Articles by Justin Jacobsen

Alternative Absolute Return – October 2024

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights Credit markets had their second negative month of 2024 in October as government bond yields reversed all the decline of the summer months. Credit spreads continued to grind tighter, with high yield spreads hitting […]

November 15, 2024

Alternative Absolute Return – August 2024

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights Market returns were driven by a combination of positive carry, narrowing spreads and lower base government bond yields. Short positions in credit were detractors on the portfolio. Contributors to the Fund included a position […]

September 11, 2024

Alternative Absolute Return – July 2024

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights We have put capital to work in new issues in the Canadian dollar high-yield market as some higher quality issues have come to market at meaningfully wider spreads than similar issues in the US […]

August 13, 2024

Alternative Absolute Return – June 2024

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights The Fund participated in new issues from Saturn Oil & Gas Inc (TSX: SOIL) and G. Cooper Equipment Rentals (private). Currently, the Fund is focused on shorter duration and event-driven positions with good carry […]

July 15, 2024

Alternative Absolute Return – May 2024

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights Despite historically expensive valuations at the start of the month, risk assets performed well. The Fund benefitted from several individual long positions where catalysts played out consistent with or even quicker than our initial […]

June 10, 2024

Alternative Absolute Return – April 2024

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights The Fund added to some higher quality, high yield positions in April. Following a market rebound, we raised cash in the later part of the month. We closed our short position in Charter Communication’s […]

May 2, 2024

Alternative Absolute Return – March 2024

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights Cash and T-bill holdings have been reduced by about 20% of net asset value to improve portfolio yield. Additions to loan holdings, with current yields from mid-7% to mid-8%, include high quality businesses like […]

April 11, 2024

Alternative Absolute Return – February 2024

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights Cash and T-bill holdings have been reduced by about 20% of net asset value to improve portfolio yield. Additions to loan holdings, with current yields from mid-7% to mid-8%, include high quality businesses like […]

March 12, 2024

Alternative Absolute Return – January 2024

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights A major theme in January was the reopening of the primary market in North American liquid credit, following limited issuance in late 2023. The Pender Alternative Absolute Return Fund selectively participated in new issues […]

February 12, 2024

Alternative Absolute Return – December 2023

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights One of the drivers of market performance in December was strong inflows for risk assets combined with limited new issue supply in credit markets. Despite our generally defensive positioning there are some areas of […]

January 9, 2024

Alternative Absolute Return – November 2023

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights In November we significantly added to our US Treasury Bill holdings as well as high-quality term loans. Our purchases included loans backed by Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT), TransDigm Group Inc. (NYSE: TDG) […]

December 7, 2023

Alternative Absolute Return – October 2023

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights Both widening credit spreads and higher government yields negatively impacted returns for the month. The Fund increased market exposure with the focus on high-quality, high yield bonds trading at attractive discounts to par. The […]

November 10, 2023

Alternative Absolute Return – August 2023

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights • The Fund benefited from volatility in credit markets with a bias to protecting capital. • The Fund’s exposure to event-driven positions was significantly reduced. The Pender Alternative Absolute Return Fund finished August with […]

September 8, 2023

Alternative Absolute Return – July 2023

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights The broad-based rally provided an opportunity to sell liquid high-yield positions at prices that we viewed as fully valued. There were several positive developments within our Event Driven book including Black Knight Inc. (NYSE: […]

August 15, 2023

Alternative Absolute Return – June 2023

Written by Justin Jacobsen

HIGHLIGHTS The Fund added to event-driven holdings, most notably the 5.75% 2026 notes issued by PDC Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: PDCE) which is in the process of being acquired by Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX). New issue activity […]

July 12, 2023

Alternative Absolute Return – May 2023

Written by Justin Jacobsen

HIGHLIGHTS With improved valuations, the Fund added to long credit positions, while also topping up short positions in equity index ETFs. We believe that the divergence between credit and equities, which has been widening since […]

June 6, 2023

Alternative Absolute Return – April 2023

Written by Justin Jacobsen

HIGHLIGHTS Several of our shorter duration holdings experienced solid gains in April, including secured bonds of Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC (private) and Life Time Group Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LTH). In banks, our focus was […]

May 4, 2023

Alternative Absolute Return – February 2023

Written by Justin Jacobsen

HIGHLIGHTS The Fund’s positioning was very defensive to start the month and finished with more market exposure compared to the end of January. However, we remain positioned defensively as spreads are tighter than the historic […]

March 9, 2023

Alternative Absolute Return – January 2023

Written by Justin Jacobsen

HIGHLIGHTS January 2023 was the strongest start to the year for credit since 2019 and the second strongest year since 2009. We added or established positions on bonds issued by SECURE Energy Services Inc. (TSX: […]

February 8, 2023

Alternative Absolute Return – December 2022

Written by Justin Jacobsen

HIGHLIGHTS The Fund added to loan exposures, participating in the TransDigm Group Incorporated (NYSE: TDG) new term loan, and added a position in Maxar Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: MAXR) 2027 bond. We exited our position in […]

January 9, 2023

Alternative Absolute Return – November 2022

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Absolute Return Fund finished November with a return of 0.3%[1], bringing year-to-date performance to 5.1%. November was one of the more difficult market environments for the Fund to navigate, as […]

December 7, 2022

Alternative Absolute Return – October 2022

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights There was a significant bounce in most asset classes, as dip buyers emerged following significant repricing from mid-August to mid-October Large macro moves have created pockets of dislocation within credit markets, especially between Investment […]

November 9, 2022

Alternative Absolute Return – September 2022

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Highlights: September proved to be another challenging month for markets. It was the third worst month for the high-yield market since 2008. Early September presented the Fund with some good relative value trading opportunities. If […]

October 13, 2022

Alternative Absolute Return – August 2022

Written by Justin Jacobsen

The Fund has marked one year since its inception and we are happy to now report the performance of the Fund. The Pender Alternative Absolute Return Fund finished August with a return of 1.5% bringing […]

September 9, 2022

Alternative Absolute Return – July 2022

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Absolute Return Fund finished July with a unit price of $9.81 and distributions of $0.04 per unit[1]. Download PDF July 2022 saw a strong rebound across most asset classes following […]

August 16, 2022

Alternative Absolute Return – June 2022

Written by Justin Jacobsen

Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Absolute Return Fund finished June with a unit price of $9.70 and distributions of $0.03 per unit[1]. Download PDF June 2022 saw significant weakness in the high yield market as […]

July 13, 2022