High Yield Fund manager at VFM seminar

Alex Moss, the La Valette High Yield Fund's fund manager at Insight Investment Management (Global) Limited, was the guest speaker during a sales seminar hosted by Valletta Fund Management Limited (VFM) for Bank of Valletta employees. Insight Investment Management, the investment arm of the Halifax Bank of Scotland Group, acts as the sub-investment manager for a range of VFM's investment funds. During this seminar, which was held at the Radisson SAS Golden Sands Resort & Spa, Mr Moss presented an analysis of the global high yield bond market and the high yield investment process used at Insight Investment Management.

Mr Moss also gave a review and outlook of the La Valette High Yield Fund. He stated: "During the past months, US economic concerns have fed through to European High Yield market and as a result, the market has sold off through a combination of portfolio outflows, fund liquidations and bearish economic view." He added: "However, significant out-performance has been seen from higher rated, short duration names and also from the Norwegian oil rig market which has been a significant performance differentiator since the start of the year." Mr Moss said that as a result of the sell-off, attractive investment opportunities now exist, particularly at the shorter end of the curve.

"Going forward, the main focus will be on the liquidity levels of issuers and position in the capital structure as well as on the oil rig market which provides low correlation with high yield and equity, and strong security position, due to hard assets available," he said. As at April 16, 2008, the La Valette High Yield Fund registered an income yield of 6.3 per cent.

Grace Debono, sales and marketing executive at VFM, spoke about the range of investment funds and multi-manager funds offered by VFM which invest across all asset classes to include money market, bonds, equity, property and absolute return funds.