NEWS
Performance Report: Glenmore Australian Equities Fund
15 Feb 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Glenmore Australian Equities Fund rose +2.84% in January, taking annualised performance since inception in June 2017 to +18.91% per annum versus the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +5.63%.
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15 Feb 2019 - Performance Report: Glenmore Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The main driver of identifying potential investments will be bottom up company analysis, however macro-economic conditions will be considered as part of the investment thesis for each stock. |
| Manager Comments | Top contributors included Worley Parsons (+21.5%), Magellan Financial Group (+21.2%), NRW Holdings (+19.2%), Bravura Solutions (+13.5%), Arena REIT (+11.6%) and Jump Interactive (+10.6%). The only detractor of note was Navigator Global Investments (NGI) which Glenmore decided to exit given NGI's recent earnings update; earnings guidance for FY19 10-15% below the market's expectations. |
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Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund January 2019
15 Feb 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The latest Fund Review on Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund is now available. The Fund invests in ASX listed stocks, combining an indexed position in the Top 20 stocks with an actively managed portfolio of ex-20 stocks.
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15 Feb 2019 - Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund January 2019
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - January 2019 (pdf format)
BENNELONG TWENTY20 AUSTRALIAN EQUITIES FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund.
- The Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund invests in ASX listed stocks, combining an indexed position in the Top 20 stocks with an actively managed portfolio of stocks outside the Top 20. Construction of the ex-top 20 portfolio is fundamental, bottom-up, core investment style, biased to quality stocks, with a structured risk management approach.
- Mark East, the Fund's Chief Investment Officer, and Keith Kwang, Director of Quantitative Research have over 50 years combined market experience. Bennelong Funds Management (BFM) provides the investment manager, Bennelong Australian Equity Partners (BAEP) with infrastructure, operational, compliance and distribution services.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
AFM Fund Review - January 2019 (pdf format)
Performance Report: Loftus Peak Global Disruption Fund
14 Feb 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Loftus Peak Global Disruption Fund rose +7.77% in January, outperforming AFM's Global Equity Index by +3.13% and taking annualised performance since inception in November 2016 to +19.54%.
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14 Feb 2019 - Performance Report: Loftus Peak Global Disruption Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The investment process involves a combination of top-down analysis with fundamental bottom-up qualitative and quantitative research to derive a risk-adjusted discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation of companies in the target universe. The investment team will generally buy stocks from the pool of securities that are trading below Loftus Peaks' valuation and sell them when they are trading above Loftus Peak's valuation. The approach allows for both fundamental accounting information as well as market-oriented inputs to be factored into the portfolio construction process. Loftus Peak's model typically does not rely on leverage to deliver investment returns and specifically takes into account risk in the valuation process. Capital preservation can be managed by holding up to 50% cash. Index and currency options and futures may also be used to manage risk. |
| Manager Comments | Xilinx, a company which makes products used in data centres globally to speed up response time, was the largest contributor in January. Loftus Peak noted the company has positioned itself to benefit from the growth in data centre workload, autonomous vehicles and the upcoming 5G roll-out. Other top contributors included Alibaba and Amazon. Key detractors included Geely, Tesla and Qualcomm. The Australian dollar appreciated +3.57% over the month against the US dollar, negatively impacting the value of the Fund's US dollar holdings. As at 31 January 2019, the Fund carried a foreign currency exposure of 99%. |
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Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund January 2019
13 Feb 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review for the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund is now available. The Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large-caps from the ASX/S&P100 Index...
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13 Feb 2019 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund January 2019
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - January 2019 (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-caps from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with over 16-years' track record and an annualised returns of 15.25%.
- The consistent returns across the investment history highlight 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 0.91 and 1.47 respectively.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
AFM Fund Review - January 2019 (pdf format)
Performance Report: Cyan C3G Fund
11 Feb 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Cyan C3G Fund returned +4% in January, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +0.13% and taking annualised performance since inception in July 2014 to +18.50% versus the Index's +5.46%.
