Alma Selwood Euro High-Grade
Overview
Alma Selwood Euro High-Grade is a long only European credit investment grade fund.
The fund’s management is delegated to Selwood AM France.
Share Class
NAV
Cumulative Performance (%)
Fund Inception 15 September 2021
| Daily | Monthly | Ytd | 1Yr | 3Yr | 5Yr | Incept. | Incept.Date |
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The performance data shown represents past performance. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted. The investment return and the principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost.
Strategy & Manager
Fund Strategy
The Strategy aims to deliver enhanced risk / returns by profiting from dislocations in the pricing of index-related credit instruments (iTraxx Main Europe). The Fund seeks to outperform standard Investment Grade Long Only cash allocations / ETF. The Fund is focused on European investment grade credit instruments, and aims to provide an alternative to traditional cash credit solutions through predominantly deploying senior tranches of CDS index-related instruments. Selwood has also sought to incorporate risk mitigation criteria for the Fund, and seeks to lower capital consumption under Solvency II.
Investment Manager
Selwood Asset Management is a London based fundamental credit investment manager, established in 2015 by Sofiane Gharred, a former partner at Chenavari and proprietary trader at Credit Agricole CIB. Created in 2020, Selwood Asset Management (France) SAS, is led by Guillaume Merle and Mathieu Labelle. The Firm is focused on managing long bias fixed income funds and seeks to develop products which utilise credit indices and derivatives.
Key Persons
Mathieu Labelle
CIO and Conducting Officer of Selwood Asset Management (France) SAS
Mathieu is a fixed income trader with 20 years’ industry experience. He has expertise across instruments, having been a market maker on structured credit and derivatives, government bonds and covered bonds.
Prior to joining Selwood, Mathieu was a senior trader at Credit Agricole CIB in London, where he spent over 15 years. At Credit Agricole CIB, Mathieu developed extensive knowledge in rates and credit trading, in both flows and structured trading. He gained expertise in identifying business opportunities, following and analysing market behaviour, and leveraging a deep understanding of financial industry to drive account and trading success.
Mathieu holds a bachelor of Physics from University of Rouen Normandie, an ITM diploma (Master) from CFPB. He was authorised by the UK’s FCA as approved person between 2005 and 2016 (MAL01151).
Thibault Brohard
Co-CIO of Selwood Asset Management (France) SAS
Thibault is a fixed income trader with 15 years’ of industry experience. He has a strong expertise in structured credit investments having been a Structured Credit Trader most of his career. Prior to joining Selwood, Thibault was a senior PM at Orchard Asset Management in London where he spent almost 6 years managing at peak a fund of circa EUR 1bn. Before that he spent 2Y at Christofferson & Rob as Director / PM to help build their structured credit derivatives fund dealing with Rec Cap transactions and acquiring portfolios of derivatives from core and non-core Bank divisions. He also worked several years in the banking industry at UBS as an Executive Director and Calyon – always as a Structured Credit Trader.
Thibault holds a Master of Science from London School of Economics and a degree from Ecole Polytechnique in France (Grande Ecole for Research and Engineering, specialisation in Economics and Applied Mathematics).
Statistics & Commentary
Performance
The performance data shown represents past performance. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. The investment return and the principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost.
Investment Manager's Commentary
as of 31/12/2025Market Review and Outlook
In December, market movements were largely driven by interest rate developments in the U.S., particularly in anticipation of the Federal Reserve’s decision. While the 25-basis point rate cut was widely expected, yields rose on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S., the 10-year Treasury yield increased by 16 basis points, with a steeper yield curve, the 2-year yield tightened while the 30-year rose by 19 basis points.
In Europe, the rate sell-off was similarly intense. The 5-year German Bond yield rose by 16 basis points, with a relatively unchanged curve, though the 2-year widened by 9 basis points. The Fed’s forward guidance appears increasingly dovish, with the expected path of rate cuts remaining at three in 2026. The potential replacement of Chair Powell by a more dovish member next year could significantly impact markets; is this already priced in? In contrast, the European rate outlook seems more constrained, with no rate cuts priced in for 2026, which we view as relatively pessimistic.
While fears of a potential bubble in AI-driven equities are gaining traction, most analysts continue to forecast a strong performance for equity markets in 2026. Our perspective remains unchanged: we anticipate potential episodes of volatility, but cautious positioning continues to be met with a “buy-the-dip” mentality, fueled by FOMO (fear of missing out). This dynamic, seen in equities, can also be partially applied to credit spreads. Cash bond spreads appear broadly expensive. Euro Investment Grade stands at 79bps, and iTraxx Main at 50.5bps. The key distinction, however, lies in the combination of rates and spreads, which still offers value both in absolute and relative terms. In contrast, cash credit spreads alone are approaching historically tight levels.
Since early December, our view has been that iTraxx spreads would gradually tighten into the high 40s by January (say ~ 47bps?) and could widen once the wave of primary issuance subsides. Government bond yields remain a concern, as fiscal trajectories remain unresolved in major economies such as the U.S., U.K., Japan, and France. This could trigger volatility at the long end of the yield curve. The two main drags on this year’s performance have been the unusually high correlation levels, which reached 85%, and the persistent basis between cash and synthetic instruments, which now appears more stable (at around -10 bps). Despite these challenges, our fund has managed to outperform the benchmark. Should both the basis and correlation normalize, they could act as potential drivers of future performance.
Facts & Documents
Facts
Fund Domicile: Luxembourg
Fund Type: UCITS SICAV
Fund Launch: 15 September 2021
Base Currency: EUR
Depositary, Administrator, Transfert Agent: CACEIS Investor Services Bank S.A.
Dealing: Daily with a 2-days notice
Cut-off time: 3 pm CET
Management Company: Alma Capital Investment Management
Investment Manager: Selwood Asset Management (France) SAS
Countries where the fund is registered:
Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Finland, Ireland
Sustainability-related disclosures:
The information related to the integration of sustainability risks and to the potential adverse sustainability impacts at the sub-fund level can be found in the prospectus of the Fund.
Identifiers:
I1C-E
ISIN: LU2139806298
Ticker: ALSEHIE LX Equity
Launch: 15 Sep 2021
I2C-E
ISIN: LU2139806538
Ticker: ALSEHIC LX
Launch: 6 Oct 2021
I2D-E
ISIN: LU2277570862
Ticker: ALSEHDE LX Equity
Launch: 15 Sep 2021