NEWS
Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund April 2017
18 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review is now available on Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund which has an annualised return of 16.74% p.a.
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18 May 2017 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund April 2017
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - April 2017 (pdf format)
BENNELONG LONG SHORT EQUITY FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund.
- The Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large large-caps from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with over fourteen-year track record and annualised returns of 16.74% p.a.
- The consistent returns across the investment history indicate the Fund's ability to provide positive returns in volatile and negative markets and significantly outperform the broader market. The Fund's Sharpe Ratio and Sortino Ratio are 1.01 and 1.69 respectively.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
AFM Fund Review - April 2017 (pdf format)
Cyan C3G Fund
18 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Cyan C3G Fund gained 1.9% in April, to take the Fund's one year return to +14.49%.
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18 May 2017 - Cyan C3G Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Cyan C3G Fund is based on the investment philosophy which can be defined as a comprehensive, clear and considered process focused on delivering growth. These are identified through stringent filter criteria and a rigorous research process. The Manager uses a proprietary stock filter in order to eliminate a large proportion of investments due to both internal characteristics (such as gearing levels or cash flow) and external characteristics (such as exposure to commodity prices or customer concentration). Typically, the Fund looks for businesses that are one or more of: a) under researched, b) fundamentally undervalued, c) have a catalyst for re-rating. The Manager seeks to achieve this investment outcome by actively managing a portfolio of Australian listed securities. When the opportunity to invest in suitable securities cannot be found, the manager may reduce the level of equities exposure and accumulate a defensive cash position. Whilst it is the company's intention, there is no guarantee that any distributions or returns will be declared, or that if declared, the amount of any returns will remain constant or increase over time. The Fund does not invest in derivatives and does not use debt to leverage the Fund's performance. However, companies in which the Fund invests may be leveraged. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund benefitted from price strength in a few of its key long-term holdings. This included Afterpay (AFY) and Touchcorpo (TCH). The AFY share price was up 9% in April, with TCH up 14%. Other contributors included Skydive the Beach (SKB) up 8%, Capitol Health (CAJ) up 12%, and Getswift (GSW) up 48%. The key performance detractors were Money3 (MNY) and Freelancer (FLN), down 4% and 13% respectively for the month. However, the investment team believes that both companies have a positive medium-term growth outlook and therefore continue to hold their positions in these two stocks. The Fund is currently conservatively positioned, however, the investment team has started to see positive signs in the market that the rotation of interest has returned to the small cap sector and thereby creating new investment opportunities for the Fund. |
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Affluence Investment Fund
17 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Affluence Investment Fund increased 0.53% in April, resulting in a +11.18% return for the latest 12 months.
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17 May 2017 - Affluence Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund does not invest directly into any asset class, rather, it invests in investment managers which satisfy Affluence Funds Management's investment criteria; its investment philosophy is based on a formula developed by CEO/Portfolio Manager Daryl Wilson since the start of his career in 1999. The Fund targets total returns of at least 5% above inflation over rolling 3 year periods with volatility of returns less than 50% of the ASX200 Index. The Fund also aims to provide investors with a distribution yield of at least 5% p.a. To ensure appropriate diversity of managers and limit the potential for conflicts of interest, no more than 20% of the Fund will be invested with any one external manager. Affluence seeks to achieve the Funds' investment objective by choosing attractively priced investments overseen by quality managers. The Fund uses a number of processes to identify potential investments including quantitative screens for investments which meet historical performance, volatility and other criteria. They also use a number of external researchers and information sources to assist in this process. |
| Manager Comments | The top contributors included the Brookfield Prime Property Fund (up 14.8%), the Bronte Capital Amalthea Fund (up 7%) and India Avenue Equity Fund (up 5.1%). The Fund had no major detractors for the month, however, results were fairly choppy across the board. At month end, 61% of the Fund was invested in unlisted investments, 20% in the Affluence LIC Fund, 6% in other listed investments, and 13% in cash. The Fund currently provides exposure to over 25 unlisted funds, and over 20 LIC's and other listed entities. |
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Fund Review: APN Asian REIT Fund April 2017
17 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
April Fund Review is now available on APN Asian REIT Fund, a property securities fund, investing primarily in the Asian REITS.
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17 May 2017 - Fund Review: APN Asian REIT Fund April 2017
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - April 2017 (pdf format)
APN Asian REIT Fund
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the APN Asian REIT Fund.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- APN is an ASX-listed fund manager specialising in property investment, with an investment team of six. Established in 1996, APN now has FUM of $A2.4bn including four REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) funds.
