Capital MarketsCryptoTreasury Management
December 15, 2022

Posts, Podcasts and Video: The Best NeuGroup Content of 2022

A curated collection of favorite NeuGroup Insights posts, videos and Strategic Finance Lab podcasts. The NeuGroup Insights newsletter this week flashes back on some of our best content of 2022. That includes popular and topical articles—some based on proprietary NeuGroup Peer Research survey data—as well as videos and—new this year—podcasts (the Strategic Finance Lab, available on Apple and Spotify). To read the full email, please click here. The selections reflect the range of immediate challenges finance organizations faced in 2022—including tight labor markets, rising…
Capital MarketsInvestment Management
December 8, 2022

Cash Investment Managers Watch and Wait for the Fog to Clear

Many NeuGroup members are shortening duration and some are avoiding maturities beyond six months. “This is the most uncertain time I’ve ever seen,” said a representative of Allspring Global Investments at the fall meeting of NeuGroup for Cash Investment 2, aptly capturing the sentiment of many members. Uncertainty and a sense that interest rates will keep rising despite fears of recession are among the reasons many of them are keeping average portfolio duration short amid the extreme inversion of the yield curve.…
Capital MarketsInvestment Management
November 17, 2022

Kicking the Tires: Investing Cash in Working Capital Finance

Supply chain finance offers attractive yields uncorrelated to other assets, but non-IG funds present an obstacle. The search for attractive yields uncorrelated with—and more resilient than—other fixed-income investments led the investment arm of a large, privately-held multinational corporation to a fund that invests globally across trade receivable, payable and inventory finance assets. Representatives from Koch Investments Group and Pemberton Asset Management, a specialist alternative credit manager, discussed the benefits of the working capital finance asset class at a recent NeuGroup session…
Capital Markets
October 27, 2022

Overexposed to Fixed-Rate Debt, Not Ready to Swap to Floating

Inflation and uncertainty about interest rates leave many corporates waiting to add more floating-rate exposure. Discussions and polling about fixed- to floating-rate debt ratios among corporate issuers at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Capital Markets sponsored by Deutsche Bank made clear two key points: The overwhelming majority of companies are overly exposed to fixed-rate debt relative to what they consider ideal and what historical data suggests will reduce interest rate expense over the long-term.Volatile financial markets and uncertainty about inflation and…
Capital MarketsRisk Management
October 13, 2022

Debt Issuers, Don’t Doubt the Fed’s Resolve to Fight Inflation

Insights from Chatham Financial about pre-issuance hedging and tail risk. Companies that anticipate issuing debt should not underestimate the Federal Reserve’s resolve to fight inflation, Chatham Financial executives told members of NeuGroup for Mega-Cap Assistant Treasurers at a recent meeting sponsored by the risk management advisory and technology firm. In light of the Fed’s determination to get inflation back to 2%, Amol Dhargalkar, Chatham’s managing partner and chairman, raised several issues for treasuries to consider as they lay the groundwork for debt…
Capital MarketsD&I
September 8, 2022

Supporting Diversity Firms: Verizon, Morgan Stanley, Wellington

Influential issuers, banks and investors are pushing to give diversity brokerage firms more meaningful opportunities: NeuGroup’s Strategic Finance Lab podcast, episode 7.In a Strategic Finance Lab podcast you can hear by heading to Apple or Spotify or by hitting the play button at the bottom of this page, NeuGroup founder and CEO Joseph Neu leads a panel discussion on the roles corporate debt issuers, investment banks and investors can play in providing more meaningful economics and opportunity to banks and brokerage firms owned by Black people, Hispanics, women and members…
Capital MarketsD&I
September 7, 2022

Opening Doors: Keys to Using Diversity Firms in Bond Deals

Takeaways from a D&I working group session sponsored by Fitch Ratings featuring Loop Capital. At a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Diversity and Inclusion sponsored by Fitch Ratings, Sidney Dillard, partner and head of corporate investment banking at Loop Capital Markets, moderated a discussion featuring the experience of a corporate treasurer whose company made Loop Capital a joint active bookrunner on a large bond offering in 2021. Loop’s involvement in the deal is an example of providing more meaningful opportunities…
Capital MarketsInvestment Management
June 16, 2022

Go Short: The Case for Short Duration Credit

One portfolio manager’s investment in ultra-short securities helps shed light on an underrated way to pick up yield. Investment managers prospecting for opportunities to pick up yield as rates rise may find gold in the hills of short duration credit. At a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Cash Investment sponsored by investment management company Lord Abbett, the portfolio manager of a private university with a large endowment shared how he capitalized on rising yields for short-term investments by working with Lord Abbett at the…
Capital MarketsRegional
June 2, 2022

The Fed Won’t Derail the Economy, UMB Tells Assistant Treasurers

The bank’s positive forecast addresses concerns about rates, inflation, growth and unknowns ahead. UMB, the regional commercial bank, presented a surprisingly upbeat economic forecast for this year to assistant treasurers in a recent meeting, suggesting less likelihood they will face difficult choices to help guide their companies through a recession or skyrocketing inflation.  “On our side,” said an assistant treasurer attending the meeting of NeuGroup for Large-Cap Assistant Treasurers, “it’s fear of the unknown,” given the Fed failed to foresee the…
BankingCapital Markets
May 19, 2022

A Tale of Two Bank Revolvers 

One company has fewer than 10 banks in its revolving credit facility while the other has more than two dozen. How many banks does a corporation need or want in its revolving credit facility? The answer, no surprise, is that it depends on the company, a point driven home at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Mega-Cap Assistant Treasurers. During the session, two members discussed how they arrived at very different answers based on the particulars of their companies. Less…