Oppenheimer Builds Yield-Focused Portfolios

The Oppenheimer Municipal Fund Management Team – a seven-person team co-led by Scott Cottier, CFA (right) and Troy Willis, J.D., CFA – works hand in hand with the credit research team to identify what it sees as compelling investing opportunities in the municipal bond market. The team’s six portfolio managers collaborate to accumulate tax-free securities with a variety of yields, structures and maturities for the municipal bond funds they manage.

The team focuses on individual securities and then determines the optimal allocations. Among the strategies favored by the portfolio management team are buying premium-coupon, callable bonds; favoring unpopular sectors (e.g., MSA-backed “tobacco bonds” and airline-backed bonds); investing in high-quality small issues and non-rated securities, and seeking “odd lots” and other yield-enhancing opportunities in the secondary market.

These strategies have helped the team build yield-focused portfolios with a diversity of holdings such as varying maturities and call dates, in an effort to reduce risk. The team purchases bonds across the credit spectrum and has a strong preference for bonds with long holding periods, and the portfolios have relatively low turnover. The team does not forecast interest rates and does not believe in timing the market.

The funds are managed to deliver a monthly distribution of net investment income to its shareholders, and each fund has consistently delivered tax-free income to its shareholders.