Square Mile directors: What is in the pipeline for 2022?

Investment Week Q&A

Lauren Mason catches up with Square Mile’s CIO Mark Harries, and investment directors Chris Fleming and Andrew Johnston, about the current market backdrop, where the best investment opportunities are and what is in the pipeline for the business over the course of 2022.

What was your outlook right before the pandemic, and how has this changed compared to what it is today? Andrew Johnston (AJ): We were fairly cautious on the outlook at that point. We felt we were relatively late cycle; the yield curve inverted towards the end of 2019, which was a red flag. So, we were already underweight equities. At that point, we had introduced some US Treasuries to help protect on the downside rather than gilts. Because at that point, they were yielding quite a bit more.  We had also introduced listed infrastructure as a relatively economic insensitive asset class....