Despite a challenging first quarter that saw most of Fortress Fund Managers’ portfolios experiencing marginal declines, chief executive officer Peter Arender said the outlook remains “fairly positive” while advising investors to “continue to expect things to be noisy” amid geopolitical upheaval.
Arender, who also serves as chief investment officer, reflected on a period that “certainly wasn’t boring”, as he updated mutual fund investors on the company’s Barbados dollar and US dollar equity and bond investments.
“It was a noisy quarter in the investing world and we ended just down a little bit on the quarter after a very strong year . . . in 2025,” he reported.
“Under the surface, though, there was a lot of up and down, the year started with kind of a continuation of what happened in 2025 with a lot of strength in international and emerging markets equities, especially even some continued strength in fixed income, in bonds, reflecting rate cuts to come from the US Federal Reserve.”
That positive momentum, however, was abruptly halted by external events.
“All of that kind of came unstuck at the end of March with the war in Iran starting. At that point, oil prices increased significantly, bond prices fell, stock prices fell, and by the end of the quarter, we were at a low ebb for the quarter, after we started strong, but then finishing down just a little bit,” Arender said.
The firm’s Barbados dollar-denominated funds felt the impact.
The Caribbean Growth Fund “was negative 1.7 per cent for the quarter, that puts its one-year return at positive 7.7 per cent”. The Caribbean High Interest Fund “was down 0.3 per cent for the first quarter, that puts its one-year return at 2.8 per cent positive”.
Saw opportunity
On the US dollar side, the World Growth Fund “was down three per cent for quarter one, its one-year return is 9.1 per cent and the World Fixed Income Fund [was] negative one per cent for the quarter and is positive 1.8 per cent for the one-year”.
Arender said the firm saw opportunity amid the declines, adding corporate and government bonds, and US stocks to its portfolios.
He remained optimistic about the firm’s positioning despite expecting continued turbulence.
“Looking forward, our outlook is still quite good. We think that our portfolios are in good shape in terms of the valuation of things we own, stocks and bonds,” he said.
“So the outlook is still fairly positive, but let’s continue to expect things to be noisy. It’s the kind of world that we are in.” (SC)
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