Hedge Fund Awards 2016

Hedge Fund Awards 2016 11 In this gripping series on how Candriam is changing the face of the alternative investment market Philippe Noyard, Head of High Yield & Credit Arbitrage Management and his Deputy, Patrick Zeenni provide us with an in-depth overview of their fund and the market it operates in. Candriam has operated in high yield market since 1999 and we implemented our long-short strategies after the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2009. We have two absolute returns strategies. Our team is growing, with a diverse group of staff from various backgrounds with many of them that have been working together for many years. Today there eight of us working in the high yield and credit arbitrage management team. There are three main pillars to our investment approach. The first pillar is something we call our ‘helicopter view’ approach to the market. This essentially means en- suring we have a full global picture on our market to help us spot the best opportunities and trends enabling greater flexibility in our investments. The second pillar is our active and high conviction management. We are continually assessing the value of each investment in our portfolio and will look to increase the weight of these positions in-line with our increased conviction. Finally the third pillar is our disciplined risk management approach, which seeks to limit the key risks: macro risks; through dynamic tail risk hedging, and micro (idiosyncratic) risks; through strong sell discipline. We also always look at the underlying sovereign risk of any issuer. Currently, it is a good time to invest in high yield products, especially to benefit from high dispersion through active long/ short strategies. The high yield market is growing at a fast pace, as it is more and more diversified with increased number of players. Selectivity is more than ever needed, creating opportunities for us. Our mid-volatility strategy – Candriam bonds credit opportunities – has delivered over 5 years the same re- turns as a high yield market, with only 50% of the maximum drawdown of the high yield market and witch one third less volatility. We focus on delivering superior risk adjusted returns even in a volatile environments. Owing to our success we have won a number of awards from across the financial industry, which highlights how our three tiered approach is providing strong returns for our investors and bringing us industry acclaim. Working in a changeable market such as ours we always endeavour to be reactive to the market and are set up for all market conditions, which puts us in a strong position in today’s credit markets. Our strategy is designed to extract consistent alpha in credit markets, it offers good performance potential in a negative rate environment, along with disciplined risk management which is particularly key in today’s highly dispersed and volatile environment. Company: Candriam Investors Group Web: www.candriam.com