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 Overall, a choppy month from a combination of wider credit spreads, higher sovereign rates and uncertainty surrounding the U.S. debt ceiling. Positive contributors were Cineworld Group PLC, Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc, and Emergent BioSolutions Inc as catalysts emerged for these severely discounted bonds. Canadian rate-reset preferreds are at levels last seen in 2016. History suggests […]
Highlights The strongest contributors to the Fund were Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc., Emergent BioSolutions Inc., Esperion Therapeutics Inc., and Bausch Health. Decliners in the Fund included McDermott International Inc., PHI Group Inc., and American Tire Distributors Inc. In April, the Fund added a new position in DISH Network Corporation which is building out an ambitious 5G […]
Highlights The Fund returned 2.6% in the first quarter. Over the last three years, performance has been strong at 17.3%1. One of the major areas of market concern during the quarter was the meltdown of Silicon Valley Bank. We do not own any U.S regional banks in the Fund, nor any banks for that matter. […]
The Pender Corporate Bond Fund returned -0.5%[1] in March. Although the period was a strong one for the high-grade part of the portfolio, a few idiosyncratic events in particular lines and widening spreads in lower-tier credit holdings led to a net negative result for the month. Highlights Most of the Fund’s investment grade holdings were […]
Highlights The Pender Corporate Bond Fund had a relatively strong performance amidst a market that saw larger price declines in both high yield and investment grade bond benchmarks. We added a position in the 2028 unsecured bonds of Brazilian payments processing specialist, StoneCo Ltd. An equity portfolio holding of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the company’s bonds […]
Highlights Most of the holdings of the Pender Corporate Bond Fund rose as lower benchmark yields coincided with narrowing spreads for corporate bonds. Significant performers included positions in discounted convertible bonds as holdings in Eventbrite Inc., Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. and Esperion Therapeutics Inc. each gained in excess of 10%. New positions included recycling an […]
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