NEWS
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
8 Sep 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund returned -5.90% in August and +9.56% for the latest 12-months.
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8 Sep 2016 - Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | In a typical environment the Fund will hold around 70 stocks comprising 35 pairs. Each pair contains one long and one short position each of which will have been thoroughly researched and are selected from the same market sector. Whilst in an ideal environment each stock's position will make a positive return, it is the relative performance of the pair that is important. As a result the Fund can make positive returns when each stock moves in the same direction provided the long position outperforms the short one in relative terms. However, if neither side of the trade is profitable, strict controls are required to ensure losses are limited. The Fund uses no derivatives and has no currency exposure. The Fund has no hard stop loss limits, instead relying on the small average position size per stock (1.5%) and per pair (3%) to limit exposure. Where practical pairs are always held within the same sector to limit cross sector risk, and positions can be held for months or years. The Bennelong Market Neutral Fund, with same strategy and liquidity is available for retail investors. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund's the long book performed slightly better than the market, but it was the short book that delivered the losses for the month. Both, the three best pairs and the three worst pairs came from the short book. The top three spreads for the month were long Macquarie / short IOOF, long Beach Energy / short AGL Energy and long Henderson / short AMP. The bottom three spreads for the month were long Resmed / short Ansell, long Iluka / short Downer and long Aristocrat / short Tabcorp. Click below to read the Fund Manager's commentary and market outlook. |
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Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund July 2016
7 Sep 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review on Insync Global Titans Fund is now available.
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7 Sep 2016 - Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund July 2016
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - July 2016 (pdf format)
INSYNC GLOBAL TITANS FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Insync Global Titans Fund.
We would like to highlight the following:
- The Fund's unit price increased by 0.2% in July. The performance was driven by positive contributions from our holdings in eBay, Microsoft, S&P Global and Zimmer. The main negative contributors were Roche, McDonald's Corp, BAT and Reckitt Benckiser.
- The Global Titans Fund invests in a concentrated portfolio of 15-30 stocks, targeting exceptional, large cap global companies with a strong focus on dividend growth and downside protection.
- Portfolio selection is driven by a core strategy of investing in companies with sustainable growth in dividends, high returns on capital, positive free cash flows and strong balance sheets.
- Emphasis on limiting downside risk is through extensive company research, the ability to hold cash and long protective index put options.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
AFM Fund Review - July 2016 (pdf format)
Insync Global Titans Fund
1 Sep 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Insync Global Titans Fund returned +0.2%, compared to the MSCI All Country World ex-Australia Net Total Return Index in $A, which returned 2.1%.
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1 Sep 2016 - Insync Global Titans Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Insync employs four simple screens to narrow the universe of over 40,000 listed companies globally to a focus group of high quality companies that it believes have the potential to consistently grow their profits and dividends. These screens are size of the company, balance sheet performance, valuation and dividend quality. Companies that pass this due diligence process are then valued using dividend discount models, free cash flow yield and proprietary implied growth and expected return models. The end result is a high conviction portfolio of typically 15-30 stocks. The principal investments will be in shares of companies listed on international stock exchanges (including the US, Europe and Asia). The Fund may also hold cash, derivatives (for example futures, options and swaps), currency contracts, American Depository Receipts and Global Depository Receipts. The Fund may also invest in various types of international pooled investment vehicles. At times, Insync may consider holding higher levels of cash if valuations are full and it is difficult to find attractive investment opportunities. When Insync believes markets to be overvalued, it may hold part of its resources in cash, or use derivatives as a way of reducing its equity exposure. Insync may use options, futures and other derivatives to reduce risk or gain exposure to underlying physical investments. The Fund may purchase put options on market indices or specific stocks to hedge against losses caused by declines in the prices of stocks in its portfolio. |
| Manager Comments | The performance was driven by positive contributions from the holdings in eBay, Microsoft, S&P Global and Zimmer. The main negative contributors were Roche, McDonald's Corp, BAT and Reckitt Benckiser. The Fund continues to hedge back most of the exposure to the GBP back to Australian dollars. This was put in place prior to the Brexit vote. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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Fund Review: Supervised Global Income Fund July 2016
30 Aug 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Fund review on Supervised Global Income Fund, a fixed income fund, is now available.
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30 Aug 2016 - Fund Review: Supervised Global Income Fund July 2016
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - July 2016 (pdf format)
SUPERVISED GLOBAL INCOME FUND
Attached is AFM's updated Fund Review on the Supervised Global Income Fund (SGIF).
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund:
- The Supervised Global Income Fund (previously Supervised High Yield Fund) has a 6-year track record investing in fixed interest investments. The Investment strategy aims to deliver returns with zero correlation to equity markets by investing in debt securities with minimal default probability and offering a premium return above the risk-free rate.
