March 29, 2023 –La Française is pleased to announce thatits global high yield fixed maturity compartment,La Française Rendement Global 2028(sub-compartment of French SICAVLa Française),has surpassed€200 million in assets under management (as at 24/03/2023).
The fund is a diversified portfolio of approximately 150 global high yield issuers with an average rating of B+ (Source: La Française, as at 24/03/2023) and is co-managed by an experienced team of five, headed by Akram GHARBI, Head of High Yield Investment, La Française AM. The track record of the management team, which includes Akram GHARBI, Delphine CADROY, Gabriel CRABOS, Aurore LE CROM and Victoire DUBRUJEAUD, is attracting attention among European professional investors.
The fund’s strategy1 involves a combination of “buy & hold” and “arbitrage” in the event of new market opportunities or an increased default risk of one of the issuers in the portfolio. The investment strategy therefore relies on in-depth knowledge ofselected companies' balance sheets and sovereign debt fundamentals. La Française Rendement Global 2028 (distinguished with the French SRI Label2 and classified Art. 8 SFDR3 ) has a yield to worst4 of 8.27% (gross of fees and net of hedging costs).
Akram GHARBI remains positive on the outlook for high yield debt and commented, “Inflation risk is probably behind us, we believe the most important risk on the asset class in 2023 will be related to global growth. In the short to medium term, the High Yield risk premium should move within a range of between 450 and 550 bps. Default rates should increase compared to 2022 but should remain moderate given company fundamentals. And, the current yield (carry) on the high yield market should protect investor's medium-term performance.”