Fund performance

March madness sees most funds give up gains made in Q1

After a positive start to the year, credit funds ended the quarter with a step backwards; just under 30% of those listed reached positive returns for the month.

Creditflux index returns March (%)

Five categories were represented across the top 10, with three CLO funds climbing high. Prospect, Fair Oaks and Crystal generated returns of 3.37%, 2.50% and 1.20% respectively, despite the CLO index performing towards the bottom at -1.54%.

Scio and Orchard enjoyed top 10 finishes for two funds each, as all four multi-strategy and corporate long-short credit funds returned above 1.20% for the managers.

Axiom continues to lead the way in 2023 after another positive month pushed the corporate long-short fund to 13.52% year-to-date. CLO fund managers Lupus Alpha and Crystal Fund both compete with multiple funds for the spots that follow as their returns range from 10.32% to 9.53% YTD.

Leading fund

Prytania’s Athena Fund

Prytania’s Athena Fund pushed high up the rankings as it returned 5.83% in March. The structured finance fund bounced back from February’s -1.09% and has reached 9.30% year-to-date, placing it in the top 10 funds of 2023 so far.

Prytania’s chief investment officer, Mark Hale , says: “The MTM [mark-to-market] of the portfolio increased by 3.91%, with gains most notable in UK CMBS and European ABS holdings. Interest and principal receipts added the remaining 1.91%, net of fees and expenses.

“The weakness in markets allowed the fund to add to European CMBS holdings twice in March, at very opportunistic levels.”

Top credit funds in March (%)

Athena Fund vs structured finance cumulative fund (%)

*Data since fund inception (Jul-2018)

**Estimates

For hedge fund listing notes see Credit hedge funds

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