NEWS
14 Jul 2016 - APN Asian REIT Fund
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Fund Overview | Pete Morrissey and Corrine Ng are the Portfolio Managers of the Fund. Morrissey has over 15 years financial markets experience and joined APN in 2006. Previously, he worked at Lonsec and also managed an internationally focused private investment fund as well as spending several years as an analyst in the UK for Nomura, amongst others. He has also completed Masters level academic research papers on both commercial real estate cycles and global property cycles. Ng also has a strong background in property and REITs in Australia, Asia and the North American markets. Prior to joining APN, Ng worked for Aviva Investors (Senior Investment Analyst, North America Real Estate Securities Team) and Goldman Sachs & Co (Vice President, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Real Estate Securities Team) in New York. The Fund aims to deliver a competitive yield with lower risk than the market. The underlying stocks are selected based on a highly disciplined investment approach that focuses on the fundamentals and number of valuation approaches. The universe is expected to be dynamic as new IPO's, other corporate actions take place and / or corporate governance improvements at country or REIT level bring new stocks into focus. The Fund focuses on passive rental earnings derived from well managed Asian REITs listed in mature capital markets and will not invest in infrastructure, property development companies or stocks with a 'loose association with property'. The Fund provides access to a wide spread of property-based revenue streams that are specifically analysed, selected and weighted with the aim of delivering strong and sustainable income returns. The Fund is an unhedged product. The Fund is suited to medium to long term investors seeking a relatively high income and some capital growth over the long term. The manager has offered a special 50% reduction in management fee for all existing and new investors who apply by 30 June 2016. |
Manager Comments | The portfolio was allocated in multiple Asian countries, with the majority in Japan (38.4%) and Singapore (30.7%). Over 65% of the Fund was invested in the Retail REITs (40.6%) and the Office REITs (25.3%) sectors. The top 5 Asian REIT holdings were in Ascendas Real Estate Inv Trust, Gip J-REIT, Japan Retail Fund Investment, Frasers Centrepoint Trust and Prosperity REIT. Click below to read the latest Fund's performance report. |
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14 Jul 2016 - Totus Alpha Fund
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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. 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 | At month-end, the fund had a net exposure of 21.2% and a gross exposure of 313.0%. The fund held 139 positions (65 long and 74 short) that were diversified across multiple investment themes. Top contributors were short positions in BT Investment Management and Macquarie and a long position in Appen. Biggest detractors were long positions in CYBG PLC, McMillan Shakespeare -1.10% and Smartgroup. Click below to read the latest Fund's Monthly Report. |
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13 Jul 2016 - Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
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Fund Overview | 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 | Beadell, Aristocrat and short positions in Share Price Index Futures contracts (hedging longs) were all significant contributors to performance, whilst long positions in CYBG Group, Henderson and ANZ Bank were the major detractors. Net equity market exposure including derivatives increased to 33.4% (55.5% long and 22.1% short). Click below to read the latest Fund Report. |
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12 Jul 2016 - Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
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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 maintained a net short market exposure throughout the month of June and therefore profited from the risk liquidation. However, most of the gains quickly disappeared post-Brexit rally. The Fund's short positions made a net contribution of 1.30% (on average exposure of 48% of NAV), slightly exceeding losses on their longs. The longs in Industrial, Resources and Staples sectors and the shorts in Banks, Builders, Index Futures sectors positively contributed to the Fund. However the longs in Insurance, Banks and Chemical sectors and the shorts in REITs and media sector contributed negatively. Click below to read the latest Fund monthly report. |
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12 Jul 2016 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund June 2016
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 large-caps from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with over fourteen-year track record and annualised returns of 17,80%.
- 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 1.08 (Index 0.29) and 1.83 (Index 0.31) respectively.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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11 Jul 2016 - Fund Review: Meme Australian Share Fund June 2016
Meme Australian Share Fund
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Meme Australian Share Fund.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
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The Meme Capital Management is a Perth-based boutique Fund Manager, established in 2012 and manages the Meme Australian Share Fund.
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The Fund specializes in technical and quantitative strategies to identify investment opportunities expected to provide both positive price appreciation and relative price outperformance over the medium to long term.
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The Fund's objective is to outperform the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index over rolling three-year periods, through investing in ASX listed securities outside the S&P/ASX 20. The Fund only takes long positions and does not use derivatives.
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Since inception, the Fund has an annualised return of 20.50% p.a., versus the Index's return of 5.86% p.a.
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9 Jul 2016 - Hedge Clippings
What a mess - but we'd better just get used to it!
Political turmoil remains the order of the day, and as a result markets are likely to remain in limbo (at best). Of course this is not unique to Australia, given that the formerly Great Britain is undergoing massive turmoil with unknown outcomes. Meanwhile in the US could it really be possible that there will be a President Trump?
