Ignis

The past three years have been a tumultuous time for the financials sector, which has seen a phase of deleveraging, rights issues and balance sheet repair which continues to this day.

BONDS

Ignis Argonaut's Barry Norris believes concerns over a possible euro collapse are overstated, despite S&P's raft of downgrades last Friday putting further pressure on the single currency.

The decision by Standard and Poor's to strip France of its prized AAA-rating came as no surprise to a number of fund managers.

ECONOMICS

Phoenix Group's proposed takeover offer from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners was well received by the market yesterday, with the firm's share price soaring.

Phoenix Group, the parent of Ignis Asset Management, is considering a takeover offer, believed to be around £1bn, from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners after a bid from rival Resolution fell through.

Mark Holden has revamped the Ignis UK Focus fund since taking over last month by cutting all financials exposure, reducing the number of holdings and increasing cash.

The loss of France's AAA-rating would be a worse scenario for the global economy than the downgrade of the US, said Ignis chief economist Stuart Thomson.

Ignis' top performing property manager George Shaw has cut the cash weighting in his £854m UK Property fund by a third in the last few months as he eyes up a move to increase the fund's yield.