Jupiter's Gibbs piles into Barclays bonds

Philip Gibbs, manager of Jupiter's £710m Jupiter Absolute Return fund, has been "massively increasing" his position in Barclays debt in the belief that high yielding bonds represent a major opportunity.

The manager said he had been adding significantly to the bonds, which are yielding 9%, since the end of January. Funding for the position has predominately come through a paring of Gibbs' exposure to Australian government bonds. Gibbs said he was surprised some high yield spreads had not tightened further given the scenario being priced in by equity markets. "Yields of 9% when sovereign yields are at 2-3% look extraordinarily attractive in the absence of an Armageddon scenario, which when you look at equity markets at the moment seems a million miles from the truth. "So it is perha...