The Paragon Fund

25 May 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors

The Paragon Fund returned 1.10% versus the ASX 200 Accumulation's -1.70%, for the month of April 2015. The Fund's annual return since inception has been 21.24% p.a. versus the Index's 10.60% p.a.

25 May 2015 - The Paragon Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	21 May 2015
Manager	Paragon Funds Management
Fund Name	The Paragon Fund
Strategy	Equity Long/Short
Latest Return Date	April 2015
Latest Return	1.10%
Latest 6 Months	6.40%
Latest 12 Months	25.14%
Latest 24 Months	49.64%
Annualised Since Inception	21.24%
Inception Date	28 February 2013
FUM (millions)	AU$29
Fund Overview	Australian long-short equities absolute return fund, focusing on core competencies in the resource and industrial sectors. The Fund deploys a high conviction, long bias strategy, focusing on proprietary, fact based research. Capital preservation is a key objective of the Fund. Paragon accepts that markets are not always efficient in pricing information into securities and that no one investment style works in every stage of the investment cycle. Subsequently Paragon adopts a top down thematic led approach to identify companies exhibiting sustainable or improving returns on capital driven by volume growth, pricing power and competitive advantages. Paragon utilises both quantitative analysis to provide probability weighted high/low/base case valuations and qualitative analysis in assessing management, the business model and likely direction of returns. Paragon will allocate assets to each investment opportunity based on a risk/reward profile. Positions have defined investment parameters and risk limits, which are then monitored on an ongoing basis.
Manager Comments	The Paragon Fund returned 1.10% versus the ASX 200 Accumulation's -1.70%, for the month of April 2015. The Fund's annual return since inception has been 21.24% p.a. versus the Index's 10.60% p.a. This annual return has been achieved with similar volatility (11.42%) to the Index's 11.18%, to give notable Sharpe and Sortino ratios of 1.54 and 3.69 respectively. Key drivers of the Paragon Fund's performance for April included solid returns LNG Ltd, Oz Minerals, Mayne Pharma and Metals X. Short positions across USD exposed companies also contributed. At the end of the month the fund had 29 long positions and 13 short positions. Click below to read the complete Fund Manager's commentary.
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Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund

22 May 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors

Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund had a strong performance of 3.87% for the month of April, bringing the annualised return since inception to 11.43%.

22 May 2015 - Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	20 May 2015
Manager	Pengana Capital
Fund Name	Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund
Strategy	Equity Long/Short
Latest Return Date	April 2015
Latest Return	3.87%
Latest 6 Months	7.95%
Latest 12 Months	11.89%
Latest 24 Months	20.16%
Annualised Since Inception	11.43%
Inception Date	01 September 2010
FUM (millions)	AU$85.8
Fund Overview	The Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund employs an event-driven investment strategy that seeks to exploit the mispricing of securities of companies involved in corporate transactions within the Asian (including Japan, Australia and New Zealand) region. Event driven strategies involve investing in opportunities created by significant transactional events, such as mergers and acquisitions, earnings surprises, capital management initiatives, capital structure arbitrage and index changes, among others. The Fund believes that significant corporate events can often create inefficiency in a company's share price which the Fund then seeks to exploit. The Fund aims to generate consistently positive returns which have a low correlation to the Asian stock markets. The objective is to generate 10-20% pa with a standard deviation of 6-10%. 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	Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund had a strong performance of 3.87% for the month of April, bringing the annualised return since inception to 11.43%. The Fund has achieved this performance with lower annual volatility of 5.78% (Asia Pacific Index 11.83%) , to bring the Sharpe and Sortino ratio to 1.32 and 3.37 respectively. In comparison the HFR Event Driven Index closed +0.50%. The month saw significant volatility in China/ Hong Kong (H Shares) after CSRC allowed Chinese mutual funds to access Hong Kong markets which significantly impacted holding company discounts and A/H spreads. Performance was diversified across the M&A, Capital Management and Stubs sub strategies. The Fund used this opportunity to reduce their gross exposure and overall net to 210% and 15.70% respectively. Forty percent of the Fund's monthly gross exposure by strategy was in M&A followed by Capital management at 24.80%. Whereas the country exposure as percentage (%) of NAV was most in Hong Kong/China with gross of 75.50% and Japan of 36.80%. Click below to read the complete Fund Manager's Report
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Allard Investment Fund

22 May 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors

Allard Investment Fund increased 1.50% during the month of April, to bring the Fund's last twelve month performance to 27.08%.