- The APN Asian REIT Fund (Fund) is a property securities fund that invests in a quality portfolio of Asian REITs, listed on the securities exchanges of the Asian Region, with the ability to hold some cash and fixed interest investments.
- The Fund aims to deliver a competitive yield with lower risk than the market. The underlying stocks are selected based on a highly disciplined investment approach that focuses on the fundamentals and number of valuation approaches. The universe can include new IPO's, other corporate actions take place and/or corporate governance improvements at the country or REIT level bring new stocks into focus.
- The Fund provides access to a wide spread of property-based revenue streams that are specifically analysed, selected and weighted with the aim of delivering strong and sustainable income returns. The Fund is an unhedged product.
- APN's Asian REIT Fund invests in a portfolio of 25-40 listed Asian REITs with a core philosophy of investing in properties with sustainable rental income streams.
- The Fund has delivered an annualised return of 14.28% p.a., since inception in July 2011 with a standard deviation of 9.35% p.a. The Sharpe and Sortino ratios are 1.2 and 2.14 respectively.
AFM Fund Review - April 2017 (pdf format)
NWQ Fiduciary Fund
16 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
NWQ Fiduciary Fund returned +0.25% in April and has returned +5.74% p.a. since its inception in May 2013.
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16 May 2017 - NWQ Fiduciary Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund aims to produce returns, after management fees and expenses of between 8% to 11% p.a. over rolling five-year periods. Furthermore, the Fund aims to achieve these returns with volatility that is a fraction of the Australian equity market, in order to smooth returns for investors. |
| Manager Comments | There was a higher level of dispersion in the performance of the Fund's underlying managers in April with four of the nine managers delivering a positive return. The Fund's Alpha managers made a positive contribution (+0.50%) to the Fund's overall performance. However, in a month, where the market was up, the Fund's Beta managers made a negative contribution to performance (-0.18%). NWQ continues to believe that there exists further potential for destructive equity and bond market volatility in the coming months, and therefore, the portfolio continues to remain overweight to the Alpha or market neutral strategies. |
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Bennelong Australian Equities Fund
16 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Australian Equities Fund returned a positive 2.79% in April, outperforming the S&P/ASX-300 Accumulation Index which returned 0.98%, by 1.80%.
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16 May 2017 - Bennelong Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Bennelong Australian Equities Fund seeks quality investment opportunities which are under-appreciated and have the potential to deliver positive earnings. The investment process combines bottom-up fundamental analysis with proprietary investment tools that are used to build and maintain high quality portfolios that are risk aware. The investment team manages an extensive company/industry contact program which helps identify and verify various investment opportunities. The companies within the portfolio are primarily selected from, but not limited to, the S&P/ASX 300 Index. The Fund may invest in securities listed on other exchanges where such securities relate to the ASX-listed securities. The Fund typically holds between 25-60 stocks with a maximum net targeted position of an individual stock of 6%. |
| Manager Comments | Some of the Fund's larger stock positions performed positively over the month, including Aristocrat Leisure, CSL and Domino's Pizza Enterprises. The Fund also benefited from having no exposure to the Telecommunications sector, which was very weak. The investment team continues to remain focused on the company fundamentals, particularly in an environment of macro and political uncertainty. |
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Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
15 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund rose 0.89% in April, taking the annualised return since inception to 11.09% p.a.
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15 May 2017 - Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's discretionary investment strategy commences with a macro view of the economy and direction to establish the portfolio's desired market exposure. Following this detailed sector and company research is gathered from knowledge of the individual stocks in the Fund's universe, with widespread use of broker research. Company visits, presentations and discussions with management at CEO and CFO level are used wherever possible to assess management quality across a range of criteria. Detailed analysis of company valuations using financial statements and forecasts, particularly focusing on free cash flow, is conducted. Technical analysis is used to validate the Manager's fundamental research and valuations and to manage market timing. A significant portion of the Fund's overall performance can be attributed to the attention and importance given to the macro economic outlook and the ability and willingness to adjust the Fund's market risk. |
| Manager Comments | For the month, Aristocrat Leisure (+27bp) was the largest contributor to the Fund's performance. Other key positive contributors included ANZ (+25bp), NAB (+16bp), Challenger (+16bp), Computershare (+14bp) and CSR (+14bp). The key negative contributors included Bluescope Steel (-14bp), RCR Tomlinson (-10bp), and Bapcor (-6bp). Net equity market exposure fell from 69.9% to 60.3% (70.6% long and 10.3% short). The Fund reduced its exposure to the Banks during the month and initiated a short position in SPI Futures. |
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APN AREIT Fund
15 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
APN AREIT Fund gained 2.27% for the month of April, to take the latest 24 months return to 22.79%.
