NEWS
Performance Report: AIM Global High Conviction Fund
1 Feb 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The AIM Global High Conviction Fund rose +14.19% with a volatility of 11.43% over the past 12 months vs AFM's Global Equity Index's return of +6.21% with a volatility of 13.98%. Since inception in July 2015, the Fund has returned +4.61%...
Read more...
1 Feb 2021 - Performance Report: AIM Global High Conviction Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months (pa) | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The strategy is long-only, with a mandate to be between 90% - 100% invested. The Fund also employs a construction framework that ensures there is a sensible mix of exposures within the limited number of businesses in the portfolio. These limits are: - Maximum individual position size 7.5% - Minimum individual position size 2.5% - Maximum sector exposure 30% The Fund targets a cash allocation of between 0-10% but can have as much as 20% of the portfolio in cash in the event of an unprecedented global shock. Liquidity is extremely important. The Fund will typically look to invest in businesses within a market cap range of US$7.5billion all the way up to the largest companies in the world with market capitalisations in excess of $200b. Occasionally, we may find a business that exhibits the traits of a quality investment, but it is much earlier in its business cycle. The Fund can invest in these businesses, but they must clear a much higher bar for inclusion. Individually, these future compounders cannot comprise more than 4% of the fund, these businesses cannot collectively exceed 10% of the fund. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund returned -0.71% in December. The biggest headwind to performance during the month was the relative strength of the AUD which AIM estimate reduced the absolute return by 4.7%. The top contributors to performance included Intuitive Surgical, Keyence, PayPal, LVMH and Estee Lauder. Key detractors included Salesforce.com, Alphabet, Prosus, Fastenal and ICON. AIM noted that in most cased (except Salesforce), the decline in local currency was relatively modest. The weak AUD returns were driven by the currency impact. The portfolio's top 10 holdings at month-end were Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft Corp, Coca-Cola, Alphabet, Mastercard, UnitedHealth Group, ICON, Accenture, Nike and Heineken NV. The portfolio was most heavily weighted towards the USA (43.6% of the portfolio), followed by developed ex-USA markets (25.8% weighting). By sector, the portfolio was most heavily weighted towards the IT, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples and Healthcare sectors. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Bennelong Concentrated Australian Equities Fund
1 Feb 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Concentrated Australian Equities Fund rose +1.74% in December, taking 12-month performance to +16.33% vs the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +1.40%. Since inception in February 2009, the Fund has returned +16.65% p.a. vs the Index's 9.99%.
Read more...
1 Feb 2021 - Performance Report: Bennelong Concentrated Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months (pa) | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| 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 | The Fund's up-capture and down-capture ratios (since inception), 149.4% and 91.6% respectively, indicate that, on average, it has outperformed in both the market's positive and negative months. The Fund's Sortino ratio (since inception) of 1.36 vs the Index's 0.73 demonstrates its capacity to avoid the market's downside volatility over the long-term. As at the end of December, the portfolio's weightings had been increased in the IT, Communication, Industrials, Materials and Financials sectors, and decreased in the Discretionary, Health Care and REIT's sectors. The portfolio is significantly overweight the Discretionary sector (Fund weight: 39.8%, benchmark weight: 7.7%) and underweight the Financials sectors (Fund weight: 7.1%, benchmark weight: 27.1%). |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund
1 Feb 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Insync Global Capital Aware Fund rose +19.71% over CY20, outperforming AFM's Global Equity Benchmark by +13.5% with the same level of volatility. Since inception in October 2009, the Fund has returned +11.94% p.a. vs the Index's +11.14%.
Read more...
1 Feb 2021 - Performance Report: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months (pa) | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| 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 Fund's return was flat in December, in line with the Index. Insync believe the outperformance of neglected sectors over the past quarter (e.g. banks, energy & cyclicals) is primarily due to exuberant expectations of much higher growth (from vaccines) and inflation views for the near term. Insync noted Megatrends have proved resilient to the COVID-19 fallout, with many existing long-term trends having been accelerated by the pandemic. These include the move to e-commerce, uptake of contactless payment methods, expansion of cloud-based services, collision of biological science technology and the transition from carbon energy to electric. They added that megatrends are typically not determined by short-term shocks, even those as significant as COVID-19. The Fund's top 10 active holdings at month-end included Nintendo, Walt Disney, Domino's Pizza, PayPal, Dollar General, Qualcomm, Visa, S&P Global, Facebook and Nvidia. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Premium Asia Fund
29 Jan 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Premium Asia Fund rose +5.28%, outperforming AFM's Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index by +3.37% and taking 12-month performance to +23% vs the Index's +13.58%. Since inception in December 2009, the Fund has returned +12.49% p.a. vs the Index's +6.46%.
Read more...
