NEWS
26 Jan 2016 - Freehold Absolute Return Fund
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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 Fund increased their net long position during the month's early weakness enabling the Fund to capture the dividends for stocks going ex on 29 December. For December, the Fund held an average of 15-20 positions. Positive contributors to the portfolio were Investa Office, Vicinity Centres and Stockland. Negative contributors were Abacus Property Group, Transurban and GPT Group. Click Manager's Report to read more. |
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26 Jan 2016 - Fund Review: Morphic Global Opportunities Fund December 2015
MORPHIC GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Morphic Global Opportunities Fund.
Key points include:
- The Fund is a global equity long/short manager with a long bias and a macro-economic overlay. The mandate allows the Fund to short sell, use derivatives and invest in assets such as commodities & currencies.
- Morphic's philosophy is that only funds with flexible investment and hedging strategies will be able to deliver acceptable, steady, real, absolute returns over the investment cycle.
- The Fund is an early stage, boutique, Sydney-based fund established in 2012 with experienced CIO's, and an investment team of 6 including a risk manager.
- The Board has a majority of independent members with significant risk and investment experience.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
25 Jan 2016 - APN AREIT Fund
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Fund Overview | The senior management of APN FM all have significant experience in their fields. They include CEO Real Estate Securities, Michael Doble who has 25 years'experience having held various senior roles specialising in real estate valuation, consultancy and funds management. Immediately prior to joining APN in 2003 he was Head of Property at ANZ Funds Management. He is a fellow of the Australian Property Institute and FINSIA as well as holding a Bachelor of Business (Property). 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 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 suited to medium to long term investors seeking a relatively high monthly income and some capital growth over the long term. |
Manager Comments | In December, the Fund was 97% allocation in AREITs assets and rest in cash. Majority of the underlying property sector allocation was in the Retail sector at 64%, followed by Office sector at 19%. The Top 5 stocks holdings made up 58% of APN AREIT Fund. These stocks were Scentre Group, Vicinity Centres, Stockland, Charter Hall Retail REIT and Westfield Group. Click below to read the complete Fund Manager's Report. |
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22 Jan 2016 - Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund December 2015
TOTUS ALPHA FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the 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 32.63% since inception in March 2012 as compared to 10.28% for the ASX 200 Accumulation Index. The standard deviation has been higher than the Index at 14.12% as compared to 12.20% and the Sharpe ratio is 1.86.
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22 Jan 2016 - 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 | The Fund's Beta managers, utilised a range of long/short equity strategies, performed in line with the positive local market and attributed +0.48%. Meanwhile, the Alpha managers contributed +1.93% in December. The NWQ believes that there exists further potential for destructive equity and bond market volatility in the coming months. Accordingly, the portfolio has an over weight allocation to the Alpha, market neutral strategies. The Fund sees this positioning as offering superior downside protection over conventional multi-asset strategies that are vulnerable to both bond and equity market drawdown risks. Click below to read the latest Fund's Report. |
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21 Jan 2016 - Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return December 2015
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 May 2006 and also has significantly lower risk KPI's. The Fund has an annualised return of 12.74% p.a. with a volatility of 7.26%, compared to the ASX200 Accumulation's return of 4.61% p.a. with volatility of 14.29%.
- 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.
21 Jan 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. |
Manager Comments | The Fund's portfolio was geographically allocated in multiple Asian countries, with majority in Japan (39.7%) and Singapore (26.5%). Over 65% of the Fund allocation was invested in Retail REITs (39.1%) and Office REITs (26.5%) sectors. Top 5 Asian REIT holdings were in Croesus Retail Trust, Keppel Dc REIT, Capitaland Retail China Trust, Gip J-REIT and Prosperity REIT. Click below to read the latest Fund's performance report. |
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20 Jan 2016 - Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust December 2015
OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA ABSOLUTE TRUST
AFM have released the most recently updated Fund Review on the Optimal Australia Absolute Trust.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- Optimal Australia is a specialist Australian equity investment manager and the Fund has a long/short equity strategy typically with a low but variable net market exposure comprising 40 to 65 stocks broadly selected from within the ASX200.
- The investment team comprising George Colman, Peter Whiting supported by Stephen Nicholls and Justin Hay have over 100 years combined experience in equity markets.
- In December, the Fund returned -0.10%. The Fund's approach to risk is shown by the Sharpe ratio of 1.51 (Index 0.16), Sortino ratio of 3.34 (Index 0.16), both of which are well above the ASX 200 Accumulation Index and has recorded 80% positive months.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
20 Jan 2016 - Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund
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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 | The M&A sub-strategy contributed 1.4% to Fund performance as spreads generally contracted in most deals during the month. The Fund also positively benefited from the offer in Interplex Holdings (INTX SP) received from Baring Asia. The Fund had positioned long on expectations of this offer after several months of due diligence on the company. The Fund's average gross and net exposures were 197.4% and 6.6% respectively. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's Report. |
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19 Jan 2016 - Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
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Manager Comments | The Fund's underperformance over the month was mostly due to the ECB disappointment, which saw the Fund lose on an overweight position in European stocks and take a further hit on their currency hedging over the Euro. The best contributor was a market neutral trade. The short legs delivered the majority of the profit as Waddell & Reed and Franklin Resources fell heavily on concerns about fund flows. An unhedged short position against emerging markets focused fund manager Aberdeen also did well. Three banking sector trades also made solid contributions. The Fund began January fully invested but early month jitters cause the Fund to raise cash. Click below to read more. |
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