How does a bond manager get attention these days? Well, you can either be Bill Gross (but who wants that kind of publicity?) or you can invite a few industry journalists to a three-course lunch in New York to extol the merits of your strategies.

The bond gurus at Delaware Investments did just that, by hosting a luncheon for reporters at Manhattan’s legendary 21 Club restaurant, with the help of their external PR firm Mount & Nadler.

Roger Early, co-chief investment officer and fund manager on the firm’s total return income strategy, said that despite fears of rising interest rates and a low expected return environment for bonds, he’s still seeing a decent amount of interest in fixed-income strategies.

He said the interest falls into one of three themes: pension investors that are looking for long-duration strategies to offset the equity-driven volatility in their portfolios, interest in global bond strategies or in U.S. strategies from international investors (and he noted that Delaware now has better avenues into a global marketplace, having been acquired by Australian bank Macquarie in 2009) and investors trying to hedge interest rate risk via floating rate strategies.

David Hillmeyer, senior portfolio manager for the total return strategy, who focuses on floating rates, then shared some insights as to how these strategies can be used to hedge risk. “I think of it a a long-term protection strategy., like buying insurance in your 30’s rather than in your 70’s.” Greg Gizzi, senior portfolio manager for municipal bonds, also outlined some opportunities he’s seeing in the muni market.

The Delaware executives got peppered with questions from some 10-12 journalists, while everyone devoured a three-course lunch of shrimp cocktail, pasta and rich chocolate cake in a separate third-floor banquet room at the 21 Club.

Contrary to its name, Delaware is headquartered in Philadelphia and has about $190 billion in assets under management, of which 70 percent is in fixed-income strategies and the rest is in equities. 

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