That thought was unthinkable just six months ago, but then so was Brexit, as was a tied vote in last week's Australian election. It is worth noting that while it looks as if the Liberals will scrape home with a semi workable majority, as of 2:20 this afternoon the Australian Electoral Commission's website showed that on a two-party preferred basis both the Labour and Liberal/National Coalition parties were both in a virtual dead heat at 50%, with just 8,288 votes separating them out of over 10.4 million counted.
As a result Bill Shorten is being hailed a hero by the faithful, concealing the fact that the Labour Party received its second lowest primary vote in almost 100 years. Meanwhile Malcolm Turnbull is having to face down his critics, who are conveniently ignoring the fact that Tony Abbott's primary vote fell by over 9%, indicating that had he remained PM he would have led the Liberals over the proverbial cliff which was Turnbull's justification for replacing him in the first place.
As such at least half population will be disappointed whichever way the result goes, but more importantly, assuming that Turnbull remains Prime Minister, will he be allowed to govern the way most voters wanted him to late last year when he took over? Alternatively, sadly, and most likely, he will be forced to compromise by the right-wing of his own party, and/or the minor parties on the cross benches.
So given Hedge Clippings is supposed to be an review on Absolute Return and hedge funds, why the political analysis? Quite simply because Standard and Poors have quickly announced that Australia is on credit watch, and that if the budget is not fixed we're likely to lose our coveted Triple-A rating.
The unfortunate thing is that there is simply no electoral will to fix the budget, and it seems no political will (or ability) to lead the electorate down the path needed to do so. On the expenditure side it seems too many people are hooked on government benefits, handouts, and concessions of one sort or another, on the income side no one wants to pay more tax or give up generous tax concessions on superannuation or negative gearing, while serious tax reform such as the GST and income shifting offshore are clearly in the too hard basket.
It is therefore difficult to imagine anything that is going to kick the market out of its current sideways trend, at least not in an upward direction. There is still the threat of a Royal Commission into the banking industry, while in the UK six retail UK property funds with $18 billion worth of assets have been frozen due to liquidity problems. Or should that be illiquidity problems?
Investors should therefore be careful. There may be a collective sigh of relief from the business sector that the Liberals will likely scrape home for the next three (difficult) years, but as the numbers above show a change of government is easily on the cards next time around.
Volatility in markets will continue to occur to match the lack of a clear political outcome both here and overseas. And in such markets investors need a hedge against volatility.
Meme Australian Share Fund rose 0.61% in June, outperforming the ASX 200 Accumulation Index which returned -2.45%, by 3.06%.
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund returned -1.04% in June and 24.05% over the last 12 months.
The Paragon Fund rose 6.30% after fees for the month of June, to take annualised return since inception to 24.06% p.a.
FUND REVIEWS released this week: Insync Global Titans Fund; Supervised Global Income Fund;
And on that note, have a great weekend.
Regards,
Chris
CEO, AUSTRALIAN FUND MONITORS
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8 Jul 2016 - Fund Review: Supervised Global Income Fund May 2016
SUPERVISED GLOBAL INCOME FUND
Attached is AFM's updated Fund Review on the Supervised Global Income Fund (SGIF).
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund:
- The Supervised Global Income Fund (previously Supervised High Yield Fund) 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 33 years, 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 identifies 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 of 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.
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8 Jul 2016 - The Paragon Fund
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Fund Overview | Paragon believes that markets are not always efficient, exhibiting a common tendency to price securities well outside of their intrinsic value over the medium term. This market characteristic provides the opportunity for Paragon, an active manager with a flexible mandate, to generate superior investment returns over the longer term. Paragon believes that it is critical to understand both the companies and the industries in which they operate, in order to fully comprehend each investment opportunity. Accordingly, a fundamental approach to company research is taken. Assessing the potential downside is also paramount in framing the risk/reward trade-off for potential investments. |
Manager Comments | Key positive contributors included longs in various gold and lithium holdings, as well as Mayne Pharma and A2 Milk, offset by long positions in Netcomm Wireless, Link Administration and Costa Group. At the end of the month, the Fund had 32 long positions and 13 short positions. Click below to read the latest monthly report. |
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7 Jul 2016 - Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
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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. The Bennelong Market Neutral Fund, with same strategy and liquidity is available for retail investors. |
Manager Comments | The Fund's negative return was mainly due to the macro shock of Brexit. The Fund holds a number of positions in companies with exposure to Britain and Europe, both long and short. Some positions benefited from the change in events in Britain and Europe however overall performance was impacted mainly from the Fund's long holding in Henderson Group (paired to AMP). The Fund's performance did benefit from two pair positions in the mining services and materials sectors. Click below to read the Fund Manager's commentary and market outlook. |
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