Investment Strategies

RelatedViewpoints

• Sentiment Shift Fuels Lower-Rated Rally

  Uncovering relative value across high yield in 2020 may require looking in less obvious places.

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• EM Local Debt’s Time to Shine?

  Emerging markets (EM) local currency denominated debt may be poised to outperform.

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• Rates, Rallies & Risks

  Investment grade credit markets posted a banner year in 2019; can the good times continue to roll?

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• Risk-on, Risk-off & Repeat

  Sentiment continues to swing back and forth in the collateralized loan obligation (CLO) market, but bifurcation remains the constant.

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• Fear of Fallen Angels May Be Overblown

  Many headlines over the last year have called attention to the growth of the lower-rated BBB portion of the investment grade market—and predicted a wave of fallen angels to high yield. But in the last year, we have seen more HY companies upgraded to IG than the other way around.

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• 2020: An Inflection Point for EM Currencies?

  With the financial crisis more than a decade behind us, the global financial system seems poised to begin re-leveraging. This process, which would likely take years to play out, would provide a source of funding for EM currencies, and represent a significant tailwind.

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• A Bright Spot in Higher-Yielding EM Corporate Debt

  Many EM regions have been engulfed in uncertainty for weeks or months. While these situations certainly represent risks, we also continue to find value—often in globally diversified companies that have been unfairly punished by markets because of where they’re domiciled.

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• Amid Rising ‘Mequity’ Risk, Boring Can Be Beautiful

  In both the U.S. and Europe, there is significant pressure both at the top and bottom ends of the middle market. As a result, we’re seeing potentially attractive value today in the more traditional, true middle market.

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• The Continued Democratization of Private Equity

  Private equity is an asset class that has traditionally been available only to very large, sophisticated institutional investors. But this is changing rapidly—a trend we expect to accelerate in 2020.

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• U.S. Real Estate: More Reward in Core?

  As investors in the market continue to chase yield, the risk premium—or the reward for taking that risk—appears to be diminishing. In this environment, we’re seeing some of the best opportunities in the highest-quality assets.

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• Comeback Time for International Equities?

  Because the U.S. equity market is broad and deep, there will almost always be opportunities—but in aggregate, we think international equity markets may be more compelling over the next year.

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• CLOs: When Technicals Create Opportunity

  Taryn Leonard and Melissa Ricco, Co-Heads of the Structured Credit investment team, discuss where they're seeing opportunities and risks today—and why technical factors are creating inefficiencies, and hence opportunities, in the current environment.

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• CLOs: Triple C's and Market Unease

  Taryn Leonard and Melissa Ricco, Co-Heads of Barings’ Structured Credit Investment Team, discuss the recent loan market weakness, and how technical pressures are creating value opportunities in the CLO market.

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• Disruptive Technology: Keeping Pace With the Pace of Change

  Barings equity analysts, Matthew Ward and Colin Moar speak with Dr. Christopher Smart of the Barings Investment Institute about their recent whitepaper, “How Will Technological Disruption Strike Next?”

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• ESG for Sovereigns: One Size Does Not Fit All

  ESG has risen to the forefront of many investment strategies over the last decade. At Barings, our EM Sovereign Debt team takes a country-by-country approach, assessing ESG factors in the context of sustainability and—ultimately—creditworthiness.

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• ABS: Uncovering Opportunities Beyond the (IG) Index

  Amid an ongoing search for yield, with several potential risks on the horizon, there may be benefits to exploring opportunities outside of traditional corporate and government bonds—such as parts of the ABS universe.

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• EM Debt: Navigating the Geopolitical Noise

  From the Middle East to China to Argentina, investors face no shortage of geopolitical risks and negative headlines. But is there still value to be found across emerging markets? Dr. Ricardo Adrogué weighs in.

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• High Yield: A Time to be Nimble

  In this Q&A, Martin Horne, Head of Global Public Fixed Income, discusses the state of high yield markets amid a late-cycle environment, and why it’s critical to be nimble and selective in order to capture points of relative value.

