‘An opportunity to hear first-hand from global experts’ – MeDirect Head of Products & Marketing

MeDirect Malta Head of Products & Marketing Ingrid Micallef recently highlighted the bank’s commitment to continue providing investors with “information and insight” on the global economy through its medirectalks series.

She was speaking during a recent medirectalk which saw senior representatives from specialist fund management firm Liontrust address investors in Malta on the potential of high yield bonds. Organised regularly by MeDirect Bank, medirectalks provide a “free and unique opportunity” for investors to hear directly from some of Europe’s most experienced fund managers on a broad range of investment strategies and asset classes.

Ms Micallef noted that the event, which was the bank’s third medirectalk of 2023, was also the first in person event of the year. While it specifically focused on high yield bonds, she remarked that the talk also gave investors “the opportunity to hear first-hand from the global experts at Liontrust on how they see the global economy evolving this year”.

“This combination of detailed information about particular investments, coupled with broader economic insight from a wide variety of sources is what makes the medirectalk series so popular,” she said.

“In an uncertain world, MeDirect will continue to provide high quality information and insight to empower investors to make the best financial decisions for them,” Ms Micallef concluded.

Liontrust’s Co-Heads of Global Fixed Income, Phil Milburn and Donald Phillips, together with Sharmin Rahman, Investment Manager within Liontrust’s Global Fixed Income team, were the guest speakers at the latest event which took place at Hyatt Regency Hotel in St Julian’s.

Starting with an overview of the macroeconomic context, Mr Milburn explained Liontrust’s views on the outlook for inflation and interest rates and how these will continue to impact the broader global economy throughout the current year.

This presentation was followed by a more detailed look at Liontrust’s own GF High Yield Bond Fund with Mr Phillips presenting an analysis of the fund’s performance as well as Liontrust’s current thoughts and positioning for the fund given what is currently happening within the investment sphere. He also discussed the outlook for the rest of 2023, highlighting why the company believes there is “considerable positive potential in quality high yield bonds”.

Ms Rahman provided details on the holdings within the fund and the rigorous selection process adopted by Liontrust when choosing which bonds to invest in. the presentations were followed by a question-and-answer (Q&A) session and a drinks reception during which attendees continued to discuss their investment options with representatives from both Liontrust and MeDirect.

Head of International Sales at Liontrust James Beddall, who moderated the Q&A session, said: “2023 has, without doubt, already provided its fair share of challenges as investors continue to grapple with how the higher inflation and interest rates which we are currently experiencing will continue to impact the real economy.”

“Our overall outlook now is for interest rates to peak at a lower level than previously anticipated and for a mild recession in the latter part of this year. In this context, there are real opportunities to make money from the quality end of the high yield bond market over the long term, but investors need to be careful in choosing where to invest in as the risks of default by weaker companies increase,” he added.

Liontrust was launched in 1995 and is headquartered in London with offices in Luxembourg and Edinburgh. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1999 and entered the FTSE 250 in 2020. At the end of 2022, the company had a total of €36.8 billion in assets under management, of which €441 million were managed by the Global Fixed Income team.