NEWS
Insync Global Titans Fund
31 Jul 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
In June, the Insync Global Titans Fund outperformed its benchmark MSCI All Country World ex-Australia Net Total Return Index ($A) by 0.50%.
Read more...
31 Jul 2015 - Insync Global Titans 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 | |
| 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 performance was driven by positive contributions from holdings in Comcast, Disney and Baxter. The main negative contributors were Oracle, Nestle and Microsoft. The Fund continues to have no foreign currency hedging in place as Insync considers the main risks to the Australian dollar to be on the downside. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager Report. |
| More Information |
Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund June 2015
30 Jul 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
June Fund Review with key statistics for Totus Alpha Fund now available.
Read more...
30 Jul 2015 - Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund June 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: June 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 24.97% since inception in March 2012 as compared to 12.14% for the ASX 200 Accumulation Index. The standard deviation has been higher than the Index at 13.44% as compared to 11.48% and the Sharpe ratio is 1.53.
Fund Review: June 2015 (pdf format)
Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
29 Jul 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
In a volatile month, the Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund returned 0.17%, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by 5.47%.
Read more...
29 Jul 2015 - Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return 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 | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| 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 | It was the Option (+0.68%) and Convergence Trading (+0.14%) strategies that provided positive contribution to the portfolio. Positions in the banking sector were the dominant contributors. However the reverse of this banking prices actively impacted the Yield strategy (-0.53%) and become the largest detractor for the month. The Mergers and Acquisitions and Long/Short Trading strategies were flat for the month. Click below to read the latest monthly commentary and market outlook. |
| More Information |
Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund June 2015
29 Jul 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 10.90% p.a.
Read more...
29 Jul 2015 - Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund June 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: June 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 10.90% p.a., compared to the AFM's Asia Pacific Index of 6.67%. The Fund has achieved this with lower volatility of 5.85% (Index 11.75%).
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Fund Review: June 2015 (pdf format)
Cor Capital Fund
28 Jul 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
During June the Cor Capital Fund returned -2.29% bringing the 12-month return to 4.77%, outperforming the RBA Cash Rate Index by 2.42%.
Read more...
28 Jul 2015 - Cor Capital 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 | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The Cor Capital Fund is a Multi- Asset Fund which combines a pre-determined strategic asset allocation with active but systemised rebalancing to generate returns and manage volatility whilst maintaining transparency and liquidity. The Fund strategy is not reliant on accurate market predictions, forecasts or timing for success. Returns are generated in a number of ways; 1) by maintaining sufficiently large positions in a diverse group of asset classes, 2) via the 'volatility harvesting' consequences of active rebalancing, and 3) from the offsetting behaviour of certain asset classes under specific conditions. The combined portfolio is expected to exhibit relatively low volatility and low turnover. In the interests of avoiding complexity, maintaining liquidity, and minimising reliance on third parties, the Fund strategy does not employ gearing, derivatives or short-selling. |
| Manager Comments | The portfolio's equities position detracted from June returns as the ASX200 accumulation index retreated 5.3%. Gold (-2%) and bonds (-0.9%) were also negative during June although the Manager notes that the largest contribution to the Fund's 12 month return was gold (+9.5%). Click below to read the Fund's latest quarterly report. |
| More Information |
Avenir Value Fund
28 Jul 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Avenir Value Fund outperformed the ASX200 Accumulation Index (-5.30%) in June by 0.90%.
Read more...
28 Jul 2015 - Avenir Value 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 | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The Fund will invest in securities where Avenir believes the company is simply mis-priced and deeply undervalued and offers significant potential for revaluation. The Fund will also invest in companies that are subject to specific corporate events such as mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, recapitalisations, spin-offs, demergers, management change, distressed situations, and other sharply delineated corporate events. The Fund will also selectively invest in short positions in companies where Avenir believes the company is significantly overvalued or where the company's business model is broken or structurally challenged. |
| Manager Comments | At month-end, the Fund's geographical disposition was 50.60% in US, 13.4% in Asia, 8.1% in Western Europe, 3.9% in other and rest 24.0% as cash. The portfolio concentration in the top 10 holdings were 61% of NAV. Click below to view the June 2015 Fund Report. |
| More Information |
Freehold Absolute Return Fund
27 Jul 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Freehold Absolute Return Fund delivered a positive 1.81% in June, in a weak and volatile equity market (-5.30%).
