Even as the Magnificent Seven power the S&P500, a focus of free cash flow and dividend growth can generate not just income for clients today, but also meaningful capital appreciation. By venturing beyond the sectors that are most traditionally associated with income investing, clients benefit from:
1.    Dividend growth that may outpace inflation and help maintain income in real terms.
2.    Low overlap with conventional income holdings that may help diversify portfolio risk.
Richard Saldanha will explain how his team’s approach to income investing is differentiated and has delivered annualised double digit returns over the last decade whilst also achieving a very attractive portfolio dividend growth of 9.4% p.a. over the same period.

Workshop Objectives
Understand:
•    How equity income may offer not only downside protection but also upside capture.
•    Sectors and companies that underpin this.
•    How an equity allocation can add value to income portfolios.

Company Profile: Aviva Investors is a global asset manager with over $289 bn of AUM managed in real asset, fixed income, equity, multi-asset and alternative investments in 12 countries. Our clients can benefit not only from our significant local knowledge and experience, but also from the extensive global investment resources at our disposal. Responsibility is incorporated at all levels of our organization: understanding the factors, risks and opportunities in ESG helps us to be better investors and delivering the investment results our clients expect.
The value of an investment is subject to increases and decreases.  Investors may not recover the amount originally invested. 
* Data as at 31 December 2023

AXA Investment Managers has a long history of High Yield expertise and fund performance. In 2024, the US Dynamic High Yield Strategy will celebrate its 10th year of existence. Built on the same proprietary selection process, Dynamic has delivered strong results that offer equity-level returns in the past, along with the protection of a strong US credit strategy in down markets. 

Peter Vecchio will run through the components of this strategy, while also discussing how US economic resilience and positive credit performance paved the way for a successful 2023, while looking into what’s in store for the rest of 2024. 

Workshop Objective: Highlight the opportunities and market environment surround AXA IM’s US High Yield Funds and take a broader look at the fixed.

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is a leading global asset manager offering a diverse range of global investment opportunities in both alternative and traditional asset classes. Through our products we aim to diversify and grow portfolios, while delivering long-term investment performance and value for clients.

Company Profile: AXA IM manages approximately €844 billion in assets, of which €480 billion are categorised ESG-integrated, sustainable or impact, as at the end of December 2023. We are committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 across all eligible assets, and to integrating ESG principles across our business, from stock selection to our corporate actions and culture.

Investments in private market assets have long been utilized by large institutions for their potential portfolio-enhancing attributes. With the advent of new structures that may be better suited to individuals, the private markets represent an investment opportunity that continues to grow at a rapid pace. 

Across a range of asset classes and strategies, investments in the private markets can offer a range of potential benefits including attractive returns, increased income, reduced volatility and enhanced diversification.

Through three differentiated investment platforms in Credit, Real Estate and GP Strategic Capital, Blue Owl offers individuals access to the same quality alternative investments experience as the largest institutions.

Workshop Objective: Education on the investment opportunity in alternative investments and access points offered by Blue Owl

Company Profile: Blue Owl (NYSE: OWL) is a leading asset manager that is redefining alternatives. With $165 billion in assets under management, we invest across three multi-strategy platforms: Credit, GP Strategic Capital, and Real Estate. Anchored by a strong permanent capital base, we provide businesses with private capital solutions to drive long-term growth and offer institutional and individual investors differentiated alternative investment opportunities that aim to deliver strong performance, risk-adjusted returns, and capital preservation.

Together with over 600 experienced professionals across 10 offices globally, Blue Owl brings the vision and discipline to create the exceptional.

Smaller companies typically trade at a premium to their large cap counterparts. However, the past five years has seen a reversal of historical trends. In his presentation, Scott will look at the drivers of this move and discuss to what extent the valuation discount is justified. He will look at the best way to approach smaller company investing in the current environment and highlight why the asset class remains an attractive diversifier to a traditional equity allocation.

Company Profile: At Columbia Threadneedle Investments, we offer investments to make a difference to your world, and the wider world. Millions of people rely on us to manage their money and invest for their future; together they entrust us with US $584 billion. With over 2,700 people – including more than 650 investment specialists – spanning the world. But for us, a global perspective is about more than numbers; it is about the smarter advantage we create when we bring our teams’ insights together. We’ve built our diverse expertise and on-the-ground knowledge into our investment processes and solutions, covering almost every asset class and market. We have over 200 research associates around the globe, and proprietary tools harnessing big data and next generation analytics.

