Unum Group Chief Executive Officer Thomas Watjen is shying away from adding junk bonds to the insurer's investment portfolio after yields plummeted.
“There are times like now maybe where high-yield gets too hot,” Watjen, whose company holds about $40 billion of fixed- maturity securities, said today in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “You just can't get enough return in the sector to justify investing, given the risk parameters of that asset class.”
Yields on speculative-grade debt tumbled to a record low of 7.19 percent in May before rising to 7.45 percent as of July 22, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data. That compares with an average borrowing cost of 12.6 percent on similarly rated companies two years earlier, the data show.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to Treasury & Risk, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited Treasury & Risk content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Thought leadership on regulatory changes, economic trends, corporate success stories, and tactical solutions for treasurers, CFOs, risk managers, controllers, and other finance professionals
- Informative weekly newsletter featuring news, analysis, real-world case studies, and other critical content
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
