AAM Market update call - Olaf van den Heuvel and Hendrik Tuch

Will dividend cuts prove to be a ‘one off’? Does the outlook for income investing look more positive in 2021?
We are delighted to bring together a panel of experts from our investment team to share their views on the current challenges and opportunities for income investors. During a live and interactive debate, they will discuss some of the main issues for income generating assets and the investment implications.

As we head towards the end of a tumultuous 2020, we focus on the threats and opportunities that high yield investors may face for the remainder of the year and beyond. A backdrop of looming US elections, new waves of Covid-19 and enduring Brexit
negotiations hold the potential to heighten volatility in risk markets, while providing active high yield managers with exciting opportunities to navigate through the investment universe.

Tom Hanson and Mark Benbow will share their views on the outlook for high yield and how this will impact portfolio

In a lower (forever?) yield environment, Insurers continue their search for investments that can provide an attractive return on capital. This has led to a growth in new opportunities in Alternative fixed income. Moreover, amidst the recent pandemic and direction of Regulatory travel, ESG and impact considerations have also gained heightened awareness.

Join our host Gerard Moerman, Head of Investment Solutions at Aegon AM, in our latest Insurance Asset Management webinar. He discusses sources of capital efficient return for an insurers portfolio and how these can also achieve positive impact while managing ESG.

Gerard is joined in this webinar by industry experts, Erik Jan van Bergen, CIO at VGZ Health Insurance, and Erik Leseman, Head of Investment Management of Aegon Netherlands, to learn about their experiences, and the challenges faced, when considering allocations to the wider fixed income market and RI focused investments.

This webinar is intended for a European and Asian audience.

Thomas Hanson, European Head of High Yield and Mark Benbow, Investment Manager will give their views on the market and how the team are managing our high yield funds in the current conditions.

Uncovering attractive new sources of additional yield…that can meet ESG risk and positive impact objectives.
Amidst the recent turmoil, Alternative Fixed Income strategies have continued to generate attractive and stable yields. ESG and impact considerations have also gained heightened relevance through the pandemic. Can we truly meet yield, ESG risk and impact objectives simultaneously?

Join our host, Gerard Moerman, Head of Fiduciary Services & Investment Solutions, in a webinar series as he discusses, together with industry experts, alternative sources of additional yield for client portfolios and how this can lead to a positive impact from an ESG point of view.

Webinar 3: Impact loans with government guarantees
Wednesday July 15, 11.00 – 11.45 CET
Loans with the aim of having a positive impact all bear credit risk. There are however opportunities where this credit risk is taken by a government body, making them “government guaranteed impact loans”. These loans come with an attractive illiquidity premium.
Gerard discusses this market with Brunno Maradei and Jan Willem Wellen, Portfolio Manager Alternative Fixed Income. Together they explore how such a strategy can have a positive impact on society, the environment and your portfolio.

Webinar 1: Where are the opportunities in Asset Backed Securities?
Wednesday July 1, 11.00 – 11.45 CET

Webinar 2: Impactful SME Loans
Wednesday July 8, 11.00 – 11.45 CET

You can register for webinar 1 and 2 via the Aegon Asset Management BrightTALK channel.

As markets begin to stabilise following the COVID-19 crisis, co- manager of the Kames Strategic Bond strategies, Colin Finlayson discusses where he is seeking value across the fixed income market.

Many investors have extensive allocations to government and corporate bonds. However as spreads have tightened and yields fallen, some have begun to look for yield in other parts of the fixed income market, such as Asset Backed Securities (ABS), where yields have been less suppressed by the ECB purchase program.

ABS bonds offer secured exposure to a diverse range of consumer credit, for example, mortgages, automobile loans, student loans and credit card receivables. But also some other collateral types, that are not easily investable otherwise. In this session Frank Meijer, Head of Alternative Fixed Income at Aegon Asset Management, will discuss the unique opportunities offered by ABS, including:

•Attractive yields - European ABS offers higher yield than most other global fixed income asset classes;

• Diversification of risk - ABS bonds have low correlations with most other major asset classes and offer exposure to consumer debt, compared to traditional government and corporate markets; and

• Short duration - ABS bonds are floating-rate bonds, and hence less sensitive to interest rate volatility.

At Aegon Asset Management we have a dedicated team of over 20 ABS professionals who manage approximately €15 billion globally, of which €5.2 billion is in European ABS (31 December 2019).

Uncovering attractive new sources of additional yield…that can meet ESG risk and positive impact objectives.
Amidst the recent turmoil, Alternative Fixed Income strategies have continued to generate attractive and stable yields. ESG and impact considerations have also gained heightened relevance through the pandemic. Can we truly meet yield, ESG risk and impact objectives simultaneously?

