NEWS
Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
8 Oct 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund returned 0.93% for September bringing it's since inception (May 2006) return to 14.08% pa as compared to the ASX 200 Accumulation return of 4.44% pa.
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8 Oct 2013 - Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund consists of a concentrated long/short portfolio typically comprising 30 to 40 ASX300 listed stocks, generally with a long bias aligned to the overall market direction. There is a slight bias to large cap stocks in 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. |
| Manager Comments | Long positions in Bank of Queensland, Seek and JB Hi-Fi were all meaningful positive contributors. The largest detractors from performance were Share Price Index Futures contracts (hedging long positions), CSL and BHP. Net equity market exposure including derivatives was increased slightly to 29.6% (67.7% long and 38.1% short). |
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Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
4 Oct 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund has a five year performance record of 16.85% vs 4.63% for the ASX 200 Acc and an annualised standard deviation of 12.63% as compared to 15.48%.
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4 Oct 2013 - Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The Manager notes that the fund performance was slightly positive during the month with contributions from the long portfolio marginally outperforming detractions from the short book. The Fund has a month-end leverage of 4.9 times. |
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Monash Absolute Investment Fund
3 Oct 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Monash Absolute Investment Fund returned 7.15% during September (ASX 200 Acc 2.19%) with a net exposure of 81%.
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3 Oct 2013 - 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. |
| Manager Comments | The Manager notes that the portfolio more than kept up with the broader market this month despite action taken to protect returns by: trimming some holdings; increasing cash, and; adding to the short positions. |
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BlackRock Australian Equity Market Neutral Fund
2 Oct 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
BlackRock Australian Equity Market Neutral Fund returned -0.04% during August with a five year performance twice that of the ASX 200 Acc Index and less than half the volatility.
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2 Oct 2013 - BlackRock Australian Equity Market Neutral Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's portfolio primarily consists of long and short Australian equity positions. The Fund may also invest in other funds managed by BlackRock. Derivative securities, such as futures, forwards, swaps and options, can be used to manage risk and return. Key insights into the investment process include: Analyst Expectations, Relative Valuation, Earnings Quality, Market Signals and Timing. Short-Term return enhancing opportunities including: Dividend reinvestment plans, Manging index changes, Managing cash flows and Arbitrage, Initial public offerings and Seasoned Equity Offerings and Off Market Buybacks. |
| Manager Comments | The Manager notes that the portfolio lost value in August, due mainly to short positions in sectors related to the resources rally, and in Mining Services and Oil & Gas in particular. Signal performance was led by Market signals, particularly the liquidity provision signals, and Earnings Quality signals. |
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LHC Capital Australia High Conviction Fund
1 Oct 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
LHC Capital Australia High Conviction Fund has returned 2.77 times the ASX 200 Accumulation Index since inception in May 2011 with an annualised return of 21.37%.
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1 Oct 2013 - LHC Capital Australia High Conviction Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | LHC Capital will also seek to identify or encourage events that may act as a catalyst for valuations to converge towards their intrinsic value. The emergence of catalyst events will also have an impact on how LHC Capital allocates the Fund's capital between competing investment opportunities. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund returned 0.64% over August and 38.9% over the last 12 months. Month-end exposures were 93% long, 17% short, 110% gross and 76% net with the most profitable holdings over August being Peet, eMerchants and Academies Australia. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund
30 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund has a five year track record of 9.00% pa as compared to the ASX 200 Acc Index return of 4.63%. The August return was -0.28%.
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30 Sep 2013 - BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | - Australian and International Equity Long/Short - Global Fixed Income Long/Short - Global Macro - Commodity Alpha - Alpha Transport The Fund's goal is to provide investors with a source of consistent, risk-controlled, absolute returns that are over time, expected to have low correlations with the returns of major asset classes. The Fund aims to achieve a return of 8% p.a. before fees, above the RBA Cash Rate Target over rolling 3 year periods. In order to achieve its expected return objective, the Fund will target a total expected risk of between 4-6% p.a. over the same rolling 3 year period. |
| Manager Comments | Notable over this period was the Fund's largest drawdown of 2.61% as compared to the Index's largest drawdown of 25.8%. The Multi Opportunity Fund underperformed in August with detractions across equity market neutral and Fixed Income Global Alpha strategies. Global Macro and Commodity strategies added value helping to offset these detractions. The fund returned -0.18% gross of fees versus the RBA cash benchmark return of 0.21%. Year to date, the Fund has returned 5.50% gross of fees. The Australian equity selection strategy had small negative performance in August. This was attributed mainly to underweight positioning in sectors related to the resources rally, in particular Mining Services and Oil / Gas. Signal performance was led by our market signals, particularly the liquidity provision signals, and our earnings quality signals. Earnings direction insights tended to detract value, especially those based on analyst sentiment. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Intelligent Investor Value Fund
27 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Intelligent Investor Value Fund returned 1.13% in August and 40.05% over the 12 previous months.
