The NAVigator

The NAVigator, from the Active Investment Company Alliance (AICA), talks all-weather investing and "excellence beyond indexing" through the use of closed-end funds (CEFs) & business-development companies (BDCs). AICA – a new organization that includes a diverse constituency that runs from investors through fund sponsors – aims to help investors & advisors plot a new and different course to financial success, via the tactical use of securities that mix active management within listed & non-listed structures. Subscribe now to get regular updates on everything you need to know to succeed with CEFs & BDCs.

The NAVigator is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 300 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts The NAVigator, a business show with 300 episodes published.

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  The NAVigator

  Are closed-end discounts putting Anthropic on sale pre-IPO?

  Oct 2, 202619 min

  With Anthropic preparing to launch an initial public offering that could value the company at over $2 trillion, John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors , looks at buying pre-IPO stakes in closed-end funds, interval funds and ETFs that invest in private markets, and says that getting exposure to Anthropic and other popular IPOs isn't the hard part, paying for the right wrapper is. Scott, who also serves as chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance , evaluates several funds of different structures to show what investors would actually be buying, how much they are paying per dollar of private exposure and why they have to come up with an exit strategy before they get in. He also discusses which fund and structure he would use for clients, and why some investors with different goals might make another choice.

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  The NAVigator

  Aberdeen's Kence on A.I.'s impact in the high-yield market

  Sep 25, 202618 min

  Matt Kence, Portfolio Manager at Aberdeen Investments , discusses the current state of the high-yield market and how it is responding to rising interest rates, noting that fundamentals remain surprisingly robust, with moderate levels of leverage and strong interest coverage. Kence, who manages the Aberdeen Credit Income Strategies fund (ticker ACP) says that defaults in the high-yield space have been well below long-term averages, but he does note that the selection of individual credits is critical right now, with the market seeing strong new issuance. Kence discusses the impact that artificial intelligence is making on the market — while noting that A.I. investments are a much bigger part of the private-credit market than the high-yield bond space — noting that while A.I.-adjacent industries like power generation feel stable, the spreads there are narrower than with less-proven companies developing A.I. products directly, making the bigger opportunity with the tech companies.

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  The NAVigator

  XA Investments' Choi on opportunities in the CLO market

  Sep 18, 202618 min

  Young Choi, Portfolio Manager for the XAI Floating Rate & Alternative Income Trust , says there is more value and broad movement in the secondary markets for equity collateralized loan obligations, whereas opportunities in debt CLOs have been more specific and sporadic. Choi, the global head of trading at King Street and a portfolio manager for Rockford Tower, which took over as advisor for the XAI fund, discusses how the CLO market has been changed by the emergence of CLO ETFs, noting that they debuted in 2021 and needed nearly a year to achieve $1 billion in assets, but now are seeing roughly $2 billion in in-flows every month, adding a "significant new and growing buyer" into the marketplace and compressing spreads. Choi also discusses differences in the private credit and CLO markets, noting that any blow-up or problem in the private space could have spillover effects that create buying opportunities in CLOs.

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  The NAVigator

  If you never capture the discount, is a fund still a bargain?

  Sep 11, 202617 min

  John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors , answers listener questions today, including one from an investor with two closed-end funds that have been stuck with large discounts seemingly the entire time he has owned them. Scott, who also serves as chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance , discusses how discounts change a fund's risk profile, even if they never get narrowed, and how investors should value and perceive those benefits. He also answers questions on achieving balance in a portfolio of closed-end funds, the drawbacks and benefits of using funds that invest in closed-end funds and more.

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  The NAVigator

  John Cole Scott says BDC 'software problems' aren't surfacing in the data

  Sep 4, 202617 min

  Business-development companies saw their share prices get hammered early this year as the market worried about an overexposure to parts of the software industry that could be negatively impacted by artificial intelligence. John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors , looked at BDC data before and since those problems and says it appears that fears of A.I. risk were exaggerated since "We're still not seeing software blowing up BDCs." Scott, who also serves as chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance , thinks it may take another two quarters of data to confirm that trend, but he says that BDCs have not seen a dramatic rise in non-accruals or "exacerbated losses ... in a material way," with research showing the a lot of the most severe issues were isolated in "the bottom cohort" of BDCs, the outliers with the most exposure that made headlines amid the software downturn early this year.

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