Aegon juggle long/short sovereign debt positions for uneven recovery

Aegon's fixed income team has been utilising a number of sovereign debt pair trades in its Strategic Bond fund to take advantage of an uneven global recovery.

Managed by David Roberts and Phil Milburn, the £281.7m Strategic Bond fund has a number of short positions in debt from countries experiencing a strong recovery and which are likely to face rising interest rates. The managers have mitigated the shorting risk by pairing the positions with debt from slower-recovering governments. In its most recent deal, the team opened a 7.5% short position on Canada – paired with a long position in Germany. The deal follows a similar cross-market trade between Australia and Sweden earlier  this year. Before the position closed at the end of Marc...