- The Fund is managed by Philip Carden whose experience in debt and capital markets spans over 33 years, including time with JB Were's Capel Court Securities and Macquarie Bank, where he was the Executive Director responsible for the Debt Markets Division.
- SHYF is an Alternative Income fund which invests in Global and Australian debt markets, with all foreign currency receivables hedged back to Australian dollars.
- The Fund utilises a top-down analysis of the economic environment and market to screen and identifies debt market opportunities which it believes offer low risk with high yield. The next stage is the development of a risk matrix and investment strategy, following which detailed research is undertaken on specific investment opportunities which meet the pre-defined criteria established in the investment strategy.
- Prior to approving an investment for the Fund, each potential investment is subject to two stress tests. The first of these is of credit and default risk, in which the investment is stress-tested to ensure that in a worst case economic environment it can repay 100% of its principal and interest obligations case scenario for the asset by examining the highest margin over the risk rate that the investment has previously experienced in a crisis situation. Any decline in value under the stress test that exceeds 10% of the Fund's value is avoided The second test examines market risk. In this case, Carden looks at the worst case scenario for the asset by examining the highest margin over the risk rate that the investment has previously experienced in a crisis situation. Any decline in value under the stress test that exceeds 10% of the Fund's value is avoided.
AFM Fund Review - July 2016 (pdf format)
Fund Review: Jamieson Coote Bonds Active Fund July 2016
29 Aug 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
July Fund Review is now available on Jamieson Coote Bonds Active Fund, a long-only macroeconomic investment fund.
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29 Aug 2016 - Fund Review: Jamieson Coote Bonds Active Fund July 2016
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - July 2016 (pdf format)
Jamieson Coote Bonds Active Fund
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Jamieson Coote Bonds Active Fund
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- Jamieson Coote Bonds is a Melbourne-based Boutique Manager launched in December 2014.
- The Founders, Charles Jamieson and Angus Coote bring over 30 years of international experience dealing with central banks, hedge funds and real money managers.
- The Jamieson Coote Active Bond Fund is a long-only macroeconomic investment fund, investing in Australian Dollar denominated bonds backed by AAA and AA+ rated Government, Semi (State) Government and Supranational agencies.
- The Fund Objective is to out-perform the Bloomberg Australian Government Bond Index through active management in a sound risk-managed framework and usually holds around 20 bond securities of varying maturities.
AFM Fund Review - July 2016 (pdf format)
Pengana Global Small Companies Fund
26 Aug 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Global Small Companies Fund returned 2.80% in July 2016, compared to a 3.3% return for the MSCI AC World SMID Cap Index.
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26 Aug 2016 - Pengana Global Small Companies Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund is managed by Founder & CIO Leah Zell, and Portfolio Managers Jon Moog and David Li. The Lizard investment team have over 50 years combined investment experience in global small cap investing. Leah Zell has over 30 years of experience and is a recognized expert in international investing in the international small-cap category. The Fund's investment team uses a value-oriented investment approach to small and mid-cap global equities that seeks to identify and invest in quality businesses that create significant value but are mispriced, overlooked or out-of-favour. The investment manager believes that unique opportunities exist due to limited available research, corporate actions or unfavourable investor perception. The portfolio construction process aims to develop portfolios that incorporate the best investment ideas from the investment manager's research while allowing for liquidity constraints and perceived risk. The Fund's investment manager will not typically hedge currency exposures, however during periods of currency extremes, some currency hedging may be employed. Derivatives may be used to achieve long or short exposures, reduce risk and reduce transaction costs. Derivatives will not be used for the purposes of leverage and the Fund's net exposure will never be short. |
| Manager Comments | NetScout Systems, Boohoo.com, Ubiquiti Networks, CarMax, and Tegma were the top positive contributors for the month. However, Daikokutenbussan, Meiko Network Japan, Cogeco, Spirit Airlines and Fargron detracted from the performance. The portfolio added one new position; Hostelworld and completed a sale of another position. At month-end, the Fund's top 10 holdings accounted for 35.9% of the Fund's assets, with no single name representing more than 5% of the Fund. Cash represented 6.4% of the Fund. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's report. |
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Jamieson Coote Bonds Active Fund
26 Aug 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Jamieson Coote Bonds Active Fund returned a positive 0.57% for the month of July 2016.
