Investment Grade Credit Plus

Investment Philosophy

Our fixed income investment approach combines bottom-up research with top-down sector selection to consistently seek favorable, risk-adjusted results. We believe that the volatility of market prices exceeds that of fundamental asset values. This dislocation creates opportunities for investors with the skilled personnel, infrastructure and insight necessary to identify relative value generated by market inefficiencies.

Investment Grade Credit Plus Strategy Overview

Objective

Seeks to consistently outperform an investment grade credit index while maintaining a comparable level of risk

Benchmark

ICE BofA Custom Q1AQ Index

Strategy Inception

January 1, 2001

Highlights

  • Invests primarily in US dollar-denominated investment grade corporate securities, and to a lesser extent, below investment grade corporate bonds, asset-backed securities (ABS) and sovereigns
  • Focuses primarily on security selection, and to a lesser extent, sector selection and yield curve structure
  • Typically invests in investment grade securities (BBB- and above); however, the strategy has flexibility to invest up to 20% in below investment grade securities at the time of purchase
  • Targets a duration typically less than +/- 0.5 year of the Index

Portfolio Managers

Experienced Team

PPM is an investment-led organization which utilizes a team-based approach to manage the assets of the portfolio. Portfolio managers work closely with asset class specialists, research analysts and traders to generate ideas and to gain greater insight on the market environment as they make investment decisions.

photo of Josh Settle
Josh Settle, CFA

Portfolio Manager

photo of Jon Nelson
Jon Nelson, CFA

Portfolio Manager

photo of David Frizzie
David Frizzie, CFA

Portfolio Manager

photo of Mark Redfearn
Mark Redfearn, CFA

Portfolio Manager

photo of Andrew Brunks
Andrew Brunks, CFA

Portfolio Manager

photo of Calvin Walker
Calvin Walker

Portfolio Manager

Our Insights

Any “ICE” or “ICE index” referenced herein (the “Index”) is a product of ICE Data Indices, LLC (“ICE Data”) and are used with permission. ICE® is a registered trademark of ICE Data or its affiliates. Where applicable, BofA® is a registered trademark of Bank of America Corporation licensed by Bank of America Corporation and its affiliates ("BofA") and may not be used without BofA’s prior written approval. ICE Data, its affiliates and their respective third party suppliers disclaim any and all warranties and representations, express and/or implied, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or use, including the indices, index data and any data included in, related to, or derived therefrom. Neither ICE Data, its affiliates nor their respective third party suppliers shall be subject to any damages or liability with respect to the adequacy, accuracy, timeliness or completeness of the indices or the index data or any component thereof, and the indices and index data and all components thereof are provided on an “as is” basis and your use is at your own risk. Inclusion of a security within an index is not a recommendation by ICE Data to buy, sell, or hold such security, nor is it considered to be investment advice. ICE Data, its affiliates and their respective third party suppliers do not sponsor, endorse, or recommend PPM, or any of its products or services.
The ICE BofA Custom Q1AQ Index provides a custom measure of investment grade and below investment grade corporate bonds. The blend is based on an 88% weighting to a custom subset of the ICE BofA US Corporate Bond Index and a 12% weighting to BB-B rated corporate debt. Within the bonds rated A to BBB, issuers must have $250M or more total of par outstanding, further the majority must have a final term to maturity ranging 5-10 years. The BB-B issuers must have a remaining term to final maturity of 1-10 years, $250M or more total of par outstanding and are subject to a 2% issuer cap. It excludes Tobacco and Controversial Weapons companies. Additional details regarding the custom index are available upon request. Benchmark returns are not covered by the report of independent verifiers. The returns for this unmanaged index do not include any management fees or other costs aside from transaction costs, which were incorporated into index returns beginning 1 July 2022.