22 May 2015 - Allard Investment Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	14 May 2015
Manager	Allard Partners Australia Pty Limited
Fund Name	Allard Investment Fund
Strategy	Equity Long
Latest Return Date	April 2015
Latest Return	1.50%
Latest 6 Months	14.40%
Latest 12 Months	27.08%
Latest 24 Months	38.32%
Annualised Since Inception	9.98%
Inception Date	01 July 2003
FUM (millions)	AU$138
Fund Overview	Allard Partners is an absolute return, long only security investor with a single mission to provide its clients with a net compound rate of return on their capital of 15% per annum over the long term. With offices in Hong Kong, India and Australia, Allard invests in quoted companies in the Asia Pacific region. Allard's investment approach has remained consistent throughout their history. That is to invest prudently but proactively in well-managed businesses that achieve superior returns on capital in industries with long-term growth potential. The Manager uses both broad top-down guidance and detailed bottom-up analysis to identify suitable markets, industries and companies. As long only investors, a critical factor in their performance has been their preparedness to hold cash when they cannot find companies that meet their criteria or are at a sufficient discount to their valuations.
Manager Comments	Allard Investment Fund increased 1.50% during the month of April, to bring the Fund's last twelve month performance to 27.08% with a volatility of 6.34. In comparison, the ASX200 Accumulation returned 10.23% with a volatility of 11.74% The Fund portfolio was invested 75% in equities and 25% in cash and fixed income. There has been little change since the prior month, in terms of the industry and geographic breakdown of the portfolio. The Fund continues to be most exposed to Financial Services at 18.30%, Conglomerates at 10.90% and Telco's at 11.10%. The geographic breakdown was Hong Kong / China at 43.00%, Singapore 10.90% and Korea 9.70%. The top 5 holdings had 42.00% concentration of the portfolio and 16.50% in the next 5 holdings. Click below to review the latest Fund Manager's Report.
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Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund April 2015

21 May 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors

Latest Fund Review now available on Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund, which has over nine years of positive track record.

Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust April 2015

20 May 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors

Read the latest Fund Review on Optimal Australian Absolute Trust Fund, which reported a positive 1.96% in April.

Fund Review: Monash Absolute Investment Fund April 2015

19 May 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors

Read the latest Fund Review with statistics since inception on Monash Absolute Investment Fund.

Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund

18 May 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors

The Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund performance in April was flat (0.03%).

18 May 2015 - Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	13 May 2015
Manager	Bennelong Long Short Equity Management, a Bennelong Funds Management boutique
Fund Name	Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
Strategy	Equity Market Neutral
Latest Return Date	April 2015
Latest Return	0.03%
Latest 6 Months	12.86%
Latest 12 Months	4.28%
Latest 24 Months	20.63%
Annualised Since Inception	17.33%
Inception Date	01 January 2003
FUM (millions)	AU$259
Fund Overview	Bennelong Long Short Equity Management applies a qualitative stock selection process to construct a diversified portfolio of paired securities based on relative value. The Bennelong Long Short Equity Management strategy invests primarily in the S&P/ASX 100 and is dollar neutral at cost. 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 Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund performance in April was flat (0.03%). Long term performance remains sound with since inception (Jan 2003) returns of 17.33% pa (Index 8.56%) and a volatility of 11.79% (Index 12.86%). The number of profitable pairs exceeded the number of losing pairs; 17 positive, 14 negative. Long Caltex / Short Metcash was a top 3 pair. Both sides of the trade contributed positively despite Caltex absorbing the impact of the majority shareholder, Chevron, selling its 50% shareholding. Notwithstanding weakness in the Financials sector, key positive contributors to the portfolio were Long QBE / Short Suncorp benefiting from weakness in domestically focussed general insurers and Long Challenger / Short ANZ benefitting from weakness in banks. Within the negative pairs, our Long Resmed / Short Ansell position was key following a quarterly result from Resmed which the market took negatively. The Fund Manager continues to be apprehensive about the equity market valuation. Click below to read the complete Fund Monthly commentary.
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Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund

14 May 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors

The Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund fell 0.59% in April to bring the Fund's annual performance since inception to 13.08% compared to the ASX200 Accumulation benchmark's 5.61%.

14 May 2015 - Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	12 May 2015
Manager	Kardinia Capital, a Bennelong Funds Management boutique
Fund Name	Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
Strategy	Equity Long/Short
Latest Return Date	April 2015
Latest Return	-0.59%
Latest 6 Months	6.82%
Latest 12 Months	9.22%
Latest 24 Months	17.45%
Annualised Since Inception	13.08%
Inception Date	01 May 2006
FUM (millions)	AU$196.7
Fund Overview	The Fund consists of a concentrated long/short portfolio typically comprising 20 to 50 ASX300 listed stocks, generally with a long bias aligned to the overall market direction. On average since inception the Fund's exposure has averaged 40% net long. There is a slight bias to large cap stocks on the long side of the portfolio, although in a rising market the portfolio will tend to hold smaller caps, including resource stocks, more frequently. On the short side, the portfolio is particularly concentrated, with stock selection limited by both liquidity and the difficulty of borrowing stock in smaller cap companies. Short positions are only taken when there is a high conviction view on the specific stock. The Fund uses derivatives in a limited way, mainly selling short dated covered call options to generate additional income. These typically have less than 30 days to expiry, and are usually 5% to 10% out of the money. ASX SPI futures and index put options can be used to hedge the portfolio's overall net position. The Fund's discretionary investment strategy commences with a macro view of the economy and direction to establish the portfolio's desired market exposure. Following this detailed sector and company research is gathered from knowledge of the individual stocks in the Fund's universe, with widespread use of broker research. Company visits, presentations and discussions with management at CEO and CFO level are used wherever possible to assess management quality across a range of criteria. Detailed analysis of company valuations using financial statements and forecasts, particularly focusing on free cash flow, is conducted. Technical analysis is used to validate the Manager's fundamental research and valuations and to manage market timing. A significant portion of the Fund's overall performance can be attributed to the attention and importance given to the macro economic outlook and the ability and willingness to adjust the Fund's market risk.
Manager Comments	The Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund fell 0.59% in April to bring the Fund's annual performance since inception to 13.08% compared to the ASX200 Accumulation benchmark's 5.61%. The Fund's volatility of 7.33% is half that of the ASX200 Accumulation volatility 14.19%. Since inception of May 2006, the Fund's Sharpe and Sortino ratio were 1.14 (Index 0.16) and 2.20 (Index 0.11) respectively. The net equity market exposure of the Fund (including derivatives) was reduced during the month to 39.80% (70.40% long and 30.60% short). ResMed's poorly received quarterly results were a major detractor from the Fund's performance, along with Ramsay Health Care and Westpac. Share Price Index Futures contracts (hedging market exposure), Surfstitch and Transurban were the largest positive contributors. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's Report.
More Information	Fund Profile Manager's Report AFM Research Reports

