“It almost seems as if we are living in a different universe” says Roel Jansen, co-lead portfolio manager of NN IP’s Euro Investment Grade Credit strategy. If you look at the IG space over the last couple of months, investors seem to have zoomed in on loose monetary policy and the light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel, and to have tuned out all the other “noise”. The calm market belies a busy work environment, according to fellow Co-lead Alfred Meinema, where there is plenty of interest in the strategy. But with spreads virtually back at early 2020 levels and low yields, what is the appeal of Euro IG? Jansen and Meinema both agree: a lot of the upside is that there is very little downside. With negative yields on safe government paper, institutional investors are moving into IG where they can get a small positive yield without worrying about getting their money back. A trend that looks set to continue.