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27 Sep 2013 - Intelligent Investor Value Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The Fund's value strategy is shown by the Sharpe Ratio of 0.73 as compared to the Index Sharpe Ratio of 0.32 (since inception). The Manager notes that the share price falls in the last week of August wiped out most of the Intelligent Investor Value Fund's gains in the first few weeks of the month. The unit price rose 1.1% but was beaten by the benchmark All Ordinaries Accumulation Index which returned 2.6%. |
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Allard Investment Fund
26 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Allard Investment Fund returned -1.0% during August with an allocation of 67.1% equity and 32.9% cash.
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26 Sep 2013 - Allard Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | In terms of geographic allocation the Fund's major allocations are 32.1% HK/China and 13.1% Singapore and in terms of industry the biggest exposure is financial services at 14.5% and conglomerates, 12.2%. The Fund's lower risk characteristics are shown by the annualised volatility of 8.2% pa as compared to that of the MSCI ASia Pacific ex Japan ($A) of 13.8%, over the last ten years. |
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Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund
25 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for Insync Global Titans Fund for August 2013 shows the Fund delivering sound returns of 9.63% pa with an annualised standard deviation of 8.40% (since inception in October 2009) and sound risk-reward statistics.
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25 Sep 2013 - Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund (pdf format)
INSYNC GLOBAL TITANS FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Insync Global Titans Fund.
We would like to highlight the following:
- The Global Titans Fund invests in a concentrated portfolio of 15-25 stocks, targeting exceptional, large cap global companies with a strong focus on dividend growth and downside protection.
- Portfolio selection is driven by a core strategy of investing in companies with sustainable growth in dividends, high returns on capital, positive free cash flows and strong balance sheets.
- The investment strategy has delivered above MSCI ($A) benchmark performance over the medium and longer terms with limited drawdowns and excellent risk statistics.The Sharpe ratio is 0.67 (ASX 200 Acc 0.26) and Sortino ratio 1.17 (ASX 200 Acc 0.28) and are well above those of the ASX with downside deviation approximately one-half of the same Index since inception. The Fund has a record of 62% positive months and a downside capture ratio of -0.42 over the same time frame.
- Emphasis on limiting downside risk is through extensive company research, the ability to hold cash and long protective index put options.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund (pdf format)
Totus Alpha Fund
24 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund rose 2.1% during August with net exposure of 41% and gross exposure of 274% across 86 positions.
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24 Sep 2013 - Totus Alpha Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund is a long/short investment fund principally investing in listed entities, commodities, futures and options in Australia and internationally. The Fund is not a market neutral fund and accordingly may switch between net long positions and net short positions. The Fund may use short sales and derivatives as determined by Totus Capital. Gearing may be used to enhance returns and the Fund may be geared in excess of 100% of the Fund's Net Asset Value. There is a limit to net exposure of 150%. |
| Manager Comments | Since inception in April 2012 the Fund has returned 29.1% (24.2% ASX 200 Acc Index) with a Sharpe Ratio of 1.41, Sortino Ratio of 3.14 and a down capture ratio of -0.84. The Fund also has a negative correlation of -0.209 to the Index. August was a tricky month for the fund. A number of the trends that the Manager had anticipated heading into reporting season did in fact play out but struggled to make money from them. The Manager had anticipated weak outlook statements and consensus earnings downgrades from a number of cyclical companies (and had positioned accordingly) yet many of these stocks rallied in spite of the downgrades. The Manager has been gradually trimming short positions (particularly in cyclical companies) and increasing the net long exposure of the fund. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
