George Soros loaded up on corporate bonds ahead of 2023 rally

GEORGE Soros’s investment firm piled into US corporate bonds as yields on fixed-income securities hit multi-year highs in late 2022. Soros Fund Management purchased about US$255 million worth of the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond exchange-traded fund (ETF), according to a regulatory filing on Monday (Feb 13). The ETF now comprises 4.4 per cent of its US$5.7 billion US equities portfolio, its third-largest position. Wealthy individuals and asset managers have been flocking to the bond market to take advantage of the highest yields in years after the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest-rate increases. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield eclipsed 4.3 per cent in October, the highest level since 2007. Bonds have bounced back in recent months as investors bet that slowing economic growth and receding inflation could spur the central bank to end its tightening campaign. The US$36.7 billion corporate-debt ETF held by Soros, known by its ticker LQD, has returned 6.8 per cent since the end of the third quarter. Soros Fund Management also added a new position in biotech company Horizon Therapeutics, which announced in December that it would be acquired by Amgen. The firm purchased 2.86 million Horizon shares worth about US$325 million during the three-month period that ended Dec 31. Soros, 92, has a net worth estimated at US$8.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He has used his fortune to fund groups promoting justice, democracy, human rights and progressive politics through his Open Society Foundations. He’s poured billions into his philanthropic efforts, and most of his firm’s assets now belong to the foundations rather than the Soros family. Money managers overseeing more than US$100 million in US equities have to file a 13F form within 45 days of the end of each quarter to list their holdings in stocks that trade on US exchanges. It’s one of the few places to gain insight into how hedge funds and some large family offices invest. BLOOMBERG