Geoff Castle is the Lead Portfolio Manager, Fixed Income, having managed the Pender Corporate Bond Fund since September 2015. He also manages the Pender Bond Universe Fund and Pender Credit Opportunities Fund.
Geoff’s career as a professional investor spans two decades and includes experience in both public mutual funds and proprietary investment fund management for ultra-high net worth individuals.
His area of expertise is in fundamental business analysis and valuation which he applies to credit markets to find enhanced yield or price appreciation opportunities in situations where substantial margins of safety exist.
Geoff’s philosophy involves controlling risk through careful consideration of credit duration and fixed charge coverage, and the fair valuation of each security class on an as-liquidated basis. Geoff also has been an active proponent of the use of objective, market- and fundamentals-derived risk measurement systems, which he believes are more useful than agency credit ratings.
Geoff holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from UBC and a Master of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
Highlights The Fund enjoyed one of its best performing months in May. Key contributors were Novavax convertible bonds, Fannie Mae preferred shares, Lucid Group Inc., Emergent BioSolutions, and OPKO Health Inc., along with numerous Canadian preferred shares. Two detractors were EchoStar Corp and American Tire Distributors Holdings Inc. The Pender Corporate Bond Fund enjoyed one […]
Highlights: Higher risk-free rates offset line-item strength in the portfolio. Positive performance in areas including cinemas helped our positions. We continue to look beyond a single macro idea to other options to generate returns. We initiated positions in the convertible bonds of Revance Therapeutics Inc. and the secured bonds of Porch Group Inc. After an […]
" In finance textbooks, "risk" is defined as short-term volatility. In the real world, risk is earning low returns, which is often caused by trying to avoid short-term volatility." - Morgan Housel Dear Unitholders, The Pender Strategic Growth & Income Fund (PSGIF) returned 7.1% in the first quarter of 2024. The one year return was […]
Highlights Large positive moves came from some deeply discounted bonds including Esperion’s 2025 notes, Lucid Group’s 2026 convertible bonds, and 2028 bonds of Emergent BioSolutions. Convertible bonds in Equinox Gold (2029) and OPKO Health (2029) provided further gains. The wide valuation divergence between certain pockets in the credit markets and the tight spreads in the […]
Highlights: Positive contributors included convertible notes from Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. and Bandwidth Inc., and from our position in Lucid Group. A few weak spots included our position in the credit of SSR Mining Inc due to operational challenges at that company's Copler mine in Turkey. However, we believe the credit coverage of the 2039 notes […]
Highlights: Through December and January, the Fund initiated a position in the bonds of Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. which is the largest worldwide pure-play company in the mining and refining of platinum group metals. January saw a selloff in Canadian investment grade bonds and limited gains in high yield indices. Esperion Therapeutics Inc. was the Fund’s […]
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