Join our host, Gerard Moerman, Head of Investment Solutions, in a webinar series as he debates with industry experts alternative sources of additional yield for client portfolios and how these can also achieve positive impact while managing ESG risk.

This webinar explores what opportunities you can consider in the ABS asset class and how ESG factor analysis can be fully embedded.
Gerard is joined by Egbert Bronsema, Portfolio Manager European ABS and Brunno Maradei, Global Head Responsible Investments.
Register for webinar 1 >

Webinar 2: Impactful SME Loans
Wednesday July 8, 11.00 – 11.45 CET

Webinar 3: Impact loans with government guarantees
Wednesday July 15, 11.00 – 11.45 CET

You can register for webinar 2 and 3 via the Aegon Asset Management BrightTALK channel.

Hopes for a return towards ‘normality’ and unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus have outweighed concerns of the economic impact. Recent significant additional measures announced in Europe have further reassured investors and played into a wider sectoral and geographic rotation within markets. The risk rally remains intact, for now.

We would like to invite you to join a live webinar with Vincent McEntegart, Co-manager of the Diversified Income strategy and Nick Edwardson, Senior Investment Specialist for Multi Asset. They will provide an update on the strategy’s income profile, current positioning and the outlook.

Join us on Thursday 18 June to hear more and take the opportunity to ask any questions you may have.

Three months after fixed income markets reacted to the shock of the global pandemic and the unprecedented measures taken by central banks and governments, we look at how it has affected the European ABS market.

• What has been the spread development across sectors in European ABS and are they fundamentally driven or is something else at play?
• How do ABS structures help to overcome credit risk overall and in the current environment?
• What is our outlook of the European ABS market in general and in terms of relative value and our expectation of returns?

Join us on Tuesday 16th June for a live webinar with Frank Meijer and Egbert Bronsema, Co-managers of the Aegon European ABS Fund to hear more and take the opportunity to ask any questions you may have.

Investment manager of the Kames Strategic Bond strategies, Colin Finlayson provided an update on developments in the global fixed income markets and how this has affected portfolio positioning.

Head of European High Yield, Tom Hanson’s update focused on the high yield sector and provided both a high-level review of the portfolio activity and performance, as well as his outlook for the asset class.

Income investing has attracted significant attention in recent weeks. Investors are facing a torrent of dividend reductions, postponements and outright cancellations that challenge the flow of income many rely on from owning shares. At Kames, we focus on sustainable and growing dividend yields which we refer to as the ‘dividend sweetspot’. We invest in highly profitable companies that carry low debt levels on their balance sheets and generate strong cash-flows that facilitate the payment of sustainable and growing dividends through time.

We would like to invite you to join a live webinar with Mark Peden, Co-manager of the Kames Global Equity Income Fund. Mark will explain how he has been managing this period of market stress and the latest positioning of the portfolio.

Stephen Jones, CIO of our Multi-Asset & Solutions and Equities investment platforms, will be joined by Sandra Holdsworth, Head of Global Rates - UK, to discuss the latest market updates and the impact across asset classes.

It is impossible to predict the direct and indirect implications of the current situation. What we know is that the market will create opportunities for fundamental bottom-up stock pickers who invest sustainably.

We would like to invite you to join a live webinar with the new managers of the Kames Global Sustainable Equity Fund – Andrei Kiselev and Malcolm McPartlin.

Andrei and Malcolm took over management of the Fund on 1 May 2020 and will discuss their thoughts on how this is positioned to deal with current markets. They will also share their views on sustainability and the opportunities that ESG affords the Fund during a crisis like this.

High yield markets have rebounded significantly from their low point in March, as central banks stepped in to support credit markets and investor flows turned positive. The question is what the impact will be on the asset class.

Therefore, it is our pleasure to invite you for our High Yield market update webinar on May 14 at 4pm CET. During this webinar we will be discussing high yield investments in the context of today’s market circumstances dominated by the corona (COVID-19) crisis.

Topics that we will bring to the table, include
•Lessons earned from 2008
•Central bank measures in support of high yield investments
•Positioning in our portfolios
•Liquidity considerations

Jim Schaeffer, our Global Head of Leveraged Finance, and Spencer Hogeweg, our Lead Portfolio Manager of European High Yield, will be your speakers. Fernand Schürmann, our Partnership Relations Director, will be your host.
Please register via the link below.

Stephen Jones, CIO of our Multi-Asset & Solutions and Equities investment platforms, will be joined by Vincent McEntegart, Investment Manager, Multi Asset Investing, to discuss the latest market updates and the impact across asset classes.