BNPP AM has published the Volta Finance Limited (LON:VTA) monthly report for January 2026. The full report is attached to this release and will be available on Volta’s website shortly (www.voltafinance.com).
Performance and Portfolio Activity
Dear Investors,
Volta Finance posted a net return of -1.3% for the month of January 2026. For comparison, US High Yield bonds returned +0.5%*** and Euro High Yield bonds achieved +0.7%**** over the same period, while the Morningstar Leveraged Loan indices were down -0.3%*** in the US and -+0.3%**** in Europe.
Trade policy returned to the spotlight this month as Washington revived tariff threats against its European partners, unsettling markets and reigniting protectionism concerns. These tensions fed into discussions at Davos where leaders warned that the Greenland situation and current rivalry between allies were becoming material economic risks. On the monetary policy front, both the FED and the ECB held rates steady stressing data dependence amid sticky inflation and slower growth. Equity markets were consequently volatile through January, stocks sold off mid-month on tariff headlines before partially recovering – defensives and energy outperforming cyclicals & topicals (Software…).
CLO markets also started the year on a busy note. It felt like primary markets kicked off immediately, although the first US transaction actually priced on January 9th, aligning with historical averages. In Europe, that feeling was real as the first transaction came to the market on January 15th, which was nine days earlier than last year. Spreads quickly tightened across the capital structure, Euro AAAs started 2026 at 127bps – down 5bps from December-end – and closed January at +124bps. The rally was even more notable in mezzanine tranches, with AAs narrowing to +165bps (from +200 in Dec), As to +190bps (from +240), BBBs to +250bps (from +350), BBs to +460bps (from +620). Single-Bs were the sole tranche that widened to +900bps (from +800). Secondary markets also experienced increased activity especially in single-B and Equity tranches, with trading volumes supported by strong investor demand and renewed appetite from dealing desks to add risk onto their balance sheet. In a sharp contrast, Loans globally experienced a difficult month as the Morningstar LSTA Leveraged Loan Indices recorded negative returns both in Europe and the USA. Pricewise, Euro Loans closed around 1.15 points down while US Loans experienced a similar move, notably due to the AI-disruption thematic feeding through the pricing of Software loans.
Portfolio Managers took advantage of the market conditions to reset two CLOs, allowing the Equity tranches to benefit from favourable arbitrage and optionality. These resets did not require any additional cash injections from Volta.
In terms of trading, the Portfolio Managers added circa €4.5 million worth of new investments. This included fundings into a warehouse investment as well as a US CLO Single-B tranche that offered a favourable discount to par (97.00 cash price). The fund generated about €20 million in interest proceeds over the last six months, which is about 16% of December’s NAV on an annualized basis.
In terms of performance breakdown, Volta’s CLO Equity tranches returned -3.5%** while CLO Debt tranches returned +0.9% performance**.
As of end of January 2026, Volta’s NAV* was €256.0m, i.e. €7.00 per share.
*It should be noted that approximately 0.17% of Volta’s NAV comprises investments for which the relevant NAVs as at the month-end date are normally available only after Volta’s NAV has already been published. Volta’s policy is to publish its NAV on as timely a basis as possible to provide shareholders with Volta’s appropriately up-to-date NAV information. Consequently, such investments are valued using the most recently available NAV for each fund or quoted price for such subordinated notes. The equivalent % proportions of Volta’s NAV as of 31 December and 30 September were 0.09% and 0.08%, respectively.
** “performances” of asset classes are calculated as the Dietz-performance of the assets in each bucket, taking into account the Mark-to-Market of the assets at period ends, payments received from the assets over the period, and ignoring changes in cross-currency rates. Nevertheless, some residual currency effects could impact the aggregate value of the portfolio when aggregating each bucket.
*** These figures are presented in USD. Source: BNPP AM – Bloomberg – Morningstar – January 31st, 2026
**** These figures are presented in EUR. Source: BNPP AM – Bloomberg – Morningstar – January 31st, 2026
