETFs

Company Profile: First Trust is a privately owned U.S. based financial services firm established in 1991. Our mission and approach are simple. We aim to offer investors a better way to invest by providing transparent and innovative solutions - through knowing what we own, investing for the long term, employing discipline and rebalancing our portfolios. 

These core principles are taken into consideration in all aspects of our business and are the building blocks of our reputation. It is through these principles that First Trust’s specialist investment managers apply a robust and disciplined approach to a range of methodologies. We have a strong track record in providing a variety of rules-based, thematic and actively managed strategies investing across a range of equities, fixed income and alternatives. 

The Asia Pacific region brings together several high-quality developed markets with some of the world’s most dynamic emerging markets. The result is a rich and diverse hunting ground for both income and growth investment opportunities. Jason Pidcock, investment manager of Jupiter’s Asian Equity Income strategy, will discuss where he and the team are currently finding the best opportunities, the areas they are choosing to avoid, and the key attributes they look for in companies, including pricing power, strong balance sheets and a willingness to share profits with shareholders.

Workshop objective: Gain insight into some of the most attractive income and growth opportunities in the Asia Pacific region.

Company Profile: Jupiter is a specialist, high conviction, active asset manager. We exist to help our clients achieve their long-term investment objectives. From our origins in 1985, Jupiter now offers a range of actively managed strategies available to UK and international clients including equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternatives. Jupiter is a constituent member of the FTSE 250 Index and has assets under management of £51.4bn /$65.3bn /€59.9bn as at 03/06/2023.

Independence of thought and individual accountability define us. Our fund managers follow their convictions and seek those investment opportunities that they believe will ensure the best outcome for our clients. They do this through fundamental analysis and research, a clear investment process and risk management framework, with a focus on good stewardship.

A decade ago former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched “Abenomics” – his programme of economic and corporate reform. As part of these policies, companies were encouraged to go forth and make profits. As a result, earnings of Japanese equities recorded a compound annual growth rate of 12 to 13% (in local currency) over the last decade. We believe Japanese equities represent a compelling long-term opportunity with earnings growth, an increase in payout ratios and share buybacks being the main drivers of potential returns. Furthermore, the macro backdrop with rising inflation and wages – something that has not happened in 25 years – could turn out to be an additional driver of corporate earnings. The wind has changed for corporate Japan and we are positive on the long-term prospects. 

Learn why we believe the Japanese equity market represents one of the biggest long-term investment opportunities globally and how active stock picking can make the difference.

Company Profile: M&G Investments is a global asset manager with a long history of investing and innovating in public and private markets. We offer access to a range of capabilities including fixed income, equities, multi-asset, real estate, infrastructure and private equity. As an active asset manager, we develop solutions based on our clients' needs, whether for growth or income, to meet future commitments, to preserve wealth or for sustainable investments. Globally, we manage over € 342 billion (31.12.2022) for private and institutional investors.

Generous corporate spreads combined with attractive European government bond yields makes for a very compelling case for European credit both outright and relative to the US market. Quantitative tightening is increasing dispersion between sectors, while a more challenging economic environment ahead favours strong research and security selection. This environment should prove fruitful for active management. 

Workshop Objectives: We discuss areas of opportunities with a focus in particular on attractive spread levels in both the financial and real estate sectors which are a key component of the European market. We also look at security selection within non-financials and ways managers can add value.

Company Profile: In 1924, MFS launched the first US open-end mutual fund, opening the door to the markets for millions of everyday investors. Today, as a full-service global investment manager serving financial advisors, intermediaries and institutional clients, MFS still serves a single purpose: to create long-term value responsibly for clients. That takes a sustainable investing approach built on:

• Collective expertise – teams of diverse thinkers who actively debate ideas within a culture of shared values and collaboration
• Long-term discipline – conviction over longer time horizons to broaden opportunities and performance incentives aligned with client outcomes
• Risk management – the potential to recognize material risks and opportunities while managing long-term performance for clients

Despite the recent corrections in metal prices, the fundamentals are poised to make a comeback due to a surging demand. This presentation explores the dynamics at play. We examine the impact of the global transition to sustainability on metals demand. Initiatives such as electrification, renewable energy and electric mobility are generating substantial new demand for metals such as copper, nickel and silver. We will then elaborate on the overall impacts of the transition and in particular on inflation to conclude on the importance of investing in metals in this context.

Workshop Objective: Metals represent an essential asset class in the energy transition context: the massive low carbon technologies growth creates new demand for metals, and investment opportunities in a changing economic landscape

Company Profile: The Ofi Invest group is organised within Aéma Groupe on the basis of a multi-expertise model. Our goal is to understand and anticipate the needs of our clients whom we serve in France and internationally.
We at Ofi Invest Asset Management offer a broad range of responsible, high-performance and useful solutions that allow our clients, through their investments, to finance the development of an economy that we hope will be more virtuous. Our long-standing experience in bespoke investment management and in creating services adapted to all investor profiles makes us a first-choice partner for managing your assets.
Ofi Invest Asset Management key figures (as of end-June 2023):
-    +400 employees 
-    €163bn in AUM
-    55 funds with an SRI label

Credit is poised to continue delivering strong excess returns over the long-term in light of the current starting level of yields. Strong technicals and resilient fundamentals have kept spreads tight but the breadth of credit quality and increased credit dispersion offers opportunities for active management. PGIM Fixed Income is particularly well equipped to extract value from current opportunities in spread products with its focus on risk-adjusted, bottom-up portfolio construction.

Portfolio Specialist Michel Kageshima, CFA, will explore current market trends and discuss how PGIM Fixed Income is positioning its Multi Asset Credit portfolio. He will highlight why a diversified approach to credit sectors look particularly attractive in a world where rates remain higher for longer.