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• Infrastructure Debt: Steady Activity, Lingering Macro Doubts

  Despite the expected seasonal summer slowdown, infrastructure debt financing deals remained steady overall in the third quarter of 2019—with strong activity in the U.S. and Canada, and slightly slowing activity in Europe, with a cautious eye toward Brexit.

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• The Power of Compounded Income

  Over 10 years into an economic recovery, we’ve continued to see new highs in equity indexes. In this Q&A, Darryl Lucas explains how a focus on resiliently growing companies, coupled with the power of compounded dividend and profits growth, can lead to strong returns over time.

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• IG CLOs: Strong Excess Return Potential, Lower Volatility

  IG CLOs can offer investors the benefits of spread pick-up and lower mark-to-market volatility, largely due to underlying collateral performance and structural security. But above all, manager selection is critical—even at the highest-rated tranches.

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• Investment Grade: Stable Fundamentals with Hints of Wear & Tear

  IG fundamentals held up relatively well in Q3, despite dampened sentiment and growing macro uncertainty. Spreads were unchanged, but may move wider before year-end.

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• Structured Credit: Engaging Risk Tactics

  Deal flow remained steady in Q3, keeping primary market spreads range-bound. Against a backdrop of low global interest rates, we have seen increasing investor interest in European CLOs.

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• Emerging Markets Debt: Taking a Hard (Currency) Stance

  EMD performance was muted in Q3, but valuations remain attractive and emerging economies are growing at a measured pace. We continue to favor hard currency assets, which are benefitting from lower rate expectations.

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• High Yield: Poised to Capture Relative Value

  Despite mounting uncertainty in the broader markets, high yield delivered broadly positive returns in Q3. As we continue to move through the late stages of a prolonged cycle, credit selection will be critical.

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• Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt: Does Active Management Pay?

  The performance of EM Sovereign Debt can—and does—vary widely from country to country. Barings’ Cem Karacadag explores how an active approach can be key to selecting the most attractive opportunities, while also avoiding the bad apples.

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• Are High Yield Investors Being Compensated for Risks?

  In the context of today’s fundamental backdrop and default outlook, spread levels suggest investors are being fairly compensated, relative to other points in the cycle, for the amount of risk they are taking.

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• The GFC: 10 Years On

  The mid-market continues to attract private debt investors as the Fed cuts interest rates. Could this fuel the economy and rev up the deal market, or are we nearing the end of the credit cycle? Eric Lloyd recently weighed in with a panel of experts for PDI.

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• Assessing the Countries Making Headlines Across EM Debt

  As emerging markets continue to dominate world news, Barings’ Ricardo Adrogué weighs in on the trade frictions with China, Venezuela’s evolving status as a political hotspot, and why he has high conviction in Mexico.

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• Where the Dry Powder Goes Next

  Stuart Mathieson and Bryan High, portfolio managers for the Global Special Situations strategy, discuss the outlook for distressed debt investing—and explain how they’re finding opportunities throughout the cycle.

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• Highlights from the Barings 360 Private Markets Conference

  Watch Barings CEO, Tom Finke, and other senior leaders discuss their key takeaways from the firm's signature private assets event.

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• A CIO's Perspective

  Barings' Jonathan Bock caught up with industry veteran, William Spitz, on trends in today's private markets.

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• Barings 360: For LPs, By LPs

  Attendees of the Barings 360 Private Markets Conference discuss the value of exchanging ideas and perspectives with their peers.

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• Private Credit: How Supply/Demand Dynamics are Shaping the Landscape

  Ian Fowler, Co-Head of the North American Private Finance Group, discusses the dynamics of each middle market segment—including upper-end style shift resulting from competitive pressures—and explains why the traditional middle is the sweet spot.

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• High Yield: Identifying Value Amid Shifting Sentiment

  Despite the sharp turns in high yield markets over the past two quarters, companies ticked along without flinching—posting strong earnings over the course. David Mihalick, Barings’ Head of U.S. High Yield Investments, explains why.

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• Global Emerging Markets Equities: Where Do We Stand?

