Malta High Income Fund Accumulator

The Fund aims to maximise the total level of return through investment, primarily in debt securities and money market instruments issued by the Government of Malta, and equities and corporate bonds issued and listed on the MSE.

The Investment Manager may also invest directly or indirectly up to 15% of its assets in “Non- Maltese Assets”. The Investment Manager will maintain an exposure to local debt securities of at least 55% of the value of the Net Assets of the Fund.

The Fund is actively managed, not managed by reference to any index.

The Investment Manager of the CC High Income Bond Funds – EUR and USD has the duty to ensure that the underlying investments of the funds are well diversified. According to the prospectus, the investment manager has to abide by a number of investment restrictions to safeguard the value of the assets

• The Investment Manager may invest up to 10% of the net assets of the Sub-Fund in un-listed Maltese and/or Non-Maltese Assets. As far as the “Non-Maltese Assets” segment of the Sub-Fund is concerned, the Investment Manager will not be targeting any international debt securities of any particular duration or coupon. However, the Sub-Fund is generally not expected to hold investments that, at the time of investment, are rated below “B3” by Moody’s or below “B-“ by S&P or in bonds determined to be of comparable quality by the Investment Manager.
• The Investment Manager will not be targeting any local debt securities (debt securities and money market instruments issued or guaranteed by the Government of Malta and/or local corporate bonds issued and listed on the Malta Stock Exchange) of any particular duration or coupon.
• The Investment Manager will, at all times, maintain a direct exposure to local debt securities (debt securities and money market instruments issued or guaranteed by the Government of Malta and/or issued and listed on the Malta Stock Exchange) of at least 55% of the value of the Net Assets of the Sub-Fund.
• The Sub-Fund may also invest in term deposits held with credit institutions regulated in Malta and other EU, EEA and OECD Member States.
• This Sub-Fund shall not invest, in the aggregate, more than 10% of the Net Assets of the Sub-Fund in units or shares of other UCITS or other CISs.

December 2022

Introduction

For months, sovereign yields amid the continued hawkishness and thus monetary tightening observed by leading central banks, headed higher. A pause was however witnessed in November. This, as market expectations, revolving around a possible easing in tightening policy measures, was witnessed. In December, a continuation of such previous stance was observed with Government bond yields, once more, heading notably higher and credit spreads widening across global markets.

In the month, Germany’s 10-year yield ended the month, 64bps higher than the previous month closing, at 2.57%. A similar trajectory was largely observed across other European sovereigns which closed the month notably higher compared to previous the month end. Such upward shift proved relatively more upbeat on both Italian and Spanish debt, tightening by 83 and 71bps respectively.

Market environment and performance

Forward looking indicators, namely PMIs continued to paint a somewhat gloomy landscape, noting a deterioration – albeit at a softer pace in both manufacturing and service segments – in the rate of growth. Manufacturing (reading 47.8 v a previous month reading of 47.1) remained in contractionary territory despite inflationary pressures easing and supply chains showing signs of stabilizing. Output fell the least since June while the decline in factory sales was the softest in four months. Services (reading 49.8 v a preliminary estimate of 49.1 and previous month reading of 48.5) showed signs of improvement, albeit pointing to a fifth successive drop.

In December, inflationary pressures continued to show signs of easing, with major economies in the euro Area witnessing a decline in pricing pressures, preliminary estimates showed. Notably, Germany saw headline inflation falling to 8.6 from 9.1%. France too saw inflationary pressures easing, falling to 5.9 from 6.4%, as cost declined for energy and services. Largely, inflation in the Euro area, dropped to 9.2 from 10.1%. Core inflation, which excludes transitory or temporary price volatility, edged higher to 5.2%. Supporting such trajectory was the decline in Producer Prices (PPI) – a forward looking indicator measuring the average change in the price of goods and services sold by manufacturers and producers in the wholesale market – down to 27.1 from 30.5%.

Fund performance

In December, the Malta High Income Fund registered a gain of 0.08% for the month, outperforming its internally compared benchmark which saw a loss of 0.09%.

Throughout the month the Manager continued to monitor market developments and retained high levels of cash as a cushion to mitigate volatility.

Market and investment outlook

Moving forward, the Managers believe in maintain a defensive stance given the current economic climate. Price pressures may well leave a negative impact on the Maltese economy, possibly hindering the forecasted pace of recovery. Such pace remains highly dependant on inbounds of tourism witnessed particularly over the peak season, which have seemingly proved optimistic as appetite for travel, increased.