29 Jan 2021 - Performance Report: Premium Asia Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months (pa) | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The Fund is managed by Value Partners using a disciplined value-oriented approach supported by intensive, on-the-ground bottom-up fundamental research resulting in a portfolio of individual holdings, which are, in the view of Value Partners, undervalued and of high quality, on either an absolute or relative basis, and which have the potential for capital appreciation. The Fund will primarily have exposure to the equity securities of entities listed on securities exchanges across the Asia (ex-Japan) region, however, the Fund may also gain exposure to entities listed on securities outside the Asia (ex-Japan) region which have significant assets, investments, production activities, trading or other business interests in the Asia (ex-Japan) region as well as unlisted instruments with equity-like characteristics, such as participatory notes and convertible bonds. The Fund may also invest in cash and money market instruments, depositary receipts, listed unit trusts, shares in mutual fund corporations and other collective investment schemes (including real estate investment trusts), derivatives including both exchange-traded and OTC, convertible securities, participatory notes, bonds, and foreign exchange contracts. |
| Manager Comments | Within China, the Fund's core consumption related holdings extended the positive momentum to December. In particular, Premium China noted a Chinese e-commerce platform is expected to maintain a robust growth outlook heading into 2021, while the baiju holdings continued to enjoy robust demand and price hikes. Another key contributor was China's leading duty-free shop operator, which Premium China recently added to the portfolio. The company benefits from favourable government policies and the reshoring consumption trend. Technology hardware also showed no sign of deceleration. This resulted in another month of strong performance from the Fund's top holdings in Taiwan's largest semiconductor foundry and the world's leading Korean flash memory chip maker. As a result, the two companies continue to be the top performers in the portfolio. Premium China's view is that the outlook for 2021 equities is benign under accommodative policy, recovering earnings, and nascent vaccine adoption. They added that Asian equities, especially China-related companies, are expected to lead the growth. They expect profit growth derived from old and new economy sectors to be more balanced this year. |
| More Information |
Hedge Clippings | 29 January 2021
29 Jan 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
Deja Vu (all over again!). There's been increasing chatter and comment regarding an impending bursting of the global equities bubble - and who knows, this week may have seen the first glimpses of such an event. However, the difficulties of...
Read more...
29 Jan 2021 - Hedge Clippings | 29 January 2021
By: Australian Fund Monitors
|
||||
|
If you'd like to receive Hedge Clippings direct to your inbox each Friday
|
Performance Report: Frazis Fund
29 Jan 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Frazis Fund rose +8.50% in December, outperforming AFM's Global Equity Index by +8.66% and taking CY20 performance to +108.43% after fees vs the Index's +6.21%. Since inception in July 2018, the Fund has returned +31.00% p.a. vs the...
Read more...
29 Jan 2021 - Performance Report: Frazis Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months (pa) | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The manager follows a disciplined, process-driven, and thematic strategy focused on five core investment strategies: 1) Growth stocks that are really value stocks; 2) Traditional deep value; 3) The life sciences; 4) Miners and drillers expanding production into supply deficits; 5) Global special situations; The manager uses a macro overlay to manage exposure, hedging in three ways: 1) Direct shorts 2) Upside exposure to the VIX index 3) Index optionality |
| Manager Comments | The Fund has achieved an up-capture ratio since inception of 262.4% which indicates that, on average, the Fund has risen more than twice as much as the market during the market's positive months. The Fund's 12-month up-capture ratio is 617.5%, highlighting its significant outperformance during the market's positive months over CY20. The Fund now holds over 45 stocks. Frazis noted many of these are growing in excess of 100%, and on a weighted average basis growing at over 80% organically. They highlight that, instead of focusing on historic financials, they focus first on consumers and the key decision points when one product or service is chosen over another. They look for explosive growth measurable in data and consider true 'customer love' and a rapidly growing and increasingly engaged userbase as the real sign of quality. Heading into 2021, Frazis remain confident the portfolio will continue to outperform. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Montgomery Small Companies Fund
29 Jan 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Montgomery Small Companies Fund rose +3.65% in December, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +2.59% and taking 12-month performance to +27.56% vs the Index's +1.40%.
Read more...
