'Investors should expect nothing from bonds'

'Investors should expect nothing from bonds’

SGPB Hambros chief investment officer Eric Verleyen tells Julia Rampen which areas of Europe are likely to prosper, what he looks for in a fund manager, and why he is adding absolute return strategies to his portfolios.

The rally in equities seen in 2013 has petered out so far this year, while fixed income funds have made very small gains. What are your expectations for the rest of the year? It is quite an interesting time, because we have seen volatility return. Six months ago, volatility was low, but we expected something to happen to change that, even though the fundamentals of the economy were not that bad. It has since come back for geopolitical reasons. People have been getting more and more nervous about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and this meant July was not a great month. We saw a pullback ...