News

A.M. Best reports, “Greg Michaud has an admittedly unscientific yet simple way to describe what happened to the commercial real estate investment market at the end of 2022.” Voya’s head of real estate finance says, “It just froze,” describing how “his team did about $3 billion of business in the first six months of the year, followed by about $500 million in the second half.” He adds, “I’ve never seen a year that’s been that volatile.” Best’s Review says the COVID-19 pandemic and rising interest rates triggered a “fundamental shift” in the markets, “specifically as to how insurers view commercial real estate investments and which classes attract the most interest.” A.M. Best associate director Jason Hopper says, “Insurers have been moving away from office and retail for a couple of years now, focused more on multifamily and industrial.” He blames inflation and interest rates as the two biggest factors, a conclusion that Michaud does not entirely endorse. Michaud argues, “It was 100% interest rates. Initially what you get as interest rates jump is that people pull back, because all of these owners of property thought they were going to sell it at a low capital rate. Buyers are now unsure where rates are going. I don’t necessarily think interest rates have to drop to make the market move but they have to stabilize.

WisdomTree, Inc. (NYSE: WT), a global financial innovator, and Voya Investment Management Co. LLC (“Voya”), the asset management business of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced today the launch of the WisdomTree Voya Yield Enhanced USD Universal Bond Fund (UNIY) on the NASDAQ. UNIY seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Bloomberg US Universal Enhanced Yield Index and has an expense ratio of 15 basis points.

WisdomTree and Voya have a long-standing relationship, with Voya acting as sub-adviser to UNIY, as well as to several of WisdomTree’s portfolios. WisdomTree and Voya’s collaboration on the creation of UNIY is a natural evolution of their relationship and highlights what we believe are the complementary strengths of both firms.

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced that it has earned inclusion in the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) for the eighth consecutive year. Voya joins 483 other companies as a member of the 2023 Bloomberg GEI, a modified market capitalization-weighted index developed to gauge the performance of public companies dedicated to reporting gender-related data.

Reuters reports equity indexes “closed lower on Wednesday.” The Nasdaq “closed down 1.35%, hitting a new bear-market closing low for the technology-heavy index, as investors shied away from growth stocks and riskier bets.” Wednesday’s loss “marked a drop of more than 36% from Nasdaq’s November record closing high.” Amit Sinha, Head of Multi-Asset Strategy at Voya Investment Management, “said Wednesday’s stock declines stemmed from ‘noise’ such as low liquidity and tax loss harvesting where investors sell money-losing investments.” Sinha said, “Today there’s nibbling away at risk and selling for tax loss harvesting purposes. ... Markets have been going down for the course of December. There’s a negative sentiment and momentum already.” Sinha “sees ‘reasons why people want to sell’ with 2023 presenting uncertainties around the Fed’s rate hiking path in terms of whether it can control inflation without damaging the economy.” He said, “There’s no compelling reason to be on the other side. It exaggerates the price decline.”

A video on Bloomberg featured a panel discussion from Bloomberg’s The Future Investor: Harnessing the Technology of Today. Among the panelists was Voya Investment Management co-Chief Investment Officer for Equities Vincent Costa. Responding to prompt about improvements to 401(k) plans, Costa said, “We’ve seen a lot of improvements even over the past few years, from automatic savings rates and automatic enrollment and customized advice.” He added, “One of the things that I’d like to see is continued flexibility for 401(k) clients.”

Pensions & Investments reports, “Twelve money management deals took place in the third quarter of 2022. In the third quarter of 2021, there were 32 transactions.” Voya Investment Management “agreed to acquire Czech Asset Management with an undisclosed amount that is not material to Voya’s financial position. Pzena Investment Management Inc. is becoming a private company in a $795 million all-cash transaction through a merger with its subsidiary.”

Voya Investment Management, the asset management business of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced today that it was selected by Allstate (NYSE: ALL) to manage the firm’s $850 million commercial mortgage portfolio effective Nov. 14, 2022. Allstate will retain ownership of the assets, which will transfer to Voya IM under a separately managed account and the existing assets will remain part of Allstate’s portfolio. Voya will be responsible for future originations consistent with maintaining a target allocation to the asset class on behalf of Allstate.

In addition, as part of the agreement, Allstate will transition approximately seven employees who constitute their commercial mortgage team to Voya Investment Management (Voya IM). These employees will be integrated into Voya IM’s commercial mortgage team, led by Greg Michaud, and will help manage Voya’s commercial mortgage mandates, including the Allstate portfolio.

Voya Investment Management, the asset management business of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced today that Matt Toms, CFA, has been appointed to the newly created role of global chief investment officer (CIO).

Toms, who has served as CIO of fixed income for Voya Investment Management (IM) since September 2016, will now lead the firm’s more than 300 investment professionals who are managing approximately $330 billion in assets under management across fixed income, equities, multi-asset solutions and alternative strategies. He will continue to report to Christine Hurtsellers, chief executive officer, Voya IM.

Bloomberg reports the Federal Reserve’s “tightening campaign has slowed deal-making activity in commercial real estate markets, leading Wall Street syndicates to forecast a fall in sales of the bonds that securitize the underlying mortgages.” In an interview, Voya Investment Management Securitized Credit Head David Goodson said, “This was one of the few subsectors that was running above trend through the first half of the year, and the market was just saturated with CMBS supply, so the pullback in issuance expectations has been a good thing.”