Workshop Objectives:
•  Explain why the higher for longer regime will be supportive for credit markets.
•  Describe how an active approach to credit can help navigate this new environment and unveil alpha opportunities

Company Profile: PGIM is part of the global investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. (PFI), one of the world’s largest investment managers with more than $1.27 trillion in assets under management (AUM, per 31 March 2023). Our scale and investment experience allow us to deliver a diversified suite of actively managed solutions across a broad spectrum of asset classes and investment styles, managed by our affiliated asset managers: PGIM Fixed Income, PGIM Real Estate, Jennison Associates, and PGIM Quantitative Solutions.

During this session we will be discussing the market opportunity within the HY space. We hear of a lot of investors trying to time the markets and enter the asset class at the ‘right time’, but is it ever the right time?

We believe the extra income on offer from HY bonds will be harder to ignore for most allocators once we come to the end of this rate hiking cycle. The all-in-yields are enticing by historical standards and offer the potential for strong risk-adjusted returns, if accompanied with careful name selection. 

We will highlight the multiple pockets of value across our asset classes and why we stand ready to adjust our exposure if required in light of incoming data. 

Highlight current market opportunities and risks. Explain how an active approach can adapt risk levels in a portfolio while remaining invested over the cycle.

Company Profile: RBC BlueBay Asset Management (“RBC BlueBay”) represents RBC Global Asset Management, the asset management division of Royal Bank of Canada (“RBC”) outside North America. RBC is among the world’s largest banks by market capitalisation. This gives us financial stability, security and scale, enabling us to invest in top quality proprietary research, advanced IT platforms and security, and ESG practices, which provides comfort to clients and supports our growth.
RBC BlueBay is an active investment manager partnering with clients to deliver optimal outcomes across asset classes. Our investment expertise is characterised by our specialist fixed income credentials, our broad-based equity capabilities, our integrated ESG approach and our impact investing strategies. We have a global perspective with local expertise in our core markets

Demand for compute power is only going to accelerate, in our view, with new technologies and expanding connectivity. To satiate this demand, chips will require more costly and increasingly complex manufacturing processes. We believe this dynamic will result in a growing tax on an open-ended growth opportunity, disproportionately benefiting a select group of companies positioned at the chokepoint of an increasingly complex value chain.

We’ll share our observations about the future of computing and the semiconductor industry, and which businesses we believe are poised to benefit most.

Company Profile: Sands Capital is an active, long-term investor in leading innovative growth businesses, globally. Our approach combines analytical rigor and creative thinking to identify high-quality growth businesses that are creating the future. Through an integrated investment platform spanning venture capital, growth equity and public equity, we provide growth capital solutions to institutions and fund sponsors in more than 40 countries.

After the boom in the ‘80s, the Japanese market went through a prolonged period of under-performance. Because of the Japanese Keiretsu system, corporate management teams were not always motivated to make decisions to maximize shareholder value.

Thus many investors went underweight, and today Japan remains under-owned and undervalued. This, together with a lack of deep fundamental research coverage on 40%+ of the market, provides plenty of potential. 

The key to unlocking this potential is the ongoing corporate governance revolution, started by the Stewardship Code in 2012, which continues to gain momentum through market participants like the Tokyo Stock Exchange increasing pressure on companies regarding their inefficient structure and poor valuations. Companies are responding and the landscape is changing.  

Workshop Objectives: To describe the compelling multi-year investment opportunity in Japan and how Zennor seeks to capitalise in this changing landscape.

Company Profile: Zennor Asset Management is a boutique asset management firm founded in 2020 focused on compounding capital over the long term. Zennor does this through a focus on capacity-limited, highly differentiated strategies. The experienced managers seek out assets trading meaningfully below their intrinsic value with clear catalysts to drive performance.

Zennor manages over $500 million in assets in two strategies, the Zennor Japan strategy launched in February 2021 and the Zennor Japan Income strategy launched in April 2023. Zennor is a signatory to the UN PRI and supports the Japan Stewardship Code. 

 
After a difficult 2022, equity markets have been doing quite well this year. Looking under the hood, though, this rally has been very narrow with buoyant (and expensive) megacap tech stocks creating most of the performance. In the US, the Federal Reserve looks to be reaching the end of the most aggressive rate hike cycle in history. However, their current motto seems to be “higher for longer”. All said uncertainty and volatility are not bowing out. While the biggest part of the market could still have some way to go, it does not look like a hike in the park.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten". Nowhere is this truer than in the realm of investing.  If history is any guide, dividend-growing, high-quality stocks have weathered complicated markets very well before can could continue to do so going forward thanks to their “all-weatherness”:
o    High-quality companies are known for their historical stability and resilience, helping build wealth over the long term whilst being defensive during economic downturns. 
o    High-Quality companies have outperformed in the long term 
o    Quality acts defensively thanks to investors’ tendency to “fly to Quality” in uncertain times
Well-chosen profitable companies can provide dividend return and dividend growth
Discuss the medium-term equity outlook. Learn about specific characteristics of high quality, dividend growing companies.

Company Profile: WisdomTree was founded in 2006 with a passion for creating better ways to invest, being the first investment manager to weight by dividends. Since 2014, our European business has grown in terms of product set and AUM. In April 2018, we completed the acquisition of ETF Securities' exchange-traded commodities, currencies and short-and-leveraged business, including the world’s first gold ETP. Today we are the biggest independent ETP provider globally and offer one of the most innovative ranges of ETPs, covering commodities, FX, equities, fixed income, cryptocurrency and liquid alternatives.