In focus
TRUSTNET
of names and they have all been at
significant discounts.”
Vermeer Partners’ head of fund
research William Buckhurst said he is
a fan of this fund due to its smaller size
and its stable investor base, making it
unlikely to see mass redemptions.
SVS Church House Investment
Grade Fixed Interest has made 6.11
per cent over the past five years,
compared with 13.72 per cent from the
IA Sterling Corporate Bond sector. It
has a yield of 2.21 per cent.
FACT BOX
MANAGER: Jeremy Wharton / LAUNCHED: 11/12/2000 / FUND SIZE: £352m / OCF: 0.83%
CROWN RATING
PERFORMANCE OF FUND VS SECTOR OVER 5YRS
SVS Church House Investment IA Sterling Corporate
Grade Fixed Interest (6.11%) Bond (13.72%)
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
r1
6
-5%
B
In an update released earlier on in
the coronavirus sell-off, Wharton
sought to reassure investors about his
fund’s readiness for difficult times.
“It has good levels of liquidity in cash
and short-dated gilts and we have
selectively deployed some of this into
beaten up credits, but in a measured
way, as we do not think the volatility is
over (although hopefully the extreme,
‘dysfunctional’ volatility might just be
behind us),” he explained.
“We have no more idea what the
timescale of this whole episode will
turn out to be than anyone else.”
Wharton said that the most
encouraging outcome of the crisis so
far has been the continued functioning
of credit markets, even though more
than 90 per cent of participants are
now working remotely.
Commenting on bond activity in
March, he said: “Last week was the
SVS Church House
Investment Grade
Fixed Interest
biggest week for issuance ever, so the
primary market is certainly open for
business. Most has been in dollars
and euros, but some has been in
pounds. We saw a nine-year issue
from Diageo, the kind of name we
want to buy at this time, and we got
some from an oversubscribed book.
“We have been active in the
secondary market too, picking up
issues from the likes of HSBC, Moller
Maersk, Euroclear, British Telecom –
you can see the theme in the quality
This fund is headed up by Jeremy Wharton, who has just been named
an Alpha Manager for the fifth year in a row
ond investors who want a
fund with a proven manager
at the helm during turbulent
times may wish to consider SVS
Church House Investment Grade
Fixed Interest. The fund is headed
up by Jeremy Wharton, who has just
been named an Alpha Manager for
the fifth year in a row.
Wharton attributed the award to a
“continuing commitment to avoid
permanent loss of capital through
close management of risk and
volatility, whilst still delivering a fair
return for investors”.
The fund invests 100 per cent of its
assets in investment grade bonds,
typically with more than a third in
AAA-rated debt.
The majority of its top holdings
are in bonds issued by financials,
including Goldman Sachs, Lloyds and
the Royal Bank of Canada.
[ FUND ]
34 / 35
Source: FE Analytics
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