Institutional Investors

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The Paradigm Shift and the Case for Credit

By increasing credit allocations and reducing equity exposure, investors can make their portfolios more resilient to continued market volatility. They can also capture value from the fact that fixed income yields are much more attractive today than equity earnings yield by historical standards.

Credit Market Themes in 5 Charts

Q4 2022

2022 was a challenging year for the markets, but we believe there are a number of reasons to be optimistic about fixed income and credit in 2023. Through a series of charts, we highlight the credit market themes and opportunities we are focused on today.

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Value vs. Values

The Evolution of ESG Considerations for Pension Plan Investments

Over the past several years, pension funds have been thrust into the center of the ESG debate due to the influence they have on the actions and practices of large corporations as large stewards of capital. In our article published in The Observer by the Association of Canadian Pension Management (ACPM), we highlight the spectrum of approaches that Plans have taken and how ESG integration complements – rather than compromises on – investment performance.

Read the Full Article on The Observer

Download the PDF

Value vs. Values - the evolution of ESG considerations for pension plan investments - title page featuring hanging light bulb photo

The Hurdles Facing Foundations Have Never Been Higher

Responding to a higher disbursement obligation in a lower return environment

In light of the Government of Canada's decision to increase the disbursement quota for foundations, we believe foundation executives and trustees should look to “Active Credit” to improve the return potential of their fixed income allocation.

Cover of The Hurdles Facing Foundations Have Never Been Higher document

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RPIA Develops a Bespoke Fossil Fuel Exclusion Strategy for Institutional Investors

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new strategy, RP Broad Corporate Bond (Fossil Fuel Exclusion), designed in partnership with our client, University of Toronto Asset Management (UTAM), and in collaboration with FTSE Russell. Learn more about the strategy and how the first-of-its-kind screening approach was developed!

What Should An Allocator Do With Their Core Bond Portfolio?

Faced with a challenging return environment, pension and endowment investors are presented with some difficult choices. We believe that a thoughtful unbundling of the fixed income allocation can help investors preserve liquidity needs and generate more income than a traditional core allocation without increasing portfolio risk.

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Our Solutions

We serve a broad range of investors through a variety of solutions catering to their unique investment goals. We apply our differentiated active skillset in all our strategies, which vary from low-risk to higher-risk. Although our toolkit and risk/return levels vary across our suite of products, our credit expertise, proprietary technology, and rigorous risk management is applied throughout. We have collaborated closely with institutional investors in developing several of our strategies to ensure that the portfolio mandate aligns with their long-term investment objectives.

RPIA Develops a Bespoke Fossil Fuel Exclusion Strategy for Institutional Investors

RPIA Develops Carbon-Reduced Fixed Income Solution

Investment Process

RPIA's approach is to apply a highly active, dynamic investment process that enables us to consistently extract value from the global credit market, driven by security selection. Investors do not need to compromise on credit quality or sacrifice liquidity to improve their portfolio returns. Our active approach can be distilled into four steps:

1. The Investment Committee uses their expertise and experience to collaborate and identify a key theme based on prevailing macroeconomic conditions.

2. The Credit Research Team conducts deep-dive research to determine the most compelling issuer, drawing from their knowledge of the sectors each team member covers.

3. We utilize our proprietary technology and expertise to identify the most attractively priced bond within that issuer's capital structure

4. The Portfolio Management Team sizes the position accordingly within the strategy based on factors such as conviction level, existing exposures, and liquidity considerations to name a few.

The entire process is overseen by our independent Risk Management Team and Committee who analyze policy constraints, stress testing, and concentrations across strategies.

Our Strategies

RPIA offers a range of investment strategies reflecting our investors' diverse risk and return objectives. Our flagship institutional long-only strategy is RP Broad Corporate Bond, which has evolved into a suite of strategies for specific goals in collaboration with investors. In addition to our institutional-focused mandates, we also offer absolute return-focused strategies.

1. Long-Only Strategies

RP Broad Corporate Bond
RP Broad Corporate Bond (BBB, Fossil Fuel Exclusion)
RP Broad Corporate Bond (Fossil Fuel Exclusion)

2. Alternative Credit & Fixed Income

RP Debt Opportunities
RP Select Opportunities
RP Fixed Income Plus

3. Mutual Funds

RP Strategic Income Plus Fund
RP Alternative Global Bond Fund

Learn more about our strategies

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ESG

RPIA considers Environmental, Social, and Governance ("ESG") factors when making investment decisions for all the strategies we manage. When we include these factors alongside traditional financial metrics, we can think more broadly about risk and make more prudent investment decisions. In other words, it is in the best interests of our investors to integrate ESG into our process. Through our in-depth credit research, we are in regular communication with the management teams of the issuers in which we invest. We have also partnered with an institutional investor to design a strategy that targets specific ESG outcomes and, in this case, an Environmental outcome. We have been a signatory to UN PRI since 2018 and have several other industry memberships ( learn more).

