The Apostle Loomis Sayles Senior Loan Fund, which mainly invests in US senior loans, posted a return of +8.29% in January, a record for the Fund.
The manager attributed the excellent result to a rally in loan markets, which in previous months had been dragged down by forced selling from leveraged vehicles. This appeared to stop in January, allowing bargain hunters to buy up across all credit sectors. The manager also attributed the result to the generally high quality of loans that make up the Fund's portfolio, loans that will most likely survive challenging market conditions in 2009.
Looking ahead the manager expects prices to remain low, based on continuing poor economic news, although there will be an influx of new capital into the sector.