  In this Q&A, William Palmer and Michael Levy, Co-Heads for Emerging and Frontier Equities, discuss their approach to accessing the asset class, current trends, and why recent headwinds may be becoming tailwinds.

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• Is There Style Drift in Middle Market Lending?

  Barings’ Ian Fowler weighs in on the supply/demand dynamics in the direct lending space and explains why looking at the middle market as one cohesive universe can be misleading.

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• German Equities Present Opportunities to Combat Headwinds

  In this Q&A, Rob Smith, Manager of the Barings German Growth strategy, shares his thoughts on how German equities are positioned to combat various headwinds, and which sectors the team expects future growth to come from.

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• Enterprise Software: Valuation Matters

  While industry dynamics remain healthy and growth prospects exist, current enterprise software valuations look stretched.

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• Tempering Enthusiasm for Mexico’s Corporate Bond Market

  Omotunde Lawal, Head of EM Corporate Debt, reports back from a recent trip to Mexico, where the Barings team conducted on-the-ground research through meetings with a wide variety of corporate issuers, economists and ratings agencies.

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• Forecasting The Next Decade: An Analysis Of Asset Returns

  Barings Multi Asset Group combines the underlying factors that will drive markets over the long term with today’s valuations to produce total return forecasts for major asset classes over the next ten years.

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• Why Russia May be Set for an Explosion in E-commerce Growth

  Historically a laggard in the e-commerce world, Russia is showing signs of life. But challenges remain.

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• High Yield Bonds & Loans: Where to Next?

  High yield markets roared back in the first quarter. Can market fundamentals and technicals support continued strength? And how should investors factor in risks ranging from possible recession, to ratings downgrades, to liquidity concerns? Barings’ David Mihalick weighs in.

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• EM Debt: Investing with Cautious Optimism

  Sovereign debt outperformed in Q1 as geopolitical headlines continued to garner attention and commodities rallied. Risks remain for the asset class but some notable headwinds have now become tailwinds.

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• Intangible Assets: The Royal Opportunity Set

  A subset of Intangibles, pharmaceutical royalties present a particularly compelling investment opportunity. Barings’ Jon Rotolo and David Jin explain why.

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• An Active Approach to International Smaller Companies

  Barings’ Nick Williams discusses the characteristics of the International Smaller Companies asset class, and explains why an active approach to investing in the sector best positions investors to generate attractive returns.

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• IG Credit: Can the Rally Last?

  BBB-rated credits led the first quarter recovery despite early signs of deterioration among fundamentals. With spreads significantly tighter this year, short duration credits may pose an attractive investment option.

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• Structured Credit: Receding Headwinds Support CLO Performance

  CLOs rebounded in the first quarter as credit concerns receded. Lower interest rates may drive continued interest in the asset class moving forward.

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• Intangible Assets: A Source of Uncorrelated Income?

  In today’s information economy, intangible assets continue to grow in size and importance. Barings’ Jon Rotolo and David Jin discuss the role these assets are playing in diversified portfolios through a real-world example in the pharma royalty space.

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• Real Estate Debt: A Time for Balance

  Dean Dulchinos, Head of Real Estate Debt Portfolio Management and Capital Markets, recently spoke with PERE about how he expects the U.S. real estate debt market to shape up in 2019—including the opportunities it presents, the shift in both investor types and risk-reward profiles sought, and how credit cycle placement is affecting the asset class.

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• How to Approach a More Accessible Chinese Equity Market

  Barings’ William Fong and Andrew Lee explore the different ways to access China’s onshore and offshore equity markets following the decision by MSCI to increase the weighting of China A-shares in their benchmarks.

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• Private Equity: Emerging, Women & Diverse Managers

  Amid increased competition and rich valuations, PE returns have continued to trend downward. In this interview, Barings’ Mina Nazemi discusses how allocations to emerging, women and diverse managers can potentially help combat this trend.

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• Monetary Policy’s Effect on EM Debt

  Rate expectations have changed materially across emerging and developed markets in the first quarter of 2019. What does this mean for emerging markets debt? Barings’ Ricardo Adrogué weighs in.

