NEWS
Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund October 2015
30 Nov 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest fund review now available on the Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund, which has one of the most risk averse Key Performance Statistics of any fund in AFM's database.
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30 Nov 2015 - Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund October 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AURORA FORTITUDE ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- The Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund (AFARF) has a 10 year track record investing in ASX listed equities. A Market Neutral overlay is used across a multi strategy approach which allows for flexible asset allocation to maximise returns and minimise risk under a variety of market conditions and cycles.CIO John Corr has over 20 years financial market experience with a strong focus on risk.
- Significant use of low risk "long" derivatives and option overlays has provided positive returns with low volatility during periods of market dislocation. Risk statistics are impressive and shows the Funds risk philosophy; 85% of monthly performances have been positive with no losing months in 2008, the Fund's largest drawdown is -2.09% and the Sharpe ratio 1.09.
- ASX listed Aurora Funds Limited was established on the merger of three existing fund management businesses, managing approx. $230m on behalf of more than 2,500 retail and wholesale investors.
Supervised High Yield Fund
27 Nov 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Supervised High Yield Fund produced a return of +0.54% for the month of October, to bring annualised performance since inception to 9.87% p.a.
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27 Nov 2015 - Supervised High Yield Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund may also invest in interest rate swaps, options over authorized investments and exchange traded futures contracts. All these will be either listed or traded in a market where they can be independently valued. Fundamental to the investment procedure is the tenet that no debt security will qualify for investment unless it can repay 100% of its principal and interest in a worst case economic scenario. |
| Manager Comments | In the current environment debt security income levels have been squeezed across the globe and the global investment community progressively chases yield, thus compressing returns to the historically low levels we see today. However, the Fund Manager has adopted the approach to benefit from the increasing levels of market volatility in a rising interest rates environment to deliver stable returns over the latest 12 months of 5.83%. More than half of the portfolio's composition (as a percentage of NAV) was invested in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) 62.89%. The rest of the portfolio composition was in USD Corporate Loans at 22.30%, Cash at 10.64% and AUD Corporate Loans at 4.17%. Click below to view the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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Fund Review: APN Asian REIT Fund October 2015
26 Nov 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
October Fund Review is now available on APN Asian REIT Fund, a property securities fund, investing primarily in the Asian REITS.
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26 Nov 2015 - Fund Review: APN Asian REIT Fund October 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
APN Asian REIT Fund AFM Fund Review September 2015 (pdf format)
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 $A2.1bn 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 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 a sustainable rental income streams.
- The Fund has delivered an annalised return of 17.96% p.a., since inception in July 2011 with standard deviation of 9.11% p.a. The Sharpe and Sortino ratios are 1.54 and 2.96 respectively.
APN Asian REIT Fund AFM Fund Review September 2015 (pdf format)
Freehold Absolute Return Fund
26 Nov 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Freehold Absolute Return Fund delivered a positive 1.29% for the month of October.
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26 Nov 2015 - Freehold Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's research use detailed analysis of the underlying assets integrated with financial analysis to determine a sustainable yield and fundamental DCF valuation for the security. Also the Fund believes in having a strong risk control framework. The Fund will also use trading strategies via rebalancing of core portfolio positions as well as taking advantage of shorter duration inefficiencies in markets caused by an imbalance in demand and supply for global REIT and Infrastructure securities. The Fund focuses on generating absolute returns after fees of 12 to 15% pa over the medium to long term. The long-short nature of the Fund combined with Freehold's rigorous investment process ensures returns generated by the Fund are largely independent of rising or falling markets. Freehold is focused on providing investment opportunities primarily within core, value-add, opportunistic and development sectors of direct property and across listed and unlisted real estate and infrastructure securities. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund maintained a modest net long market exposure during the month which contributed to the positive performance this month. The Fund plans to increase the net long exposure in Mirvac, Westfield and Goodman Group, as opportunities present themselves. Positive contributors to the portfolio were Folkestone Education, Mirvac and APN Property. Negative contributors were Sydney Airport, Transurban and GPT Group. Click Manager's Report to read more. |
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Insync Global Titans Fund
25 Nov 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Insync Global Titans Fund rose 3.5% in October, compared to its benchmark MSCI All Country World ex-Australia Net Total Return Index ($A) which returned 6.2%.
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25 Nov 2015 - 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 our holdings in Microsoft, Medtronic, McDonald's and Zimmer. The Fund continues to have no foreign currency hedging in place as Insync consider that the risk to the Australian dollar continues to be on the downside. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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KIS Asia Long Short Fund
25 Nov 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
KIS Asia Long Short Fund rose 2.50% for the month of October.
