Low yields.

[Nor]

Snoopy said
"Under 'Portfolio Characteristics', the fund yield is listed as 5.59%. If I look at the portfolio constituents from post 14, there is only one bond with a coupon rate greater than that: Meridian Energy's 5.91% bond. This indicates to me that the capital value of those lower interest rate bonds must have been marked down."

I agree and it is very perceptive of you to have thought of it.

Still a problem of why the div yield which they actually pay is so much below the fund yield which is anything they choose to say it is. Perhaps div yield is so low because they've cleverly had a lot of money mature at just the right time to catch the higher rates and the next dividend is going to be ENORMOUS, only hardly anybody knows. Seems to me to be a lack of information about this. I thought markets were supposed to be informed. Haven't digested the rest, anything over an inch and a half takes me a while.

[Snoopy]

Still a problem of why the div yield which they actually pay is so much below the fund yield which is anything they choose to say it is. Perhaps div yield is so low because they've cleverly had a lot of money mature at just the right time to catch the higher rates and the next dividend is going to be ENORMOUS, only hardly anybody knows. Seems to me to be a lack of information about this. I thought markets were supposed to be informed. Haven't digested the rest, anything over an inch and a half takes me a while.

I remember Buffett once said: "Don't invest in anything that you do not understand.'

Perhaps this explains why I have only dipped my little toe into the bond investment pond up to now. The problem is with bond returns now becoming meaningful (except for NZB that is), I can't continue to ignore the bond market.

How is this for a revelation on NZB. I thought it was the 'NZ Bond Fund', but apparently the official name is the 'NZ cash fund'. Now look at the fund objective from the link below:
https://www.nzx.com/companies/NZB/analysis

"The NZ Cash Fund's investment objective is to provide a return (before tax, fees and other expenses) that outperforms the S&P/NZX Bank Bill 90-Day Index over rolling one-year periods. The S&P/NZX Bank Bill 90-Day Index is made up of a portfolio of bank bills with a maturity of 31 days to 90 days."

So let me get this straight. The NZB fund has bought a plethora of multi year bonds with the grand ambition of outperforming short term bank bills with a maximum duration of 90 days!?! Unless short term interest rates really spike, this seems a very low bar these NZB fund managers have set themselves. Do the NZB fund managers even have to get out of bed in the morning?

SNOOPY

PS Have re-edited my post 22 several times, and corrected some errors. I hope it is now easier to follow