Read more...
27 Jul 2015 - Freehold Absolute Return 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 | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| 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 portfolio's positive contributors in Jun were Westfield Group, Sydney Airport and Federation Centres. Negative Contributors were Industria REIT, Duet Group and APN Property Group. The Fund had moved to a net long position early in June on the back of a mild correction in the real estate and infrastructure markets combined and the sector had strong ex-dividend period. This positioning delivered quickly, within one week the sector experienced a very strong rally in the face of rising, macroeconomic risks from Greece and China. From this point the sector saw a serious correction due to rising macro risks, whilst the Fund was positioned to maintain its early strong gains. Click below to view the latest Fund & Market commentary. |
| More Information |
Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund June 2015
27 Jul 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review now available on Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund, which has over nine years of positive track record.
Read more...
27 Jul 2015 - Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund June 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
BENNELONG KARDINIA ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review. You are also able to view the Fund's Profile.
- The Fund is long biased, research driven, active equity long/short strategy investing in listed ASX companies with an nine year track record.
- The Fund has significantly outperformed the ASX200 Accumulation Index since its inception in April 2006 and also has significantly lower risk KPI's. The Fund has an annualised return of 12.70% p.a. with a volatility of 7.32%, compared to the ASX200 Accumulation's return of 4.93% p.a. with volatility of 14.19%.
- The Fund also has a strong focus on capital protection in negative markets. Portfolio Managers Mark Burgess and Kristiaan Rehder have significant market experience, while Bennelong Funds Management provide infrastructure, operational, compliance and distribution capabilities.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund
24 Jul 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund finished -2.39% for the month, compared to the HFR Event Driven Index which closed -1% and Asia Pacific markets which fell -3.3%.
Read more...
24 Jul 2015 - Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific 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 | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The Fund will usually hold 40 to 80 positions and will be well diversified across the various event strategies. In keeping with the absolute return focus the Manager will eliminate market risk where appropriate by hedging market and foreign currency risks. Since inception the Fund has averaged a net equity market exposure of ~10%. Sizing of an investment position will depend on the expected risk adjusted returns while taking account the liquidity and volatility of the stock. In addition, the maximum potential loss on any one position should be greater than 0.5% of the NAV and the position should not exceed 30% participation of stressed volume assuming a $200m NAV. Other criteria considered are ability to hedge and the availability of pair candidates as well as the average bid-ask size. For M&A strategies average long position is 3 to 5.5% and average short position 2 to 5%. |
| Manager Comments | Macro turbulence hit full swing with the de-risking in China overshadowing events in Greece. This extreme volatility made hedging the Fund's greater China exposure challenging, resulting in the negative performance of Chinese companies across most sub-strategies. The Fund ended the month with average net and gross exposure of 10.7% and 231% respectively. The Index Futures strategies contributed most towards the Fund's monthly performance. However, Capital Management and M&A strategies were the major detractors. The country exposure as percentage (%) of NAV was most in Japan with gross of 59.40%, followed by Hong Kong/China at 50.30%. Click below to read the complete Fund Manager's Report |
| More Information |
Meme Australian Share Fund
23 Jul 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Over the last 12 months the Meme Australian Share Fund has outperformed the ASX200 Accumulation Index by 12.77%.
Read more...
23 Jul 2015 - Meme Australian Share 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 | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| 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 | The Fund return for the Quarter was negative, at -4.36% although it comfortably outperformed the Fund's Benchmark All Ordinaries Accumulation Index, which returned -6.25% for the same period. Recent market volatility has resulted in an increase in the cash holding in the portfolio to about 30% and exposures to all market sectors have reduced apart from Materials, Energy and Information Technology which have enjoyed small absolute increases. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's commentary on the Fund. |
| More Information |
