Invesco targets lower-grade debt

corporate bond managers focus on a and bbb bonds believing gilts could be set to fall in price

Invesco Perpetual's corporate bond fund managers are focusing on lower grade debt. Paul Read, who manages the £461m Invesco Perpetual Corporate Bond fund with Paul Causer, expects spreads to tighten lower down the quality scale. This is not a new view on his part. Read has been been taking the maximum credit risk possible within his mandate for much of 2002. This had led to strong outperformance over the past three months to 6 January. Over that period the Invesco Perpetual Corporate Bond fund is ranked first of 78 in the sector, bid-to-bid, after returning 3.5%, compared to the s...