Investment Selection and Execution

Apex manages its investment portfolios utilizing rigorous fundamental credit analysis. We began managing leveraged loan investments 14 years ago employing a proven and consistent approach to identifying investments with attractive risk-adjusted returns, while adhering to our tenet of capital preservation.

Our experienced professionals operate under a collaborative and scalable process to construct highly diverse portfolios. Additionally, the senior portfolio team has successfully managed investments through a variety of economic conditions and market environments.

Sourcing

  • Relationships with all leading dealers in the primary and secondary markets, many through 15+ year relationships
  • CLO portfolios are comprised of diverse assets originated by all established loan arrangers

Credit Approval

  • Primary transactions undergo a preliminary review to determine suitability
  • Detailed credit underwriting and risk / return analysis completed on all obligors and assets
  • Primary and secondary purchases require unanimous approval by the Investment Committee

Trading

  • Daily interaction with all leading broker / dealer trading desks
  • Real-time market color and name-specific trading insight

Credit Monitoring

  • Experienced industry-focused credit analysts support the portfolio management team
  • Daily reviews of company, industry, and market news
  • Quarterly reviews and affirmations of credit opinions for all positions
  • Watch list assets reviewed in detail

Bottoms-up Research

Apex’s bottoms-up research is tempered with a top-down view of the industries in which we invest as seen over business and credit cycles. The portfolio management and research team also considers varied structural and legal characteristics of the loan assets that could impact expected returns. Lastly, our expectations for near term capital markets conditions round out the decision making process. Longstanding relationships with all leading leveraged loan dealers provide broad access to investment opportunities and trading liquidity.

INVESTMENT SELECTION

Attentive portfolio optimization and investment monitoring are as important to performance as selecting the right investment opportunities. The dynamic process of searching for both overvalued and undervalued investments in our actively-managed portfolios maximizes the long-term performance of the funds. In addition, ongoing risk management identifies emerging problem assets and focuses the team on preserving principal.

CUSTOMIZED IT PLATFORM

Underpinning Apex’s investment process is a robust and customized IT platform that encompasses portfolio management, credit research, trading, fund compliance, and investment performance. This systems support is an essential resource in the data intensive business of investing in leveraged loans and managing CLOs.