Income and Fixed Interest

We offer a range of global and enhanced fixed interest, managed and enhanced cash, and credit capabilities

Pendal’s income and cash portfolios use disciplined investment processes to capture benefits for clients.

Our 12-strong income and fixed interest team is led by portfolio managers Tim Hext (government bonds), George Bishay (credit and sustainability), Amy Xie Patrick (income) and Steve Campbell (cash).

Tim has 33 years of industry experience, George has 27 years, Amy has 18 years and Steve has 23 years.

The team’s strong risk management systems ensure security and stability.

Our portfolios employ a particular investment style, using a quantitative foundation with a qualitative overlay.

A key part of the process is how we combine economic and market model data with our economic, market and credit issuer views. This allows us to construct portfolios that aim to generate outperformance while remaining well balanced and risk controlled.

There are three key ways our “truly active” approach differs from a conventional active fixed interest manager:

  1. Our duration trading strategies tend to be shorter in time frame with profits realised more regularly and losses stopped according to strict stop loss criteria
  2. Beta (market risk) is separated from alpha (additional return driven by skill). The aim is to produce that base return and then add alpha relative to that benchmark
  3. Compared to traditional Australian fixed interest managers, our investment process uses a broader opportunity set to drive alpha. This gives us a much more diverse toolkit to drive returns – a toolkit developed over many years.

We strive to ensure each of the implemented strategies are uncorrelated, so the portfolio’s active performance is not determined by a small number of outcomes or themes in the marketplace.

This should deliver a more consistent active return profile over time.

Products

Our products include:

ESG integration

We include material Environmental, Social and Governance factors in our analysis and investment decisions across our Income and Fixed Interest funds.

We view ESG integration as a way of understanding risks and opportunities outside of traditional credit research. ESG risks can highlight potential future credit concerns.

We use ESG integration in our vanilla funds to better understand risks and opportunities, probability of credit downgrades as well as any variations on liquidity and pricing particularly in the secondary market.

ESG integration and engagement allows us to use our responsibility as active investors to influence the market by promoting sustainable issuers and nudging towards improved transparency:

ESG Integration for Income and Fixed Income

Our ESG integration process includes:

  • ESG Research – understanding ESG risks across different issuers
  • Engagement – using our influence to nudge issuers towards sustainable practices
  • Pricing material ESG risks – ensure we are compensated for ESG risks
  • Monitor and review – monitor changes to issuers and broader risks

We collaborate widely and leverage other areas of Pendal as well as our Regnan in-house ESG research team.

Our ESG integration process is iterative: monitoring progress and controversies feeds into our ESG research and directs our engagements.

More Information

Download ESG Integration for Income and Fixed Income – (PDF 219kb)

ESG Engagement

Pendal leads engagement with investee companies and issuers on ESG issues.

Active engagement can enhance the quality of information available to the market more generally, as well as facilitate improved oversight and management of these matters across a range of market participants.

The Income and Fixed Interest team is committed to supporting Pendal’s responsible investment practices, including through sustainable and ethical products.

The team goes beyond engagement to support ESG risk management and engages for sustainability and impact outcomes.

We encourage issuers to be more ambitious with ESG goals, address negative social or environmental impacts and strengthen or formalise commitments to impact outcomes.

Find out more

Read articles and listen to podcasts from Pendal portfolio managers and analysts at The Point

Contact a Pendal key account manager