News

A press release carried in Business Wire reports Centaurus Renewable Energy, developer “of the Arroyo Solar & Storage Project in McKinley County, New Mexico, announced today that it has closed a $70 million construction bridge loan facility provided by Voya Investment Management, the asset management business of Voya Financial.” The credit facility “will be used to make payments for project equipment and for other development and construction expenses.” Voya Investment Management’s Direct Infrastructure team, led by Tom Emmons and Ed Levin, organized the transaction.

In an appearance on Bloomberg TV’s Bloomberg Markets: The Close, Voya Investment Management Fixed Income CIO Matt Toms discussed the debate over when a tightening of Federal Reserve policy is likely to begin. Toms said the Fed is “trying to keep the optionality to taper before December ... and they’re going to go into Jackson Hole and debate, is a September announcement likely to get going?” Toms said the “big debate is do you start in October after a September announcement, or do you wait for the new year?” Regarding the recent bond market turmoil, Toms said there was “a whole rate cycle in the month of June, to where Fed rate hikes or the talk of taper caused a selloff, and then the immediate feedback is, oh dear, what if they do begin to become less dovish?” As a result, Toms said fixed-income markets “begin to already price in the what-if scenario once they start to move.” Toms said that means the “very long end of the bond market” is unlikely to move out of the 1.5-2% range on the 10-year Treasury bond, “and that’s ultimately a really good predictor of the terminal Fed funds rate, one-fifty to two percent.”

MarketWatch reported that as more Americans emerge from lockdowns, and those in the West seek to escape extreme heat, “the appeal of going anywhere, even ‘nowhere special,’ has deepened.” However, skepticism remains about “gathering in a movie theater with strangers,” and commercial property bond investors “weren’t always thrilled about the big, boxy setup of these buildings even before the pandemic hit.” Voya Investment Management Head of Securitized Investments Dave Goodson said in an interview, “We didn’t like movie theaters, generally to speak of, even pre-COVID,” adding “that upkeep can be expensive, even before thinking about what retrofits might be needed to attract another kind of tenant if a theater chain goes out of business.” Goodson said, “Uncertainty around the space, that’s been accelerated with COVID. It forces us to be more cautious.”

Voya Investment Management (Voya IM) announced today that its private credit platform completed the first close of a new infrastructure debt fund focused on project financing in the renewable energy space. With over $300 million in commitments, the first close comes on the heels of Voya IM’s hiring of Tom Emmons and Edward Levin, co-heads of Voya IM’s direct infrastructure team responsible for the origination, underwriting, structuring and management of mezzanine and stretch senior opportunities in renewable energy infrastructure projects.

Ignites reports, “The old days of sales teams determining who handles each advisor based on where the client lives and the size of its portfolio are over, distribution executives say.” Voya Investment Management Head of Distribution Enablement and Intelligence Jane Conway said the rapid shift to hybrid sales and digital engagement has accelerated changes in how sales teams cover advisors. According to Conway, that “means moving away from traditional coverage models based on ‘zoning’ that mapped out how wholesalers could most efficiently visit clients in a territory.” Conway said, “In our new ways of working, we wonder if zoning is even important. What Covid has taught us is to be innovative in the way that we engage with clients.”

MarketWatch reports that airlines are starting to use frequent flyer programs as “collateral for bondholders.” Airlines are making the pledges against their programs because they can generate cash by selling frequent flyer miles to credit card issuers, who, in turn “offer them as part of their reward programs to their customers.” The article says that “the revenues earned from selling the miles” to credit card issuers “are much higher than the cost of any flight travel redeemed by passengers.” Voya Investment Management Fixed Income Portfolio Manager Cliff Andrus said, “The customer doesn’t realize the margins are quite high.” According to the article, “Even with reduced demand for air travel, the mileage programs still hold their value.” Andrus said, “You’re going out to spend money on your credit card, whether or not you’re flying.” According to some analysts, using frequent flier programs as collateral “represents a desperate move by airlines that are looking for any assets that they can pledge.”

Pensions & Investments reports Voya spokesperson Kristopher Kagel confirmed that Voya Investment Management Managing Director and Head of Product Management and Development Bill Golden assumed Stephen Dougherty’s responsibilities as a managing director and head of structured assets and alternatives. Pensions & Investments mentions that “Dougherty was named global head of product at Aegon Asset Management.”

Bloomberg TV What’d You Miss? featured an interview with Voya Investment Management CEO Christine Hurtsellers, who discussed her thoughts on stock market performance and macroeconomic trends. According to Hurtsellers, the U.S. “still has a long way to go before” the economy returns to its pre-pandemic level, especially as the unemployment rate remains above 10%. However, Hurtsellers said that the “underlying fundamentals and momentum” of the economy “are actually quite good,” with “retail spending rebounding,” and more activity on the restaurant-reservation platform OpenTable. When asked about the relative strength of the stock market, and if the Fed’s liquidity actions are obscuring some risks to investors, Hurtsellers answered, “I would say, for the most part, no,” adding that “when you peel back the covers and look deeper into the market ... we are still seeing a tale of two cities, meaning that” some sectors, such as commercial real estate “have really lagged.”

Voya Chief Investment Officer for Fixed Income Matt Toms was on Bloomberg TV discussing debt markets and what factors are likely to have an impact in the future. Looking forward, Toms said, “in our view, it’s unlikely that [the Federal Reserve] needs to specifically use yield curve control ... the market is saying the Fed is near zero for an extended period, beyond 2-3 years all the way out to that 5 year bond. It’s only at the very back end with that 30 year where you see the real steepening, so bond markets are saying we could stay at a low level for a very long time.”

Voya Investment Management Head of Securitized Dave Goodson was quoted by GlobalCapital as it looks at how the pandemic and subsequent economic shock have impacted the asset-backed securities market. Many asset issuers have adopted forbearance as “an integral part of ... relief plans to buy some time for their clients to recover.” However, Goodson believes that it remains unclear what direction the economic recovery will take and “the key question is how forbearance translates into real, observed delinquencies” in the market. Looking at specific sectors such as aviation that have been particularly hard hit, Goodson believes that “there will be a return to normal at some point when a vaccine arrives, but the road to that point will be difficult.”