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25 Nov 2015 - KIS Asia Long Short Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Whilst the Fund's primary strategy is focused on long/short equities, the ability to retain discretionary powers to allocate across a number of other investment strategies is reserved. These strategies may include, but not be limited to: convertible bond investments, portfolio hedging, equity related arbitrage, special situations (e.g. merger arbitrage, rights offerings, participation in international public offerings and placements, etc.). The Fund's geographic focus is Asia excluding Japan, but including Australia). The Fund may invest outside of this region to the extent that: 1. The investment decision is driven from the Asian region or; 2. The exposure is intended to mitigate risk or enhance return from factors external to the Asian region. |
| Manager Comments | Majority of the Fund's return came from the Long Short strategy, which contributed 227bp. In total, longs contributed 307bp with short positions costing 80bp. On average the long exposures rose by 6%, whilst the short exposure rose 2%. On a specific stock name basis, the Paladin Exergy (PDN.AX) contributed 68bp to the portfolio The Fund also benefited from their long time holding in Freelanver (FLN.AX), which contributed 42bp. Other strategies Special Situations returned 24bp, while Portfolio Hedge did not make a significant contribution. To read more, cLick below for Fund's Monthly performance report. |
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Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund October 2015
24 Nov 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
October Fund Review with key statistics for Totus Alpha Fund is now available.
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24 Nov 2015 - Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund October 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund AFM Fund Review October 2015 (pdf format)
TOTUS ALPHA FUND
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- Totus Capital is a Sydney based long short fund manager established in 2012 by Ben McGarry which aims to place equal emphasis on performance and capital preservation. The Fund invests mainly in Australia, but also in other developed economies, with a primary exposure to equity markets.
- The Totus Alpha Fund's investment strategy is to identify structural themes, and then seek to drive performance by investing in securities that have concentrated exposure to those themes. Single stock short positions are used to generate alpha, frequently in under researched parts of the market such as the small and mid-cap space. Index derivatives are used to hedge the portfolio's market risk.
- McGarry qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PWC in 1999 and has 14 years market experience, commencing his career covering European building materials and construction sectors at Morgan Stanley in London. Previous experience included analytical roles at Ausbil, a Sydney based $10bn+ long-only manager, and sell side emerging companies experience at UBS. McGarry's emerging company research with UBS included exposure to a range of sectors including energy, materials, industrials, tech, financials, retail and telecommunications.
- The Fund has delivered an annalised return of 30.14% since inception in March 2012 as compared to 10.18% for the ASX 200 Accumulation Index. The standard deviation has been higher than the Index at 14.04% as compared to 12.31% and the Sharpe ratio is 1.77.
Totus Alpha Fund AFM Fund Review October 2015 (pdf format)
Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
24 Nov 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund returned -0.17% for the month of October.
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24 Nov 2015 - Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund aims to produce positive returns irrespective of the direction of the share market. For each investment the manager considers the risk, the timeline of that risk occurring and then the potential return. Low transaction costs and liquidity are other important factors in the success and implementation of the strategies. |
| Manager Comments | The decreased volatility in the global markets, saw a drawdown from our Option Strategy (-0.94%). The Fund held significant downside exposure to Santos Ltd (STO.ASX), while waiting for a possible equity issue. However this also provided extra protection during the Origin Energy (ORG.ASX) rights trading, which provided profitable Convergence trading opportunities. Regulatory concerns saw lots of activity within our Mergers & Acquisitions strategy but despite this we were able to generate a positive return (+0.28%). The Yield and Long/Short Strategies both saw a small positive contribution of 0.12% and 0.09% respectively. Click below to read more on the Fund's performance. |
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Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund October 2015
23 Nov 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review now available on Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund, which has over 6 years of track record and annualised return of 10.05% p.a.
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23 Nov 2015 - Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund October 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
PENGANA ABSOLUTE RETURN ASIA PACIFIC FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund.
- The Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund ("PARAP") was established in 2008 by portfolio managers Antonio Meroni and Vikas Kumra. The Fund is a feeder fund into a Cayman Islands AUD share class fund.
- The Fund invests both long and short in Asia Pacific equities, including in Australian and New Zealand, after a stock specific "event" has either occurred or been announced and the portfolio aims to be uncorrelated to the underlying equity markets. A combination of the Manager's experience, thorough research and continuous back- testing identify the most attractive of these events.
- Risk controls include limits on individual positions as well as gross and net exposure. Limits are in place for option exposure and cash borrowing, with stop loss limits on individual positions. Overall the manager is looking to derive returns from the event strategies as opposed to any currency or market exposures.
- Since inception, the Fund has an annualised return of 10.05% p.a., compared to the AFM's Asia Pacific Index of 6.00%. The Fund has achieved this with lower volatility of 6.19% (Index 12.05%).
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
APN AREIT Fund
23 Nov 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
APN AREIT Fund rose 4.43% in October to bring annualised return since inception to 17.90% p.a.
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23 Nov 2015 - 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 | In October, the Fund had 99% allocation in AREITs and rest in cash. Majority of the underlying property sector allocation was in the Retail sector at 64%, followed by Office sector at 21%. The Top 5 stocks holdings made up 58% of APN AREIT Fund. These stocks were Scentre Group, Vicinity Centres, Stockland, Charter Hall Retail REIT and Westfield Group. Click below to read the complete Fund Manager's Report. |
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