PPM America Inc, (“PPM”) has been focused on the US debt market since our inception in 1990, and it has been a key component in how we have structured our teams and strategies. We continue to focus on government and corporate credit research, which includes managing our US Bond, US Corporate Bond and US Investment Grade strategies.

PPM’s mission is to deliver specific client solutions and service to investors around the world with the goal of meeting clients’ unique investment objectives. We have the expertise to provide client investment solutions in public fixed income, public equity, private equity and private debt. Our investment approach is guided by team-based values and our firm size allows us to remain nimble and investment-led.

PPM is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Jackson Financial Inc., which is a subsidiary of Prudential plc (UK Parent). Furthermore, as a result of its ownership by the UK Parent, PPM is affiliated and related with other entities engaged in providing investment advisory and other related services such as Eastspring Investments, Inc. and Eastspring Investments Limited Singapore.

The UK Parent is not affiliated in any manner with Prudential Financial, Inc., a company whose principal place of business is in the United States of America, or with the Prudential Assurance Company, a subsidiary of M&G plc, a company incorporated in the United Kingdom.

PPM’s mission is to be indispensable to our clients. As part of one of the world’s leading financial organizations, we have the expertise, global reach and substantial resources to provide our clients with investment solutions in markets across the globe. We believe the following competitive advantages will allow us to continue to deliver results for our clients:

PPM uses a team-based approach to portfolio management, with portfolio managers working closely together to gain greater insight on the macroeconomic environment as they make investment decisions. Each portfolio manager is responsible for generating investment ideas, and the portfolio management team makes all final investment decisions.

The portfolio management team is supported by their peers on the investment team, as well as the firm’s significant shared resources:

Portfolio managers consult with each team daily to filter market information, discuss new investment ideas, and seek to identify the best relative value opportunities.

Our investment process begins with cross-disciplinary idea generation, incorporating the expertise of credit analysts, traders and structured product analysts. Contribution to idea generation and relative valuation is grounded in each team’s respective area of expertise.

All three teams work in Chicago, facilitating open and frequent day‐to‐day interactions and idea sharing. The portfolio management team also participates in monthly strategy meetings to discuss macroeconomic and cross‐asset relative valuation, ongoing sector and security‐level ratings assessments, and other relevant topics.

Our mission is to deliver solutions and services to meet the unique investment objectives of our investors through a process that seeks to integrate all material factors that can impact the long-term risk and return implications of an investment, including those directly related to sound environmental, governance, and social (ESG) factors.

PPM’s analysts and portfolio managers generally assess the relevance of ESG factors to risk and return for the issuers that they cover, and incorporate such factors into their analyses, where considered material. Investment views are not based on ESG factors in isolation, rather ESG issues are analyzed in conjunction with all other factors that can influence the risk or return of an investment. Our integrated approach to ESG is applied across all investment strategies, although flexibility in implementing ESG integration is often required to allow for differences across markets, sectors and instrument types. While a variety of factors go into investment analysis, the overall principle guiding all investment decisions focuses on value.

In addition to information provided by issuers, PPM utilizes third-party ESG ratings and scores. These ratings are considered through our fundamental research and in applicable investment committee meetings. The ESG ratings we employ cover most publicly traded asset classes, such as equities and corporate bonds. For other asset classes where ESG ratings are not readily available, PPM will rely on the existing investment process and due diligence to reflect its internal assessment of ESG, whenever possible.