The first thing most investors think of when they hear about bond quality is a rating agency’s grade.  The letter grades that agencies assign to an issuance’s creditworthiness remain the most pervasive means of fund valuation.  But this is not the only way to define quality.  You can also define quality with regard to the quality of an issuer’s underlying business.  Business quality and rating-agency quality are fundamentally different, and understanding the different definitions of quality and how they are applied to portfolio construction is a very important aspect to USHY fund selection.

Workshop Objective: Understand the difference between ratings-agency quality and business quality and how they can be applied to USHY portfolio construction.

Company Profile: Federated Hermes, Inc. is a leading $758 billion global investment manager. Guided by our conviction that responsible investing is the best way to create wealth over the long term, Federated Hermes offers world-class investment management and engagement services. Our products span equity, fixed-income, alternative/private markets, multi-asset and liquidity management strategies.

Direct lending strategies are designed to be non-correlated and provide income across most macro environments. This session will give investors an overview of core middle market direct lending and the attractive features this asset class offers from a 30-year historical perspective. It will take participants through the direct lending canvas including tailwinds, opportunity set, and advantages versus other forms of alternative fixed income vehicles. The interactive session will allow participants to learn and ask detailed questions with our expert team and to look at Golub Capital’s track record and offerings.

Workshop Objective: To provide a deep dive into the direct lending landscape and how investors can take advantage of consistent premium returns while mitigating interest rate risk and credit risk.

Company Profile: Golub Capital is a market-leading, award-winning direct lender and experienced credit asset manager. We specialize in delivering reliable, creative and compelling financing solutions to companies backed by private equity sponsors. Our sponsor finance expertise also forms the foundation of our Broadly Syndicated Loan and Credit Opportunities investment programs. We nurture long-term, win-win partnerships that inspire repeat business from private equity sponsors and investors. 

As of January 1, 2024, Golub Capital had over 875 employees and over $65 billion of capital under management, a gross measure of invested capital including leverage. The firm has offices in New York, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, London, Seoul and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit golubcapital.com. 

• Portfolio diversification (average ticket US$ 250k)
• Only first mortgage lien
• Investment secured by 130% colateral in housing real estate
• Underwriting by Inter US Finance’s exclusive proprietary model
• Loans concentrated in the most liquid segments (<US$ 600k)

Workshop Objective: To introduce Inter&Co and its products to investors.

Company Profile: Inter&Co (Nasdaq: INTR) is the premier Super App in Brazil, providing financial and digital commerce services to over 30 million clients in Brazil and United States with a complete range of solutions in investments, credit, insurance, cross-border services and e-commerce. 
Inter&Co was founded in 1994 with a complete portfolio of mortgage, construction financing, and home equity, shifting the strategy to digital bank In 2015.
Our real estate DNA transcends Inter&Co and dates back to 43 years of history with the creation of MRV, the largest construction company in Latin America with more than 500,000 apartments delivered and presence in Brazil and United States (23 cities).

Amadeo Alentorn, lead investment manager, Jupiter Systematic Equities, will tackle the long-term problem investors face in finding diversification, and the dangers of over-reliance on one asset class when markets are dependent on difficult-to-predict macro events. He will detail how an investment process can be designed to deliver across varied market environments, and how a long-short market neutral equity approach can avoid exposure to the direction of the market. He will discuss how to avoid the dangers of investment style bias and the pitfalls of an inflexible investment style wedded to just one style, such as value or growth. He will share insights from his team’s recent research and give his analysis of the current market environment for global equities.

Workshop Objective: 

How different asset classes are correlated, and the effect of this on diversification. How market neutral investment works in practice. The importance of investment styles, such as value and growth. 

Global markets are experiencing unprecedented times: two ongoing armed conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, the Red sea crisis and its implications for global trade and the world economy, months of galloping inflation and at last a light at the end of the tunnel with probable rate cuts to come within the next months. Will central banks cut rates faster or more aggressively than anticipated and what opportunities lie ahead in terms of sectoral, geographic and credit rating allocation? La Française, a long-standing expert in fixed maturity investments, will close the loop, addressing all issues relevant to dated investment strategies.  
Workshop Objective: Akram Gharbi  will detail the mechanics of the fixed maturity investment strategy and elaborate on why it is particularly well adapted to today’s economic and financial contexts. Additionally, he will explain how La Française AM continues to innovate in the fixed maturity arena by leveraging on its financial bonds expertise and with the integration of potential performance boosters.