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• The Potential Benefits of Global Senior Secured Loans

  In the current environment, senior secured loans are gaining traction for their potential to offer a blend of attractive yield and protection against both credit and interest rate risk.

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• How We Assess Investment Opportunities

  In this video, Barings Global Emerging Markets Equities team explains its investment approach by discussing an opportunity at one of its weekly meetings.

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• Searching for Unrecognized Growth

  In this video, Barings’ Global Head of Equities, Ghadir Cooper, explains how the equities platform consistently identifies mispriced opportunities.

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• Navigating Change in China

  Barings’ Global Head of Equities, Ghadir Cooper, assesses the transformation of China’s economy, and explains why investors should be encouraged by the country’s decisive policy actions.

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• EM Debt: Navigating a Shifting Macro Backdrop

  After a rocky 2018, the picture may be brightening for emerging markets debt. From rising rates to trade wars, some of last year’s headwinds look to be receding, at least for now. Barings’ Ricardo Adroguè and Omotunde Lawal highlight opportunities they’re currently seeing.

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• An Underappreciated Subset of High Yield

  For investors willing to surrender a nominal amount of yield in favor of greater protection given a default, global senior secured bonds can be an attractive option in a recessionary environment.

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• EM Debt—A Brightening Picture?

  Barings’ Ricardo Adroguè and Omotunde Lawal highlight opportunities they’re seeing from Mexico and Brazil to more challenged geographies like Turkey and Argentina—and provide insight into how they’re thinking about political hotspots like Venezuela.

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• High Yield: Five Takeaways for the Months Ahead

  From trade wars and Brexit to central bank posturing and recessions, there is no shortage of risks facing today’s markets. As we consider high yield in the context of this turbulent environment, there are five takeaways we think are worth considering in the months ahead.

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• The Changing Face of Investment Grade Credit

  In a recent interview, David Nagle, CFA, portfolio manager in the Investment Grade Fixed Income Group, discussed the investment grade credit market, including some of the issues garnering headlines recently and how the market has evolved through the years.

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• Investment Grade Credit—Rates, BBBs and ABS

  From inverted yield curves to potential BBB downgrade risk, Barings’ David Nagle discusses some of the key challenges facing investors in the IG markets today.

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• Brazil: A New Frontier?

  Following the country’s national election, Barings’ Latin American equity team takes a look at how Brazil is positioned and what reforms the new president may consider to boost the economy.

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• Seeking Value in Today’s Private Credit Market

  In this Q&A, Barings’ Eric Lloyd discusses his team’s approach to navigating the risks and capitalizing on the opportunities across the global private credit markets.

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• How Opportunistic Is Your Investment Grade Allocation?

  Michael Freno, Head of Global Markets, discusses the benefits of 'multi-asset' or 'opportunistic' credit portfolios and the newly-launched Barings Global Investment Grade Strategies.

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• Investing in the European Private Credit Market

  Taking a Disciplined Approach is the Key to Delivering Attractive Risk-Adjusted Returns

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• Is it Time to Consider a Blended Approach to EMD?

  How can investors tap into the diverse opportunities within EM debt? Ricard Adrogué, Head of Emerging Markets Debt and Omotunde Lawal Head of Emerging Markets Corporate Credit Research, weigh in.

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• 5 Things to Consider When Investing in Private Credit

  In this piece from Benefits and Pensions Monitor, Barings’ Ian Fowler discusses five key considerations for investors interested in allocating to private credit.

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• Climbing High Yield’s Wall of Worry

  The global high yield markets face a number of risks. Yet, these markets have continued to scale such a ‘wall of worry’ for the last decade. Should we expect more of the same, or are we nearing a turning point in the cycle? Barings’ Martin Horne weighs in.

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• Navigating Risks in Today’s High Yield Markets

  In this Q&A, Barings’ Head of Global High Yield, Martin Horne, discusses how the Barings team is navigating some of the major risks—from a trade war and Brexit negotiations to rising rates and a maturing credit cycle—present in the markets today.

