SYZ Group

OYSTER - European Corporate Bonds ranked Number 1 in the Netherlands over 10 years

Banque SYZ SA / SYZ Group: OYSTER - European Corporate Bonds ranked Number 1 in the Netherlands over 10 years . Processed and transmitted by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

                                                                                                        
OYSTER - European Corporate Bonds ranked Number 1 in the Netherlands over 10 years

Geneva, 28 April 2015. A sub-fund of the OYSTER SICAV registered in the Netherlands, OYSTER - European Corporate Bonds EUR fund was ranked best fund in the Netherlands over 10 years by Lipper in the "Bond Euro - Corporates" category. OYSTER SICAV is a Luxembourg domiciled UCITS managed by SYZ Asset Management (Luxembourg) SA, a member of the SYZ Asset Management division. This accolade underlines the breadth of winning strategies offered by SYZ Asset Management division, which is already well-known for its European equities franchise. Indeed, in the past, Absolute Return and Dynamic Allocation funds managed by SYZ Asset Management division have received several awards in Europe.

Top-performing corporate bond strategy
Managed by SYZ Asset Management (division, the OYSTER - European Corporate Bonds EUR fund has been advised since inception by Andrea Garbelotto, Head of Fixed Income at Banca ALBERTINI SYZ SpA, the Italian bank of the SYZ Group. OYSTER - European Corporate Bonds EUR is actively managed through a conviction portfolio mainly focused on European investment grade securities. The fund follows a "top-down" approach, with a fundamental macroeconomic scenario driving the allocation by quality (rating), sectors, countries and seniority. In the current environment the fund is offering an attractive extra yield by mainly being overweight in subordinated instruments and BBB names.

«These outstanding results are based on an active investment strategy with an opportunistic approach. The outperformance comes from actively combining macro-economic forecasts, bond selection and duration management in our investment decision process. » commented Andrea Garbelotto, the fund's advisor.

«Technical factors will remain the key drivers of credit markets' performance in 2015. Amid expectations of modest Eurozone growth in 2015, rising geopolitical tensions and deflationary risks, the ECB's monetary policy continues to be expansive, in contrast to an increasingly hawkish Fed, which looks set to enter a rate-hike cycle in mid-2015. The size of the programme is at levels that more than balances the expected net issue of government bonds over the next two years, and, in our view, will contribute significantly to the efforts being made to guarantee the sustainability of public debt in higher-risk countries. In this context, we are positive on the European credit markets in 2015 and we prefer BBB-rated bonds, financial, subordinated & hybrids, as well as long-term maturities (5-10Y) », added Andrea Garbelotto, the fund's advisor.