“Every day, you see what is challenging around the world, so it is [about] being able to comprehend what is happening, making an assessment of that and translating it into what needs to be done in the portfolios. It is a continuing challenge, but it is one of the opportunities and one of the things we relish here. Obviously, going through the stressed, turbulent times of 2008 and the European sovereign debt crisis of 2011-12 are challenges, just like you see at the moment with what is happening in Ukraine.”
While the multi-asset strategy team tend to take investment views of between one and six months, Mr Waddington says they are clear with clients that the team will reflect what is happening around the world in the portfolio on a daily basis.
“This comes back to the point of it being very liquid. We have no capacity concerns at the moment, and it needs to be liquid to implement those views. Regarding Ukraine, we increased our duration exposure as we saw some heightened concerns, but we haven’t needed to change anything else in the portfolio. We have very low exposure to emerging market debt, and we have a position where we are favouring developed markets over emerging markets, which is helping in the more turbulent environment.”
At Insight, the team runs one core strategy and one core capability, but this can be applied to a few funds. These include the retail-focused Insight Global Absolute Return fund and the Insight Global Multi-Strategy fund, which are available through the BNY Mellon platform, while the two institutional offerings are the Insight Broad Opportunities and the Absolute Insight Dynamic Opportunities funds.
“The plan is to take this capability to other clients. We have a very strong client base in the UK, especially in the pensions markets, but we are seeing increasing interest throughout Europe. As it is a global capability, with no home bias, we are also seeing interest from further afield, including Australia, Asia and the US,” explains Mr Waddington.
“So, the next growth for us is to continue offering the capability in Europe, but also in the new markets of Australia and the US in particular. It might mean a little more travelling, but we don’t do much travelling on the team. We have great client support, which means we can focus on managing the money.”
