Corporate bonds: Where are the opportunities and risks?

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Kevin Doran, manager of the IFDS Brown Shipley Sterling Bond fund, highlights the key themes he is playing in his portfolio.

Since the Bank of England cut the base rate to 0.5% in March 2009, we have been seeing what can effectively be called a “war on savers”. The war has never been officially declared, but there have been casualties nonetheless. Anyone with cash on deposit has seen the real value of their money eaten away as bank interest rates have lagged far behind inflation. In fact, many savers have seen the real value of their deposits decline by around 15% over the four years. Many of those unwilling to accept the erosion of their capital through this combination of low interest rates and rising ...