Download Our ESG Policy Read Our 2021 Sustainability Report

Explore Our Funds

RP Broad Corporate Bond

This actively managed credit strategy's primary objective is to outperform the FTSE Canada All Corporate Bond Index net of fees in a risk-controlled manner. The strategy aims to add value through superior credit selection across global credit markets and avoid uncompensated interest rate risk by remaining duration-neutral versus the benchmark.

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RP Broad Corporate Bond (BBB, Fossil Fuel Exclusion)

An actively managed credit strategy whose primary objective is to outperform the FTSE Canada Corporate BBB Index net of fees by 100 bps on an annualized basis. The strategy extends on our longstanding Broad Corporate Bond investment process by including explicit ESG targets. Investments in tobacco and munitions are prohibited, and the strategy aims to keep the carbon intensity at least 30% lower than the index.

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RP Broad Corporate Bond (Fossil Fuel Exclusion)

An actively managed credit strategy with the primary objective of outperforming the FTSE Canada All Corporate Ex Fossil Fuels Enhanced Bond Index by 100 bps (net of fees) on an annualized basis. The strategy merges our long-standing investment process with a transparent, rules-based approach to screening fossil fuel exposure out of the portfolio.

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Publications

Credit Market Themes in 5 Charts - Q4 2022

Read More (Credit Market Themes in 5 Charts - Q4 2022)

The Paradigm Shift and the Case for Credit

Read More (The Paradigm Shift and the Case for Credit)

Value vs. Values

The Evolution of ESG Considerations for Pension Plan Investments

Credit Market Themes in 5 Charts - June 2022

Read More (Credit Market Themes in 5 Charts - June 2022)

The Hurdles Facing Foundations Have Never Been Higher

Read More (The Hurdles Facing Foundations Have Never Been Higher)

What Should An Allocator Do With Their Core Bond Portfolio

The Right Mix

Active Credit as a Complement to Private Debt

Fixed Income and the Transition to Net-Zero

Read More (Fixed Income and the Transition to Net-Zero)

Financial Institutions - In Scope

The Role of Financed Emissions on the Path to Net-Zero

Read More (Financial Institutions - In Scope)

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Where's Your Ambition?

The Fed Will Keep Going... Until Something Breaks

February 2023 Newsletter

2023 has been a year marked by extremes. In early March, the market was fixated on the possibility of central banks having to increase the “terminal rate,” but the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the potential financial contagion risks that emerged from it, resulted in the quickest interest rate repricing in nearly 40 years. We discuss our views on the impact on the financials sector specifically and the market environment broadly.

Nearing the Other Side of the Tightrope

January 2023 Newsletter

As the year begins on a hopeful note, the shift away from artificially low interest rates and liquidity-flushed markets is making this a credit-pickers market once again. In this newsletter, we discuss how our game plan is evolving and the emphasize need to be flexible, selective, and targeted in this environment.

DEI Beyond the Abbreviation

Leveraging diversity and promoting inclusion

A culture of inclusion is key to retaining talent in this competitive job market and several studies have persuasively argued that diversity in a team leads to better performance. Many firms are proactively looking to broaden the diversity of their teams with this goal in mind. In this article, we revisit why inclusion matters and suggest ways for managers to foster more inclusive environments.

Value vs. Values

The Evolution of ESG Considerations for Pension Plan Investments

Over the past several years, pension funds have been thrust into the center of the ESG debate due to the influence they have on the actions and practices of large corporations as large stewards of capital. We highlight the spectrum of approaches that Plans have taken and how ESG integration complements – rather than compromises on – investment performance.

ESG Articles

Is the "Greenium" Dead?

The Maturing of ESG Debt Markets

In the past few years, we've seen ESG-labeled bonds benefiting from a cost advantage that became known as the "greenium." As the ESG bond market has grown, we've noticed this "greenium" fade as the market matures and the advantages ESG bond issuers once had becomes tied to the ambition of their projects, not just the label of their bond.

Climate Risk Takes Centre Stage

Codifying Climate Disclosures

The SEC recently unveiled its landmark proposal requiring companies to disclose a variety of climate-related data as part of their annual reports and audited financial statements, covering both quantitative and qualitative information. We see this as an important step in the codifying of climate-related risks in line with what we already see in the Eurozone.

Continued Firsts for the Canadian SLB Market

Tamarack Valley Energy's example of tying social impact to their financing

Tamarack Valley Energy made a mark in the Canadian SLB market as the first Canadian oil and gas exploration and high yield issuer to enter the SLB market, tying financing costs to their ESG targets.

Evolution of the EU Taxonomy

The Inclusion of “Transition” Technology

The EU Taxonomy is a classification system that defines environmentally sustainable economic activity under EU law. in this article, we take a look at where we stand and our views on the taxonomy, especially for natural gas and nuclear energy.

Relationship Team

Liam O'Sullivan

Principal, Co-Head of Client Portfolio Management

Ann Glazier Rothwell

Principal, Co-Head of Client Portfolio Management

Kripa Kapadia

Principal, Client Portfolio Management

Zachary Barsky

Vice President, Client Portfolio Management

Irvin He

Analyst, Client Portfolio Management