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26 Aug 2016 - Jamieson Coote Bonds Active Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | JCBAF seeks to establish a mid to long term core portfolio using both domestic and global macroeconomic analysis. This is overlaid with a number of valuation indicators and international market intelligence from a global network of market moving investors, including central bankers and hedge funds, to construct an optimal indexed portfolio allocation at any given time. The Fund recognises short term oscillations driven by technical factors and supply dynamics create opportunities within short term pricing cycles, which can generate significant alpha when managed within a risk adjusted framework. The Fund aims to outperform its index using duration and curve management at appropriate times in the pricing cycle whilst retaining a core long. The JCB Active Fund gives direct access to the management team whilst providing portfolio balance with increased capital stability and a fixed income streams with both income and principle repayment secured by the Australian or State Governments. |
| Manager Comments | Click below to read the Fund Manager's market outlook. |
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Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund
25 Aug 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund rose 1.08% in July. The Fund has a low systematic risk (beta) to the ASX200 and the MSCI World Indices of 0.08 and 0.09 respectively.
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25 Aug 2016 - Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | PanAgora believes the best way to find opportunities in the global markets is to combine fundamental analysis with robust quantitative techniques in order to filter the investment universe and select the investments. The Fund invests primarily in listed equity securities from a global universe of developed markets and a select group of emerging market countries. The Fund's objective is to seek absolute returns by identifying and exploiting multiple inefficiencies that may exist in global equity markets. These inefficiencies are primarily exploited through the use of a long/short equity strategy which aims to construct a portfolio that is generally neutral to market movements. As such the performance of the investment strategy is largely independent of the market's performance. The Fund seeks to achieve its objective by using a diversified set of strategies that have low correlation to one another. In addition, because many of these strategies are designed to generate profit under different market conditions, their combination is expected to result in more stable returns over time than any individual strategy in and of itself. |
| Manager Comments | The Long-Term portfolio contributed 1.18% (net) to the performance of the fund. The portfolio was also helped by the poor performance of heavily shorted names. The Industry, Earnings Growth and Sentiment factors also contributed positively to returns. The Long-Term alpha fared less well outside of the US causing the International Portfolio to detract -0.21% (gross). Marginal gains resulting from international M&A trades were counterbalanced by a few minor losses in the US M&A Strategy. The Short-term portfolio detracted -0.08% (net) in July. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's Report. |
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King Tide NZ/Australian Long/Short Equity Fund
25 Aug 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
King Tide NZ/Australian Long/Short Equity Fund returned +4.29% in July to take latest 12-months return to 11.29%.
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25 Aug 2016 - King Tide NZ/Australian Long/Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund seeks to outperform the market with less volatility than the market by allocating capital to a select group of eight to sixteen funds whose investment mandates allow them to use short selling of equities and equity indices, to use derivatives to manage risk, to use leverage and to hold large amounts of cash. In-depth proprietary research is used to select and monitor fund managers with particular emphasis on their ability to manage equity market risk through stock selection, short selling and the use of derivatives and cash. |
| Manager Comments | For the month, all of King Tide's underlying managers had positive returns, ranging from +1.39% for the Tasman Market Neutral Fund to +12.09% for the Regal Atlantic Absolute Return Fund. The three New Zealand funds averaged +3.89% compared to an average return of +5.06% for the thirteen Australian funds. King Tide had an average net market exposure of 54% in July. Moving into August, most of the underlying managers will focus on the Australian reporting season. Click below to read the latest monthly report. |
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Touchstone Index Unaware Fund
24 Aug 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Touchstone Index Unaware Fund returned +5.82% in July. Since inception in April 2016, the Fund has returned +7.4%, net of fees and expenses.
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24 Aug 2016 - Touchstone Index Unaware Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The portfolio is constructed using Touchstone's Quality-At-a-Reasonable-Price ('QARP') investment process. QARP is a fundamental bottom-up process, however, it also incorporates a top-down risk management framework designed to successfully manage the portfolio during varying market conditions and economic cycles. The Touchstone Fund is concentrated, typically holding between 15-20 stocks. No individual stock will ever make up more than 10% of the portfolio at any one time. The Investment Manager may temporarily exceed the exposure limits of the Fund occasionally, particularly during periods of market volatility, to allow for holdings in excess of this 10% limit where the increase in value of the underlying security is due to market movement. The Fund may also hold between 0-50% of the portfolio in cash. The Fund has a high level of associated risk, therefore, the minimum suggested investment time-frame is 5 years. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund's stock selection was a positive contributor to returns. It had large holdings in the insurance companies AMP (+12.6%) and IAG (+10.8%) that produced strong returns. Also within the Financials, the large underweighting in CBA added value over the month. In addition, position in Star Entertainment (+9.6%) also outperformed. However, the significant holding in cash was the biggest detractor. The investment team believes that the Fund is well-positioned in light of extended financial asset valuations in general and given the heightened geopolitical and economic uncertainty going forward. Click below to read in more detail. |
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