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15 May 2017 - APN AREIT Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The senior management of APN FM all have significant experience in their fields. They include CEO Real Estate Securities, Michael Doble who has 25 years'experience having held various senior roles specialising in real estate valuation, consultancy and funds management. Immediately prior to joining APN in 2003 he was Head of Property at ANZ Funds Management. He is a fellow of the Australian Property Institute and FINSIA as well as holding a Bachelor of Business (Property). The Fund aims to deliver a competitive yield with lower risk than the market. The underlying stocks are selected based on a highly disciplined investment approach that focuses on the fundamentals and number of valuation approaches. The Fund provides access to a wide spread of property-based revenue streams that are specifically analysed, selected and weighted with the aim of delivering strong and sustainable income returns. The Fund is suited to medium to long term investors seeking a relatively high monthly income and some capital growth over the long term. |
| Manager Comments | For the month of April, the portfolio's property sector allocation remained mainly unchanged, with 60% in the Retail sector, followed by 20% in the Office sector. More than half of the portfolio consisted of the Fund's top 5 holdings, which included Scentre Group, Vicinity Centres, Stockland, Charter Hall Retail REIT and Dexus Property Group. |
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APN Asian REIT Fund
11 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
APN Asian REIT Fund rose 3.12% for the month of April, outperforming the Bloomberg Asia REIT Index which returned 1.98%, by 1.14%.
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11 May 2017 - APN Asian REIT Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Pete Morrissey and Corrine Ng are the Portfolio Managers of the Fund. Morrissey has over 15 years financial markets experience and joined APN in 2006. Previously, he worked at Lonsec and also managed an internationally focused private investment fund as well as spending several years as an analyst in the UK for Nomura, amongst others. He has also completed Masters level academic research papers on both commercial real estate cycles and global property cycles. Ng also has a strong background in property and REITs in Australia, Asia and the North American markets. Prior to joining APN, Ng worked for Aviva Investors (Senior Investment Analyst, North America Real Estate Securities Team) and Goldman Sachs & Co (Vice President, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Real Estate Securities Team) in New York. The Fund aims to deliver a competitive yield with lower risk than the market. The underlying stocks are selected based on a highly disciplined investment approach that focuses on the fundamentals and number of valuation approaches. The universe is expected to be dynamic as new IPO's, other corporate actions take place and / or corporate governance improvements at country or REIT level bring new stocks into focus. The Fund focuses on passive rental earnings derived from well managed Asian REITs listed in mature capital markets and will not invest in infrastructure, property development companies or stocks with a 'loose association with property'. The Fund provides access to a wide spread of property-based revenue streams that are specifically analysed, selected and weighted with the aim of delivering strong and sustainable income returns. The Fund is an unhedged product. The Fund is suited to medium to long term investors seeking a relatively high income and some capital growth over the long term. |
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Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
11 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Optimal Australia Absolute Trust reported a net return of +0.07% in April 2017, to take the annualised return since inception to 8.08% p.a.
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11 May 2017 - Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's bias is likely to be net long under normal market conditions, with the core strategy being to construct a portfolio of listed equity securities priced at levels that do not adequately reflect their underlying value. The Fund will seek to boost returns and limit potential market downside by selective short selling of individual stocks which are priced at levels that are viewed as materially above their underlying value. The Fund will also use certain trading strategies both within its core portfolio (through rebalancing stock weights and overall market exposure in response to price movements) and in certain other situations (typically of a shorter-duration and/or opportunistic nature) with the objective of further increasing returns. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund's long investments generated around 30bps of return, on average long exposure of 58% of NAV. Many of the long investments are heavily weighted to stocks that have little dependence on the domestic economy or are otherwise desynchronised from it, including offshore financials Clydesdale and Henderson, CSL, Orocobre, and even Woolworths. The stock shorts and the short index futures position both cost the Fund, slightly more than 10 bps of performance, but the investment team believes that it is crucial to have portfolio insurance after a year of such stellar market gains. |
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