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• Navigating European Real Estate Markets

  In this Q&A, Paul Stewart, Head of European Real Estate Research & Strategy, discusses how investors in the asset class can allocate capital in an uncertain interest rate environment, while facing potential headwinds such as Brexit and the threat of trade wars.

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• Opportunities Across Energy and Power Generation

  As long-term structural demand trends converge with short-term technological innovations, opportunities are emerging to invest private capital in real assets.

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• Making Sense of Today's EM Debt Environment

  Dr. Ricardo Adrogue, Head of Barings' Emerging Markets Debt Group, discusses risks and opportunities in today's dynamic landscape - and how investors can seek to navigate it.

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• Second Chances

  The market for infrastructure investments has become increasingly competitive. In this piece from i3, Barings’ Naoki Ohta discusses the infrastructure secondaries market and where Barings is seeing opportunities today.

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• Why the German Equity Market is About More Than Autos

  In this Q&A, Rob Smith, manager of the Barings German Growth Trust, shares his thoughts on how German equities are placed amid potential headwinds that include trade disputes with the U.S., Brexit and continued pressure on the autos sector.

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• A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Managing Private Equity Risk

  In the realm of private equity, a robust risk management framework can deliver less volatile, higher-quality performance results over time.

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• Maintaining Discipline in a Maturing Credit Cycle

  With competition high and signs of mispricing of some assets, Eric Lloyd of Barings stresses the importance of a global and diversified approach to portfolio construction.

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• How Diversified Is Your Emerging Markets Debt Strategy?

  There may be significant benefits to using a blended approach to this asset class

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• Why Recent Weakness in EM Equities Presents an Opportunity

  In this commentary, which appears in September’s edition of IPE, William Palmer and Michael Levy explain why they believe the factors that have contributed to the weak share price performance are temporary in nature, and growth prospects for the asset class remain attractive.

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• A Compelling Opportunity in Real Assets

  Compelling structural and cyclical dynamics are creating attractive opportunities in real assets, particularly across the energy value chain and power generation sector.

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• Active Short Duration: A Versatile Strategy

  David Nagle, Head of Multi-Strategy Fixed Income, on what sets Barings’ Active Short Duration strategy apart.

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• Managing Duration and Interest Rate Risk

  David Nagle describes the Active Short Duration strategy’s unique two-pronged investment process.

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• Solving for Tight Spreads & Rising Rates

  David Nagle discusses how the Active Short Duration strategy can help investors to solve some of the challenges fixed income investors face today.

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• Barings Alternative Investments – Who We Are & What We Do

  Across Real Estate, Private Equity and Real Assets we leverage our deep origination capabilities, and on-the-ground knowledge, to provide access to differentiated opportunities.

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• Private Market Opportunities

  At Barings, we serve as a strategic partner to our clients, offering customized solutions and access to niche opportunities in areas like real assets, emerging managers and the lower middle market.

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• Investing in Music Publishing & Recording Rights

  From a small investment in 2005 to one of today’s leading independent music publishing companies, learn more about how we helped Concord Music Group to become the success story it is today.

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• Investing in Wireless Infrastructure

  By recognizing a trend early, and actively managing a portfolio of assets, we helped Wireless Infrastructure Group grow into one of the U.K.’s largest wireless infrastructure players.

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• Investing in the Smart Cities Theme

  Stephen Burns, Managing Director, Alternative Investments, discusses the opportunities created as cities become “smarter” in the way they address changes like urbanization and growing population.

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• Investing Through an ESG Lens

  Mina Nazemi, Managing Director of Alternative Investments, weighs in on how investing through an ESG lens can provide a more complete view of risks and opportunities.

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• Madison Centre

  This cutting-edge office tower in Seattle’s central business district exemplifies how global research, coupled with local insights, helps uncover attractive opportunities.

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• Seeking Opportunities Across Global Real Estate Markets

  At Barings, we leverage our deep teams, global presence and expertise across the four quadrants of real estate as we seek to help our clients turn opportunities into real solutions.