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11 Feb 2019 - Performance Report: 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 | After such a negative year in 2018, Cyan feel that markets are more conducive to rewarding measured investment philosophies and are thus more optimistic that the underlying fundamentals of companies are being considered in a more pragmatic light. The Cyan C3G Fund comprises 24 companies, with no individual position representing more than 6% of the total portfolio, and a cash holding of 40%. Positive contributors throughout January included Murray River Group (+58%), Afterpay Touch (+28%), Spicers (+21%) and Splitit (+175%). Key detractors included Freelancer (-18%), EVZ (-12%) and Acrow (-7%). Cyan noted that, with February reporting season upon us, they are confident that their investee companies will deliver a solid set of numbers and outlook statements, providing positive share-price catalysts. |
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Performance Report: Wheelhouse Global Equities Income Fund
8 Feb 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Wheelhouse Global Equity Income Fund returned +7.32% over CY18, outperforming AFM's Global Equity Index by +6.68%.
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8 Feb 2019 - Performance Report: Wheelhouse Global Equities Income Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | To pursue this objective, the Investment Manager is responsible for actively managing, monitoring and tailoring the integration of derivative contracts alongside the Morningstar Portfolio, while taking into account changing market and stock specific conditions. The Investment Manager is responsible for maximising the structural benefits of short option positions (lowered Volatility, improved capital preservation, higher income generation), whilst mitigating, minimising and monitoring the structural negatives (variable market exposure, option expiries, collateral management and asymmetric return profiles). In addition, long derivatives positions are also used to enhance the capital preservation characteristics of the Fund in more extreme market movements. As a consequence of the integration of Derivatives, returns of the strategy, intra-cycle, are expected to vary from the underlying Morningstar Portfolio due to these characteristics. For example in weak markets, or in extended sideways markets, the Fund is expected to outperform relative to the Morningstar Portfolio. Conversely in strong positive markets the Fund is expected to underperform. |
| Manager Comments | Wheelhouse believe the change in market dynamics over the past 12 months reflects for the most part the change in investor perception of risk (from Fear of Missing Out to Fear of Losing Money), plus a recognition of greater uncertainty with regards to the global economic cycle. They noted that, as evidenced in 2018, they believe their approach of investing in quality global businesses, combined with enhanced income generation and active downside protection, leaves them well placed to deliver on their retiree-focused objectives. |
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Performance Report: Bennelong Concentrated Australian Equities Fund
8 Feb 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Concentrated Australian Equities Fund has returned +15.76% p.a. since inception in February 2009. By contrast, the ASX200 Accumulation Index has returned +9.95% p.a. over the same period.
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8 Feb 2019 - Performance Report: Bennelong Concentrated Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The overriding objective of the Concentrated Australian Equities Fund is to seek investment opportunities which are under-appreciated and have the potential to deliver positive earnings, while satisfying our stringent quality criteria. Bennelong's investment process combines bottom-up fundamental analysis together with proprietary investment tools which are used to build and maintain high quality portfolios that are risk aware. The portfolio typically consists of 20-35 high-conviction stocks from the S&P/ASX 300 Index. The Fund may invest in securities listed on other exchanges where such securities relate to ASX-listed securities. Derivative instruments are mainly used to replicate underlying positions and hedge market and company specific risks. |
| Manager Comments | Detractors over the December quarter included Aristocrat Leisure, Flight Centre, Corporate Travel Management and BWX Limited. Positive contributors included Costa Group and BHP Billiton. As at December 2018, the Fund's portfolio positioning was as follows - heavy orientation towards growth, heavy weighting in lower risk and defensively positioned businesses, underweight stance to cyclicals (particularly domestic cyclicals), no banks in the portfolio highlighting the Fund's index-unaware approach, significant exposure to offshore earnings (CSL, Aristocrat Leisure and Reliance Worldwide), overweight the resources sector, biased away from large caps relative to the benchmark and minimal exposure to leveraged balance sheets. Bennelong noted the sell-off throughout the December quarter came about with a shift in investor sentiment to one of 'risk-off', thus resulting in REITs, utilities, gold stocks and big-cap defensives such as Woolworths holding up well as investors sought safety. Importantly, they noted, company fundamentals mattered little. Bennelong believe safety (and returns) ultimately derive from company fundamentals, which include one's competitive position, balance sheet strength, cash-flow generation and growth prospects. They believe the risk-off sentiment will tire and fundamentals will ultimately win out. |
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Performance Report: 4D Global Infrastructure Fund
8 Feb 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The 4D Global Infrastructure Fund rose +1.54% in December, outperforming its benchmark (OECD G7 Inflation Index +5.5%) by +1.03% and taking annualised performance since inception in March 2016 to +9.45%.