Optimal Australia Absolute Trust

13 May 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors

Optimal Australia Absolute Trust reported a net positive return in April of 1.96%, compared to the ASX200 Accumulation Index of -1.70%.

13 May 2015 - Optimal Australia Absolute Trust

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	12 May 2015
Manager	Optimal Fund Management Australia
Fund Name	Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
Strategy	Equity Long/Short
Latest Return Date	April 2015
Latest Return	1.96%
Latest 6 Months	-1.13%
Latest 12 Months	1.91%
Latest 24 Months	6.62%
Annualised Since Inception	8.90%
Inception Date	15 September 2008
FUM (millions)	AU$100
Fund Overview	The investment objective of the Fund is to seek to achieve above average returns in absolute terms, through investing in listed securities in Australia and New Zealand, subject to the overarching requirement of capital preservation. Investments will predominantly be in equity securities but may include fixed interest instruments, money market instruments, derivatives and foreign exchange contracts. 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	Optimal Australia Absolute Trust reported a net positive return in April of 1.96%, compared to the ASX200 Accumulation Index of -1.70%. The Fund's annualised return since inception was 8.90% (Index 6.46%), which has been achieved with a notably low volatility of 3.66% (Index 14.43%). The Fund had a gross exposure of 100.30% and net exposure of -0.1%. The Fund's stock selection performed strongly in April, with positive attribution on both the fund's long (+0.5%) and short (+1.5%) positions, in an appreciably weaker and more volatile equity market. Their long position in Fairfax and shorts in the banks both did well. The Fund's stock returns were otherwise quite diversified, with no single theme or sector dominating overall performance. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's review of the Fund and the Market.
More Information	Fund Profile Manager's Report AFM Research Reports

Monash Absolute Investment Fund

12 May 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors

Monash Absolute Investment Fund had a flat April (0.0%), while the Australian equity market had its second consecutive negative month (-1.70%).

12 May 2015 - Monash Absolute Investment Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	07 May 2015
Manager	Monash Investors Pty Limited
Fund Name	Monash Absolute Investment Fund
Strategy	Equity Long/Short
Latest Return Date	April 2015
Latest Return	0.00%
Latest 6 Months	3.83%
Latest 12 Months	2.87%
Latest 24 Months	28.39%
Annualised Since Inception	16.00%
Inception Date	30 May 2012
FUM (millions)	AU$29
Fund Overview	The Monash Absolute Investment Fund is a long/short equity fund, with a home bias to investing in Australia. It invests in shares as a source of specific opportunity, not to go up and down with the market. 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	Monash Absolute Investment Fund had a flat April (0.0%), while the Australian equity market had its second consecutive negative month (-1.70%). The Fund's performance since inception was 16.00% with annual volatility of 7.83%, bringing the Sharpe ratio and Sortino ratio to 1.61 and 3.58 respectively. The Manager's month-end exposure was net 71%, gross 95%,VAR 1.0%, with a beta of 0.49 for the portfolio. The Fund's short positions generally assisted in April, which was offset by larger portfolio positions that fell despite no news. Some of the highs for the month came from strong gains in VMoto (VMT) and from Energy Action (EAX). However Next DC (NXT) and Netcomm Wireless (NTC) were negative contributors to the Fund's performance. Click the link below to the rest of the Fund Manager's Report.
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25 May 2015 - The Paragon Fund

22 May 2015 - Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund

22 May 2015 - Allard Investment Fund

21 May 2015 - Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund April 2015

20 May 2015 - Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust April 2015

OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA ABSOLUTE TRUST

19 May 2015 - Fund Review: Monash Absolute Investment Fund April 2015

MONASH ABSOLUTE INVESTMENT FUND

18 May 2015 - Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund

14 May 2015 - Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund

13 May 2015 - Optimal Australia Absolute Trust

12 May 2015 - Monash Absolute Investment Fund

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