Alma Selwood Euro High-Grade
Overview
Alma Platinum IV 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 28/03/2024Market Review and Outlook
March witnessed a revival in fixed income assets , primarily driven by shifts in interest rates. For instance, the iBoxx Germany index, which had declined by -2.40% year-to-date (YTD) by the end of February, made a comeback in March reducing its YTD loss to -1.50%. The improvement in Credit was supported by superior performance in interest rates and the narrowing of credit spreads. As evidenced, the iBoxx € Corporate index gained 1.20% in March, generating an overall 1qtr performance of of 0.35%. Equities continued their upward trajectory, on-going since the end of October 2023, with the €Stock 50 index closing March with a remarkable 12.5% gain, YTD.
The primary catalyst for these movements has been the changing expectations surrounding the European Central Bank’s (ECB) forecast interest rate cuts. While the market had anticipated a reduction of 160 basis points (bps) by December 2024 at the end of 2023, expectations since moderated to a reduction of 89 bps and have maintained this level since February. This sustained shift has alleviated some of the upward pressure on rates. Specifically, in Europe, a 25bps cut is fully anticipated by June. In contrast, the United States is showing signs of a less aggressive approach towards rate cuts, largely due to robust economic performance. In the credit market there’s continued strength in primary issuance, characterized by minimal discounts compared to the secondary market and on-going robust demand; this led to a strong performance of cash versus synthetic during the period. The iTraxx index reflected this absolute strength showing an -8 bps narrowing since the end of 2023, of which -4.5 bps of improvement came in March alone .
March also highlighted a significant resurgence of concerns regarding government debt levels in Europe and the US. There is an emerging viewpoint that certain countries, such as the US, France, and Italy, may begin to face additional financial challenges. This situation is likely to exert pressure on their funding costs. Upcoming elections, such as the presidential race in the US and European elections in France and Italy, are expected to steer away from announcements regarding government expenditure cuts. Instead, election rhetoric is more likely to be characterized by pledges of increased spending.
Fund
Our fund has returned to positive territory year-to-date (YTD), slightly lagging the iBoxx€ Corporate index due to robust cash performance vs synthetic and the cautious levels of exposure. Our conservative approach, especially at this historically low iTraxx level, has been maintained. Nonetheless, we still benefit from a decent carry and roll-down return (~5% gross on 12M) that surpasses Cash IG indices in Europe. Additionally, we have been consistently reducing our exposure to France in favour of stronger core countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, while continuing to steer clear of peripheral positions.
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