Investors trying to assess what the Covid-19 crisis will mean for their portfolios have started to look to previous crises – and in particular the global financial crisis (GFC) – for answers. It’s understandable, and in some cases the comparison may be instructive. However, it is important to note that the Covid-19 crisis is very different to the GFC in many ways. Nils Rode, Chief Investment Officer, Schroder Adveq “During the Covid-19 crisis, some companies will be mostly unaffected and others will face only a temporary decline in activity without requiring additional capital. Certain companies however, will need additional capital injections to weather the storm. Duncan Owen, Global Head of Real Estate “In normal circumstances one of the attractions of real estate is the stable rental income. Leases are legal contracts and landlords reserve the right to evict tenants who do not pay their rent. Professional investors generally avoid letting space to weak businesses and build portfolios with diversified income streams. It has been unusual for the rental income on real estate portfolios to fall. Even in the global financial crisis, the total rental income on UK real estate portfolios only fell by 1% (source MSCI). Jerome Neyroud, Head of Investments, Infrastructure debt “With countries around the world in lockdown and basic freedom of movement being (understandably) put on hold, GDP will take a severe hit. The jury is still out as to how long the lockdowns will last and how the recovery will look. As such, while we do not expect supply of financing to cause the issues it did in 2008, underperformance by business we lend to is a concern, both from a short term, liquidity perspective and mid term, solvency viewpoint. Philipp Mueller, Chief Executive Officer, BlueOrchard “In general we have seen some very proactive measures from many of the emerging and frontier markets that we invest in. Countries like India, Georgia and Kenya have taken firm action to try and limit the spread of Covid-19, by closing schools, borders and even enforcing full lockdowns. Dirk Lohmann, Head of ILS “The ILS market has shown strong resilience since the outbreak of Covid-19 versus major corrections in the listed equity, commodity and debt markets. As observed during the GFC, the uncorrelated nature of ILS to the economic cycle is providing investors with some stability.

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