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8 Feb 2019 - Performance Report: 4D Global Infrastructure Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund will be managed as a single portfolio of listed global infrastructure securities including regulated utilities in gas, electricity and water, transport infrastructure such as airports, ports, road and rail as well as communication assets such as the towers and satellite sectors. The portfolio is intended to have exposure to both developed and emerging market opportunities, with country risk assessed internally before any investment is considered. The maximum absolute position of an individual stock is 7% of the fund. |
| Manager Comments | The strongest performer for December was Mexican airport operator GAP, up +13.1%, recovering from an oversold position in November. The weakest performer was US rail operator Norfolk Southern, down -11.2%, which was part of an overall weak end to the year for US equities as fears of a 2019 economic slowdown, coupled with concerns the Fed made a mistake in raising rates in December, weighed heavily on stocks. Despite the expectation of a slowing global macro environment, 4D believe it remains in positive territory and supportive of the Fund's overweight position in user pay assets which have a direct correlation to macro performance. However, ongoing geo-political concerns see the Fund maintain core exposure to quality defensive utilities. |
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Performance Report: Quay Global Real Estate Fund
7 Feb 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Quay Global Real Estate Fund has returned +7.6% over the past 12 months, outperforming its benchmark (FTSE/EPRA NAREIT Developed Index Net TR AUD) by +2.8%. Since inception in Jan 2016 the Fund has returned +6.49% per annum.
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7 Feb 2019 - Performance Report: Quay Global Real Estate Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund will invest in a number of global listed real estate companies, groups or funds. The investment strategy is to make investments in real estate securities at a price that will deliver a real, after inflation, total return of 5% per annum (before costs and fees), inclusive of distributions over a longer-term period. The Investment Strategy is indifferent to the constraints of any index benchmarks and is relatively concentrated in its number of investments. The Fund is expected to own between 20 and 40 securities, and from time to time up to 20% of the portfolio maybe invested in cash. The Fund is $A un-hedged. |
| Manager Comments | Quay noted the Fund wasn't immune to the sell-off in December as the panic in equity markets became much more widespread. The Fund returned -2.3% after a +3.2% gain from currency movements. The best geographies during the month were Hong Kong and the UK, while the worst were the US and Canada. Top contributors included Hysan and Wharf REIC (both HK, Diversified), while Chartwell (Canada, Healthcare) and RLJ (US, Hotels/Lodging) detracted the most. Late in the month Quay deployed some of their cash holdings to take advantage of the general price weakness and added Shurgard Self-Storage (Belgium, Storage) to the portfolio. Shurgard is the largest owner of storage assets across Europe. Quay noted they like storage because of the defensive nature of the cashflows and the low levels of stay in business capex. Quay believe that over the long-term SHUR will benefit from increased levels of product awareness across its European platform and very low levels of supply where the provision of storage space per capita across Europe is a fraction of the levels in the US and Australia. |
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Performance Report: NWQ Fiduciary Fund
7 Feb 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The NWQ Fiduciary Fund has returned +5.34% per annum with an annualised volatility of 4.95% since inception in May 2013. By contrast the ASX200 Accumulation Index has returned +6.10% p.a. with a volatility of 10.99% over the same period.
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7 Feb 2019 - Performance Report: 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 | The Fund returned -0.49% in December. NWQ say the final quarter of 2018 was reminiscent of the same period 10 years earlier during the Global Financial Crisis with sharp falls across the major indices. They noted few of the Fund's underlying managers were able to hedge out the full extent of the market's fall, thus contributing to the Fund's quarterly return of -6.05%. NWQ pointed out that the reason for this was that the types of stocks typically favoured by managers (i.e. momentum and low volatility) underperformed the types of stocks that are avoided or viewed as short candidates (i.e. value and higher-yield). This resulted in the Fund deviating from its historical profile where prior to the December quarter its average return in negative markets was +0.12%. However, given that years in which the Fund underperformed its historical average in the past (i.e. 2014 and 2016) were almost always followed by years of outperformance (i.e. 2015 and 2017), NWQ remain positive the Fund will once again revert to the mean and make up for the December quarter's losses. |
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