Company Profile: Identifying the drivers of change and understanding how they will shape global growth and ultimately influence the long-term performance of financial and real estate assets is at the heart of La Française's mission.
The group uses its innovative capacity and customer-focused technology to design investment solutions that combine performance and sustainability.
Structured around two business lines, "Financial Assets" and "Real Estate Assets", La Française serves institutional and wealth management clients in France and abroad.
La Française manages over €45 billion in assets through its offices in Paris, Frankfurt, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Seoul and Singapore (30/06/2023)
La Française is a member of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, which has long-term ratings of A+/Aa3/AA- from S&P (11/2023), Moody's (07/2023) and Fitch (10/2023).

Though spreads are relatively tight versus historical standards, fundamentals in the market remain strong. Credit quality is up and defaults, in general, are expected to remain relatively low.  The absolute yield, now just shy of 8% looks compelling.   

Workshop Objective:Identify where the opportunities may be and what to avoid.

Company Profile: New York Life Investments is comprised of the affiliated global asset management businesses of our parent company, New York Life Insurance Company (New York Life). With $687 billion in Assets Under Management as of September 30, 2023 we offer clients access to specialized, independent investment teams through our family of affiliated boutiques. New York Life Investments is partnering with Candriam and Mackay Shields to offer UCITS Funds in the US Offshore markets. All funds are available on the All Funds and Pershing platforms.

The US stock market outperformance in recent years has been deserved based on its underlying fundamentals. In essence, it is the highest quality market in the world. However, much of this outperformance has been driven by a small number of companies, masking several long-term secular growth opportunities throughout the US that remain relatively underappreciated. Ninety One’s Bradley George explains why a differentiated quality approach - selecting niche leaders with dominant market positions and more resilient revenue streams - has helped American Franchise deliver significantly greater profits growth than the S&P 500, in addition to offering protection in more challenging times. 

Company Profile: 

Investing for a world of change

Ninety One is an active, global investment manager managing $158.3 billion in assets (as at 31.12.23). Our goal is to provide long-term investment returns for our clients while making a positive difference to people and the planet.

Established in South Africa in 1991, as Investec Asset Management, the firm began as a small start-up offering domestic investments in an emerging market. In 2020, as a global firm proud of our emerging market roots, we demerged to become Ninety One.

We are committed to developing specialist investment teams organically. Our heritage and approach let us bring a different perspective to active and sustainable investing across equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternatives to our clients - institutions, advisors and individual investors around the world. 

In today’s market, most risk assets are richly valued, and credit spreads are tight across asset classes.  The Fed is constrained by persistent inflation, thus a rate cut-fueled tailwind supporting fixed income may prove to be a gentle breeze rather than the hoped-for gale force conditions.  With yields approaching 8%, high yield bonds stand out as a source of potential total return in an uncertain investment environment.

Attendees will leave the session with a better understanding of:

• High yield’s carry-driven total return potential, despite relatively tight spreads and waning expectations for lower US Treasury rates
• Supportive fundamentals and technical factors buoying the high yield market
• The importance of credit selection in tight spread, slower growth investment conditions

Many investors in Latin America and US Offshore are increasingly utilizing UCITS ETFs as low-cost, diversified, and targeted solutions in portfolios.  We’ll provide helpful insights on how to assess the liquidity of offshore / UCITS ETFs compared to US ETFs, and discuss trading strategies across various platform types.

Workshop Objectives

Learn how to:
•    assess UCITS ETF liquidity and trading strategies
•    quantify the potential tax efficiency of UCITS ETFs for non-resident clients
•    implement international equity and Artificial Intelligence thematic investing strategies 

Company Profile: Xtrackers ETFs by DWS is the world’s 8th largest ETF provider, and 3rd largest UCITS ETF provider, with $210bn in AUM (Morningstar, 31 Jan 2024). Xtrackers offers over 250 ETFs across various asset classes, including equity, fixed income, and commodities; and across strategies such as thematics, equal weight and currency hedged. With its growing number of Accumulating share class and Mexico cross-listed UCITS ETFs, Xtrackers is playing a key role in the development of the Latin America and US Offshore ETF ecosystem. Xtrackers is part of DWS which has $986bn in AUM (DWS, 31 Dec 2023) across Europe, the Americas and Asia.