29 Jan 2021 - Performance Report: Montgomery Small Companies Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months (pa) | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | Montgomery Lucent, a joint venture between Lucent Capital Partners and Montgomery Investment Management, is the investment manager of the Fund. Lucent Capital Partners is owned by its founders Gary Rollo and Dominic Rose. Gary and Dominic have worked together for three years as at February 2020 and have a combined three decades of portfolio management and equities research experience. The manager is able to invest up to 10% of the portfolio in pre-IPO opportunities. They search for companies likely to benefit from secular trends, industry change and with substantial competitive advantages. Cash typically ranges around 10%. |
| Manager Comments | The Montgomery Small Companies Fund rose +3.65% in December, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +2.59% and taking 12-month performance to +27.56% vs the Index's +1.40%. Since inception in October 2019, the Fund has returned +20.16% p.a. vs the Index's +1.67%. The Fund's up-capture and down-capture ratios for performance over the past year, 165.6% and 88.3% respectively, indicate that, on average, the Fund outperformed in both the market's positive and negative months. Positive contributors in December included City Chic Collective, EML Payments and Mineral Resources. The largest detractors included Appen, Tyro Payments and Webjet. Montgomery noted they're entering 2021 playing five big themes; cloud technology, sustainable income, economic reopening, strength and stimulus, and de-carbonisation. These themes are discussed in detail in the latest report. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: DS Capital Growth Fund
29 Jan 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The DS Capital Growth Fund rose +4.27% in December, taking CY20 performance to +19.91% vs the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +1.40%. Since inception in January 2013, the Fund has returned +16.05% p.a. with an annualised volatility of 11.45%.
Read more...
29 Jan 2021 - Performance Report: DS Capital Growth Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months (pa) | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The investment team looks for industrial businesses that are simple to understand; they generally avoid large caps, pure mining, biotech and start-ups. They also look for: - Access to management; - Businesses with a competitive edge; - Profitable companies with good margins, organic growth prospects, strong market position and a track record of healthy dividend growth; - Sectors with structural advantage and barriers to entry; - 15% p.a. pre-tax compound return on each holding; and - A history of stable and predictable cash flows that DS Capital can understand and value. |
| Manager Comments | The following statistics (since inception) highlight the Fund's capacity to outperform in falling and volatile markets: Sortino ratio of 1.82 vs the Index's 0.67, average negative monthly return of -2.01% vs the Index's -3.14%, and down-capture ratio of 45%. The Fund delivered +11.50% over the December quarter. Key positive contributors included Resimac, Uniti Group, Money3, Kogan and SG Fleet. DS Capital expect COVID-19 to be the dominant influence on asset markets going into 2021. They added that, while it is expected that stimulus and low interest rates will continue in the near-term, any change to this expectation will create volatility. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Surrey Australian Equities Fund
29 Jan 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Surrey Australian Equities Fund rose +2.50% in December, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +1.44% and taking CY20 performance to +23.63% vs the Index's +1.40%. Since inception in June 2018, the Fund has returned +11.16%...
Read more...
29 Jan 2021 - Performance Report: Surrey Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months (pa) | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The Investment Manager follows a defined investment process which is underpinned by detailed bottom up fundamental analysis, overlayed with sectoral and macroeconomic research. This is combined with an extensive company visitation program where we endeavour to meet with company management and with other stakeholders such as suppliers, customers and industry bodies to improve our information set. Surrey Asset Management defines its investment process as Qualitative, Quantitative and Value Latencies (QQV). In essence, the Investment Manager thoroughly researches an investment's qualitative and quantitative characteristics in an attempt to find value latencies not yet reflected in the share price and then clearly defines a roadmap to realisation of those latencies. Developing this roadmap is a key step in the investment process. By articulating a clear pathway as to how and when an investment can realise what the Investment Manager sees as latent value, defines the investment proposition and lessens the impact of cognitive dissonance. This is undertaken with a philosophical underpinning of fact-based investing, transparency, authenticity and accountability. |
| Manager Comments | During the month, gains were consistently distributed across the portfolio. Key contributors included Mineral Resources and Cleanspace. Catapult and Tassal Group were the main detractors. The Fund's top holdings at month-end included Auckland International Airports, Mineral Resources, Omni Bridgeway, Pointsbet and Uniti Group. The portfolio was most heavily weighted towards the Industrials and IT sectors. Surrey hold an optimistic outlook for 2021, with both directors of Surrey Asset Management continuing to reinvest money into the Fund over the last quarter. They noted they were particularly active towards the end of the year as they took advantage of stocks they believed were mispriced. This lays the foundation for the 2021 portfolio and is also a further reflection of Surrey's favourable outlook for markets. The Fund finished the year with 1% in cash. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: 4D Global Infrastructure Fund
29 Jan 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The 4D Global Infrastructure Fund returned -0.75% in December. Since inception in March 2016, the Fund has returned +9.46% p.a. with an annualised volatility of 12.61%.
Read more...
29 Jan 2021 - Performance Report: 4D Global Infrastructure Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months (pa) | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| 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 in December was pure play renewable operator EDP Renewables, up +28.4% on the back of increased global stimulus focusing on the green energy transition. The weakest performer was Canadian midstream operator Pembina Pipeline, down -8.5% as the midstream sector remains out of favour as the global focus turns green. 4D continue to position the portfolio for the prevailing economic outlook and infrastructure as a means of a recovery. Despite the challenges faced throughout 2020, the manager remains optimistic about the global economic outlook and the infrastructure asset class for 2021 and beyond. |
| More Information |
