NEWS
Meme Australian Share Fund
14 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Along with the board market, Meme Australian Share Fund fell 7.50% compared to the ASX200 Accumulation Index's -7.79%.
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14 Sep 2015 - Meme Australian Share Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's investment strategy seeks to identify low-risk entry opportunities and then build positions in these stocks. Once established in the portfolio, individual stock holdings are maintained for as long as their long-term upward trend remains intact and while they continue to make positive contributions to portfolio growth. Positions are reduced and ultimately closed out as their trends become exhausted or as their relative long-term performance against the broad market weakens. The Fund believes that longer time frame investments also provide a number of advantages. The effect of false signals and 'noise' which attend shorter term time frames is mitigated by only attending to signals which are confirmed by our longer term assessments. Also, the Fund gains exposure to the more expansive price trends which can last for months and years, allowing dividends and distributions received during this time to further enhance portfolio returns. |
| Manager Comments | In response to the August sell-off, the number of stocks in the portfolio fell from 89 to 67 and cash increased from under 1% to 23%. Sector allocations in the Fund mostly reduced across, with only Financials, Energy and Utilities showing small proportional increases. At the end of August the stocks that met the Fund's absolute and relative performance hurdles has risen from 9.1% to 9.6% of the liquid stocks on the ASX. Over 23% of the portfolio was invested in the top 10 holdings, with over 3.0% in Blackmores Limited and UXC Limited. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's commentary on the Fund. |
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Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
11 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund performance in August was down slightly at -0.69%, in an equity market that fell 7.8% (ASX200 Accumulation Index).
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11 Sep 2015 - 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. |
| Manager Comments | The mining services was a strong contributor to the Fund's performance, where the Fund benefited from shorts on Orica and Downer, as the firms issued weak full-year result and FY16 outlook. Return from their bottom pair was driven by Seek long as the company announced plans to increase investment in business and expand, resulting in a downgrade to profit guidance. Fund activity for the month was minimal and at month-end the long exposure at 51.7% and short exposure at -48.30%. Click below to read the Fund Manager's complete commentary and future market outlook. |
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Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
10 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Optimal Australia Absolute Trust rose 1.5% in August, against a terrible equity market backdrop, with the ASX 200 Accumulation Index down 7.79%.
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10 Sep 2015 - 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 positions strongly outperformed the market, with negative attribution of -2.5%. Key performers included the Fund's more defensive holdings: Fairfax, Ansell, Asaleo, and Contact Energy. The short positions yielded outsized gains in such a weak market, with positive attribution of 4.2%. Key winners included financials, energy, and their index futures portfolio hedge. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's commentary on the Fund and market outlook. |
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Monash Absolute Investment Fund
9 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
In August, the Monash Absolute Investment Fund rose 0.22%, despite the ASX200 Accumulation Index fell 7.79%.
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9 Sep 2015 - Monash Absolute Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund seeks to identify opportunities in the share market to make positive returns (long and short) irrespective of market conditions. It is style agnostic, as compelling investment opportunities exist across all investment styles from time to time. The Fund places a high priority on capital preservation, and has an absolute return focus in accepting market risk. The Manager's experience across value, growth and discounted cash flow styles allows them to use a comprehensive approach to investment decisions that applies all three. They also have the patience to seek out only compelling opportunities, rather than settling for relative value. The portfolio is somewhat concentrated, looking to diversify across industries and themes, rather than by trying to stay near an index. The portfolio may at times have a large amount of cash or other protection. However once investments are made turnover may be relatively high in order to lock in gains and avoid losses. |
| Manager Comments | August was the month most companies reported their full year numbers. The Fund had a good reporting season which offset the downward price pressure exerted by the falling markets on their stocks. The portfolio was also assisted by the short positions. The Fund had positive contribution by going long in 1-Page and Netcomm Wireless and short in Woolworths. The portfolio had 83% net exposure and 93% gross exposure. Click below to read the August Performance Report. |
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Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund July 2015
8 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review on Insync Global Titans Fund is now available.
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8 Sep 2015 - Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund July 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund AFM Fund Review July 2015 (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 outperformed its benchmark MSCI All Country World ex-Australia Net Total Return Index ($A) by 1.0%, in July. The performance was fairly broadly based across the portfolio, with the biggest positive contributions coming from the holdings in eBay, Reckitt Benckiser, Sanofi, BAT and Medtronic. A small negative contribution came from their holding in Zimmer. The Fund continues to have no foreign currency hedging in place as Insync consider the main risks to the Australian dollar to be on the downside.
- 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.
Insync Global Titans Fund AFM Fund Review July 2015 (pdf format)
Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund July 2015
7 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
July Fund Review with key statistics for Totus Alpha Fund is now available.
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7 Sep 2015 - Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund July 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund AFM Fund Review July 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 28.65% since inception in March 2012 as compared to 13.27% for the ASX 200 Accumulation Index. The standard deviation has been higher than the Index at 14.38% as compared to 11.48% and the Sharpe ratio is 1.65.
Totus Alpha Fund AFM Fund Review July 2015 (pdf format)
KIS Asia Long Short Fund
4 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
KIS Asia Long Short Fund rose 0.26% for the month of July, to bring the annualised performance since inception to 14.75% p.a.
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4 Sep 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 month's return came from the Long Short Strategy, contributing 21bp. The Fund suffered from volatility in Hong Kong (HK) and China, which was especially noticeable in the HK listed mid-cap stocks. The Fund was able to cut their positions in Hong Kong, limiting the pain to 60bp. Australia was heavily dominated by long positions in small-cap stocks such as Catapult Group International Ltd, CAT.AX and Freelancer, FLN, AX to produce positive returns. CLick below to read the Fund's monthly commentary. |
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Insync Global Titans Fund
3 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Insync Global Titans Fund returned 6.6% in July, outperforming its benchmark MSCI All Country World ex-Australia Net Total Return Index ($A) by 1.0%.
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3 Sep 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 Fund's performance was fairly broadly based across the portfolio, with the biggest positive contributions coming from their holdings in eBay, Reckitt Benckiser, Sanofi, BAT and Medtronic. A small negative contribution came from their holding in Zimmer. The Fund continues to have no foreign currency hedging in place as Insync consider the main risks to the Australian dollar to be on the downside. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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Fund Review: Supervised High Yield Fund July 2015
2 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Fund review on Supervised High Yield Fund, which is a fixed income fund, is now available.
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2 Sep 2015 - Fund Review: Supervised High Yield Fund July 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Supervised High Yield Fund AFM Review July 2015 (pdf format)
SUPERVISED HIGH YIELD FUND
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund:
- The Supervised High Yield Fund (SHYF) 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 32years, 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 identify 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 for 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.
Supervised High Yield Fund AFM Review July 2015 (pdf format)
Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund July 2015
1 Sep 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 10.63% p.a.
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1 Sep 2015 - Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund July 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: July 2015 (pdf format)
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 10.63% p.a., compared to the AFM's Asia Pacific Index of 6.62%. The Fund has achieved this with lower volatility of 5.84% (Index 11.85%).
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Fund Review: July 2015 (pdf format)
