Over the past several years, CLOs within a core bond portfolio would have provided additional yield—without adding duration—as well as increased returns and lower volatility.
Why do so many active core bond managers invest in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs)? Of the top 20 mutual funds in Morningstar’s Intermediate Core Bond and Intermediate Core-Plus Bond categories, representing approximately $750B of assets, all but three had allocations to CLOs.1 This is notable given that traditional U.S. “aggregate” bond indices, which represent the broad investment grade investment universe, do not generally include CLOs. Approximately 93% of core bond funds are benchmarked to an aggregate index, which begs the question: why are so many of these managers investing off-benchmark?
Volta Finance Ltd (LON:VTA) is a closed-ended limited liability company registered in Guernsey. Volta’s investment objectives are to seek to preserve capital across the credit cycle and to provide a stable stream of income to its Shareholders through dividends that it expects to distribute on a quarterly basis.