NEWS
13 Dec 2018 - Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund November 2018
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 over ten-year track record.
- The Fund has significantly outperformed the ASX200 Accumulation Index since its inception in May 2006 and also has significantly lower risk KPIs. The Fund has an annualised return of 9.31% p.a. with a volatility of 7.14%, compared to the ASX200 Accumulation's return of 5.14% p.a. with a volatility of 13.36%.
- 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.
12 Dec 2018 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund November 2018
BENNELONG LONG SHORT EQUITY FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund.
- The Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large-caps from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with over 15-years' track record and an annualised returns of over 15.5%.
- The consistent returns across the investment history indicate the Fund's ability to provide positive returns in volatile and negative markets and significantly outperform the broader market. The Fund's Sharpe Ratio and Sortino Ratio are 0.92 and 1.50 respectively.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
11 Dec 2018 - Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund November 2018
BENNELONG TWENTY20 AUSTRALIAN EQUITIES FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund.
- The Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund invests in ASX listed stocks, combining an indexed position in the Top 20 stocks with an actively managed portfolio of stocks outside the Top 20. Construction of the ex-top 20 portfolio is fundamental, bottom-up, core investment style, biased to quality stocks, with a structured risk management approach.
- Mark East, the Fund's Chief Investment Officer, and Keith Kwang, Director of Quantitative Research have over 50 years combined market experience. Bennelong Funds Management (BFM) provides the investment manager, Bennelong Australian Equity Partners (BAEP) with infrastructure, operational, compliance and distribution services.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
10 Dec 2018 - Fed's Bad Santa
7 Dec 2018 - Hedge Clippings - 7 December, 2018
There's not much good news around to welcome Santa!
Nearly every economist got this week's GDP figures for the September quarter wrong (+0.3% and 2.8% YoY). Now there's speculation that the R word will be back on the agenda. And if not a Recession, then possibly a slowdown, and rate cuts down the track from the RBA if the December quarter figures are equally disappointing. That's a big turnaround in expectations, even if most experts weren't expecting an upward movement in rates any time soon.
Anecdotally, based on going to a department store earlier this week, and worse still, a shopping mall, (which Hedge Clippings generally tries to avoid like the plague unless absolutely necessary) there doesn't seem to be much Christmas cheer running through retailers' cash registers. Maybe consumers are all shopping online, maybe they're waiting until the last moment (like yours truly), but quite possibly they're just pulling their heads in.
Why? Because as noted above, there's not much good news around unless you're an extreme, and possibly unrealistic optimist!
- As recently as May this year one of the (so called) expert real estate commentators downgraded their 2018 housing price forecast on a weighted capital city basis to between -2% to +2%. Fast forward just 6 months and with the property market down 10% they're realising a further 10% fall is not out of the question as banks pull their heads (sorry, lending criteria) in and faith in the financial markets has been tested by the exposure of the Hayne Royal Commission on the front pages and TV nightly news.
- Irrespective of one's political preferences there's a general lack of confidence in our glorious pollies, and an election, and a change in government is just around the corner.
- Globally the Trump / China spat is far from resolved, creating uncertainty in US markets. Brexit is uncertainty personified, and even the German economy - not long ago the envy of the world - is suffering.
- In the US, 10 year bond yields, having recently threatened to rise above 3.5% and spoil the equity market's party, are now threatening to fall below 3% based on concerns about a US slowdown in 2019. The yield curve is close to inverting as 10 and 2 year bond rates are dangerously close to each other.
- Every US recession for more than half a century has been preceded by an inversion of the curve, although to be accurate not every inversion has been succeeded by a recession.
Could the unthinkable - an end to Australia's record growth run - happen? Hopefully not, but there are enough signs, and opinions pointing in that direction, that it would be unwise to rule it out completely.
7 Dec 2018 - You Have Been Warned
6 Dec 2018 - Performance Report: NWQ Fiduciary Fund
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Fund Overview | The Fund aims to produce returns, after management fees and expenses of between 8% to 11% p.a. over rolling five-year periods. Furthermore, the Fund aims to achieve these returns with volatility that is a fraction of the Australian equity market, in order to smooth returns for investors. |
Manager Comments | NWQ noted amidst the October turmoil there was a sharp rotation from high-quality growth stocks, which are those expected to outperform in the medium to long term and are typically favoured by the Fund's underlying managers, into defensive value stocks, which are typically candidates for being shorted by the Fund's underlying managers. As a result of this rotation, the short portfolio did not provide sufficient hedge to offset the losses in the long portfolio. NWQ noted there are positive early signs in November that this rotation is reversing. The NWQ Fiduciary Fund is a diversified multi manager portfolio. The principal investment objective of the Fund is to produce attractive positive returns irrespective of market direction. This is achieved through active allocations to selected Australian equity fund managers that employ a variety of traditional and absolute return strategies. The Fund places emphasis on managers who demonstrate a rigorous and repeatable investment process that has delivered a strong track record. |
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5 Dec 2018 - Performance Report: Wheelhouse Global Equities Income Fund
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Fund Overview | To pursue this objective, the Investment Manager is responsible for actively managing, monitoring and tailoring the integration of derivative contracts alongside the Morningstar Portfolio, while taking into account changing market and stock specific conditions. The Investment Manager is responsible for maximising the structural benefits of short option positions (lowered Volatility, improved capital preservation, higher income generation), whilst mitigating, minimising and monitoring the structural negatives (variable market exposure, option expiries, collateral management and asymmetric return profiles). In addition, long derivatives positions are also used to enhance the capital preservation characteristics of the Fund in more extreme market movements. As a consequence of the integration of Derivatives, returns of the strategy, intra-cycle, are expected to vary from the underlying Morningstar Portfolio due to these characteristics. For example in weak markets, or in extended sideways markets, the Fund is expected to outperform relative to the Morningstar Portfolio. Conversely in strong positive markets the Fund is expected to underperform. |
Manager Comments | The Fund returned -4.39% in October, ahead of the benchmark (MSCI World Index ex Australia) return of -5.40%. This return comprised a return of -6.34% from the portfolio (in USD) and a positive return of +1.95% from the weakening of the Australian dollar against the US dollar. The Wheelhouse Global Equity Income Fund is designed to deliver equity returns with higher income generation and active downside protection. The strategy's high-income generation and active tail risk program are designed to lower risk and deliver equity returns with a smoother, more retiree-friendly return profile. As a result, Wheelhouse intend for returns to add relative value in weak and low-growth markets and to drag in more positive markets. |
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5 Dec 2018 - Performance Report: Bennelong Emerging Companies Fund
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Fund Overview | The Fund may invest in securities expected to be listed on the ASX within 12 months. The Fund may also invest in securities listed, or expected to be listed, on other exchanged where such securities relate to ASX-listed securities |
Manager Comments | The Fund's top holdings as at the end of October were Baby Bunting, Clover, Helloworld, Cml and Pinnacle Investment Management. The Fund invests predominantly in micro and small-cap stocks listed on the ASX. It is managed via a research-intensive and predominantly bottom-up investment approach. The Fund focuses on high quality stocks and seeks to avoid the higher risk that usually comes with micro and small-cap stocks. |
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4 Dec 2018 - Performance Report: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund
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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 posted -5.82% after fees and downside protection in October. Insync noted that, unlike most long-only managers, they don't have a high cash allocation in the Fund should they believe danger lies ahead in shorter term valuations. They believe this enables them to maximise returns by staying focused on longer term outcomes. Additionally, Insync add that, given the indirect way in which they tend to gain exposure to the many positive trends occurring within several emerging markets, the current negative turmoil they are facing has had a very limited negative impact on the Fund. 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. |
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