Stocks and bonds both offer investors attractive value as earnings grow and debt investments offer appealing yields, Nannette Hechler, Lombard Odier’s investment chief for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said.
Her assessment put shares and bonds alongside each other as opportunities for investors. She described an unusual combination of strong corporate earnings growth, below-average U.S. equity valuations and attractive returns available from fixed-income investments.
Speaking on Bloomberg Television’s The Opening Trade, published Oct. 27, she first addressed Anthropic’s planned initial public offering, the sale of shares that would bring the company to the stock market.
She compared the offering with SpaceX’s flotation, saying its size would make it a measure of investor sentiment. The sale would also require investors to assess the AI business and the company’s profitability.
“It will instill as well for investors the need to make up their mind around the AI wave,” she said. Her assessment linked the offering’s importance to both its volume and the investment decisions it would require.
The discussion then turned to whether yields on debt issued to finance AI were high enough to justify investment. It also raised a comparison between those investments and lending to governments.
Hechler answered by describing opportunities across financial markets. Corporate results so far were confirming very strong earnings growth, while U.S. share valuations were below average. She did not specify the period used for that comparison.
“Equities seem attractive,” she said. Fixed-income investments across the board also offered attractive yields, leaving investors with opportunities in both categories. She gave no yield threshold, preferred debt issuer or allocation between shares and bonds.
The comments followed Bloomberg’s reporting that Anthropic had filed to go public. Its offering price and valuation were unavailable, leaving those terms open as investors considered the company’s finances and ownership arrangements.
Bloomberg put the planned investor roadshow in the week of Nov. 9 and the intended listing on Nov. 16, before Thanksgiving. Those dates described the timetable being pursued, rather than a completed share sale.
Anthropic’s founders would retain extensive control under the ownership structure discussed ahead of the interview. Investors buying shares would have limited influence over how the company was run.
The company’s profitability formed part of the discussion before Hechler spoke, alongside competition and its spending on computing resources. Her remarks did not set a valuation for Anthropic or say whether she would buy its shares.
