Federated Hermes
The manager believes that delivering positive returns depends not just on researching individual companies, but also on identifying the right bond among the many issued by that company. This philosophy has been used since the investment team first worked together in 2004 and has stood the test of time. The team starts by investigating the influences on the bond markets including fundamental factors like the state of the global economy and how much risk investors are willing to take. They use this research to narrow down the choice of investments. The fund tends to target larger companies because they issue a wider range of bonds. The fund is not limited to investing in the largest bond markets in the US and Europe, it also looks for investment opportunities in emerging markets. This allows the fund to further diversify its holdings and to avoid markets that the manager believes are overvalued. The fund is actively managed and the manager has full discretion when choosing assets to invest in (in-line with the fund’s investment objectives).
Introducing the Investment Managers
Vincent Benguigui
Vincent joined in 2013 and is a senior credit portfolio manager co-managing Federated Hermes Limited’s range of credit portfolios. He also oversees risk management and the implementation of non-linear trading strategies, via the use of derivatives products such as credit options and indices. He joined from Scor Global Investments in Paris, where he was credit analyst across European high yield. Vincent holds a Master’s degree in Banking and Finance with Honours from Pantheon-Assas University in Paris, as well as a Bachelor’s in Management from Dauphine University in Paris.
Nachu Chockalingam
Nachu joined in March 2018 and is a senior credit portfolio manager co-managing Federated Hermes Limited’s range of credit portfolios. She joined from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where she was a portfolio manager responsible for the plan’s active investments in emerging markets and European credit. Nachu started her career at JPMorgan in London as a sell-side analyst where she spent 13 years covering, firstly, European high yield and investment grade and then CEEMEA credit. Nachu graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in Economics and is a CFA charterholder.
Fraser Lundie
Fraser joined Hermes in February 2010 and is Head of Credit and lead manager on the Hermes range of credit strategies. Prior to this he was at Fortis Investments, where he was responsible for European high yield credit. In 2017, Fraser joined the board of CFA UK, a member society of the CFA Institute. In 2015 Fraser was named as one of the top 10 star fund managers of tomorrow by the Daily Telegraph, and the following year Citywire Americas named Fraser number one in their global high yield manager review.
Fraser graduated from the University of Aberdeen with an MA (Hons) in Economics; he earned an MSc in Investment Analysis from the University of Stirling and is a CFA charterholder