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• Case Study: Madison Centre – From Idea to Reality

  This cutting-edge office tower in Seattle’s central business district exemplifies how global research, coupled with local insights, can help uncover attractive opportunities.

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• How We Invest in Global Real Estate Markets

  At Barings, we leverage our deep teams, global presence and expertise across the four quadrants of real estate as we seek to help our clients turn opportunities into real solutions.

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• Constructing & Managing a Private Equity Allocation

  In this Q&A, Rick Spencer discusses the potential benefits of an alternative investment strategy focused on funds and co-investments, and touches on some of the less understood challenges facing investors.

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• Can Emerging Markets Withstand Global Monetary Tightening?

  Global central banks have stopped easing, with tightening likely to follow. Is the time to invest in EM behind us, or can these markets thrive as monetary conditions tighten? Ricardo Adrogué, head of Barings' Emerging Markets Debt Group, weighs in.

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• A Global Approach to High Yield Investing

  In the Conversations piece, Barings’ Sean Feeley and Chris Sawyer discuss the potential benefits of a global approach to high yield.

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• Multi Credit Investing: Embracing the High Yield of Today

  Over the past decade, the growth and expansion of the global high yield markets have transformed the way investors view the asset class. In this article, we discuss the potential benefits of considering a multi credit, “through-the-cycle” approach, which can give investors’ high yield allocation more flexibility, potentially improving their ability to capitalize on opportunities across the global high yield markets as they materialize throughout the credit cycle.

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• German Equity Outlook

  While market volatility has risen at the start of 2018, Barings continues to see attractive investment opportunities in German equities. In this viewpoint, we tell readers why and where we see the greatest investment potential.

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• A New Dawn for Emerging Markets Equities

  EM equities are enjoying a strong rebound following five years of underperformance versus developed markets. In this piece, Barings’ portfolio managers explain why they maintain an optimistic outlook for the asset class.

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• Intellectual Property as a Real Asset

  In this Viewpoint, we examine the definition of “real assets” and explain how intellectual property exhibits characteristics consistent with other real assets.

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• EM Local Debt: Focused on Fundamentals

  Barings' combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis and tools provide a comprehensive and rigorous framework for investing in emerging markets local debt. In this Viewpoint, we give readers an inside look into our investment process.

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• Investing in Commercial Aviation

  By identifying a structural trend and sourcing the right assets, we’ve built and grown a portfolio of commercial aviation assets, generating income and capital appreciation for our investors along the way.

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• How We Invest in Private Equity & Real Assets

  At Barings, our approach to investing in private equity and real assets is different. Learn about how we’ve implemented a consistent and repeatable process to identify, source and actively manage real assets and asset-based businesses for more than a decade.

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• Seeking Relative Value in Global Private Debt

  As institutional investors continue to turn toward private debt for potentially attractive risk adjusted returns in a low-yielding environment, they may benefit from taking a global approach to the asset class.

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• Cyclical Evolution and Structural Revolution

  In this piece from Preqin, Barings’ heads of U.S. and European real estate research explore the ways in which structural shifts within cities and industries are presenting an evolving set of opportunities and risks for investors.

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• Opportunities in Private Equity and Real Assets

  Jonathan Rotolo, Head of Private Equity / Real Assets, discusses the potential benefits of an alternative investment strategy focused on real assets and asset-based private equity and what such an approach looks like in practice.

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• Investing Strategically in High Yield

  Barings’ Martin Horne and David Mihalick discuss the benefits of taking a long-term, multi-credit approach to investing in global high yield bond and loan markets.

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• An Alternative Approach

  In this Viewpoint, we discuss the unique real asset and private equity investing strategy employed by Barings Alternative Investments.

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• VIDEO: How is this cycle different?

  Head of European High Yield, Martin Horne weighs in on how this credit cycle has differed from those in the past and what that means for investors.

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• VIDEO: European High Yield Opportunities

  European High Yield Bond Portfolio Manager, Craig Abouchar discusses why the Barings team see value in the single-B market.

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