NEWS
24 Oct 2015 - Hedge Clippings
FSI endorsed, Mortgage rates rise, and the GFC rolls on... and on.
Although it can't be pinned onto the new government, the fact that nearly all the recommendations of David Murray's Financial System Inquiry were endorsed this week makes a welcome change from the treatment previous administrations gave to similar inquiries. Take for instance the Henry Tax Review which amazingly excluded the GST in the terms of reference in the first place (Rudd), and then cherry picked those they wanted, or the 2009 Johnston enquiry which, where accepted, took six years to implement.
What is encouraging is that although it will be some time for all the FSI's outcomes to come to pass beforebeing fully implemented, some decisions, such as the increase in bank capital, have flowed through already. Banks had been raising additional capital in anticipation (including as a result of the Basle lll requirements out of Europe) and may need to raise more again in the future, but the immediate effect was an increase in mortgage rates.
It could be argued that having been protected at no cost to themselves during the GFC by the government, the banks should be wearing the costs of increased capital themselves. Be that as it may, it is indicative that the after-shocks, or effects of the GFC continue, as shown by the increase in mortgage rates this week independently of the RBA, which in turn is now being tipped to lower official rates to compensate.
We are not suggesting for one moment that the requirement for the banks to hold more capital is a bad thing as it adds stability to the system in the event of future issues, including a potential down-turn in the property market which already seems to be rearing its head. On that note one of Murray's few recommendations not to be approved was a ban on borrowing by SMSF's for property, and one has to wonder why this is so.
So now we look forward to the outcome from the current thoughts on tax reviews which Malcolm Turnbull has sent back to the bureaucrats for a re-work. While it may take a while, one has to believe that there's a greater conviction for change from this PM and his ministers than we have seen for some considerable time.
And about time too!
Specific results received this week include the following PERFORMANCE UPDATES:
Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund finished up 1.02% for the month, compared to the Asia Pacific market which fell -4.70% and HFR Event Driven Index which closed down -3.20%.
Laminar Credit Opportunities Fund rose 0.63% over the month of September and delivered 7.42% over the past 12 months.
FUND REVIEWS released this week:Aurora Foritude Absolute Return Fund; Totus Alpha Fund;Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund; QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund
And on that note, enjoy the week-end.
Regards,
Chris
CEO, AUSTRALIAN FUND MONITORS
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23 Oct 2015 - Laminar Credit Opportunities Fund
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Fund Overview | The Fund may also invest in derivatives for hedging purposes. The portfolio of the Fund comprises primarily Investment Grade holding of 75% of the Fund's assets. Benchmark allocations are Australasia 50% to 100%, North America 0% to 50% and Europe 0% to 50%. Currency hedging may take place depending on benefits to the Fund. |
Manager Comments | The Fund continued to show stability in September amidst the volatility in other markets, returning 62 basis points. Majority of the Fund's portfolio composition was in Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) at 66%, followed by Short-dated loans at 22%. Click on the link below to read the latest Fund Manager's Report. |
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23 Oct 2015 - Fund Review: QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund September 2015
- Qato Capital is a Melbourne-based boutique fund manager backed by single family office, Larkfield Funds Management.
- Qato has a systematic, market-neutral strategy which invests exclusively in S&P/ASX 100 stocks.
- The QATO Capital's Q-score process captures and quantifies six broad fundamental factors, which assess multiple underlying sub-categories. Those companies with the top score (quality companies) are included in the "long" portfolio, those with the lowest score are sold short.
- The Fund seeks to preserve capital and maximise absolute returns through active and constant risk management, targeting monthly a net market exposure of 0% to hedge broader market risks through 30 S&P/ASX-100 positions (15 long & 15 short equally-weighted positions).
- Qato Capital's process is entirely systematic - stock selection and risk management are employed in a rules based approach. The Fund employs no financial leverage/gearing to purchase securities, no derivatives and no financial products to imitate leverage.
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22 Oct 2015 - Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund September 2015
- 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 30.40% since inception in March 2012 as compared to 9.08% for the ASX 200 Accumulation Index. The standard deviation has been higher than the Index at 14.19% as compared to 12.31% and the Sharpe ratio is 1.77.
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22 Oct 2015 - 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 | Despite the global macro uncertainty, deal activity in September picked up significantly and was well diversified with Hong Kong, Australia and Taiwan the more active markets. The M&A sub-strategy contributed to +0.97% of the Fund's monthly return with China Resource Enterprise (291 HK) and Affinity Education (AFJ) being the two significant contributors. The Capital Management strategy was the biggest detractors of the month. On average, the Fund's net and gross exposures were 6% and 201.1% respectively. Click below to read the complete Fund Manager's Report. |
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21 Oct 2015 - Signature Quantitative Fund
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Fund Overview | SQF has been established to profit from anomalies surrounding event driven, behavioural & factor based structural market inefficiencies which generate significant profits and are uncorrelated & persistent over time. Specific strategies such as dividend arbitrage, index addition and deletion, tax year end, capital raisings, among other strategies are used by the Fund. The Fund's initial focus is on investing in Australian and New Zealand markets. |
Manager Comments | The Dividend Arbitrage strategy continued its recent solid performance in the volatile downward-trending market. Alpha Capture was also a strong positive contributor for the month as earnings revisions and analyst sentiment indicators paid off. The Fund had a net exposure of 53%, of which 15.6% exposure was in the Financial sector. Click the link below to view the latest Monthly Report. |
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21 Oct 2015 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund September 2015
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 cap stocks from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with over thirteen year track record and annualised returns of 18.15%.
- The consistent returns across the investment history indicates 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 1.10 (Index 0.27) and 1.89 (Index 0.28) respectively.
20 Oct 2015 - Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund September 2015
- The Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund (AFARF) has a 10 year track record investing in ASX listed equities. A Market Neutral overlay is used across a multi strategy approach which allows for flexible asset allocation to maximise returns and minimise risk under a variety of market conditions and cycles.CIO John Corr has over 20 years financial market experience with a strong focus on risk.
- Significant use of low risk "long" derivatives and option overlays has provided positive returns with low volatility during periods of market dislocation. Risk statistics are impressive and shows the Funds risk philosophy; over 86% of monthly performances have been positive with no losing months in 2008, the Fund's largest drawdown is -2.09% and the Sharpe ratio 1.11.
- ASX listed Aurora Funds Limited was established on the merger of three existing fund management businesses, managing approx. $230m on behalf of more than 2,500 retail and wholesale investors.
20 Oct 2015 - 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 38.3% in Japan and 30.2% in Singapore. Majority of the underlying property sector allocation was in the Retail REITs sector 37.5%, followed by Office REITs sector 27.6%. Top 5 Asian REIT holdings were in Croesus Retail Trust, Keppel Dc REIT, N, Capitaland Retail China Trust, Kenedix Office Investment Co and Soilbuild Business Space REIT. Click below to read the latest Fund's September commentary. |
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19 Oct 2015 - Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
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Manager Comments | September's main disappointment was one of the Fund's largest remaining long term holdings: Hospital Corp of America (HCA). Losses on HCA more than accounted for the September under-performance. A positive contributor came from a new Japanese retail long-short position, comprising fast growing dispensing pharmacy chain, Nihon Chouzai together with Tsuruha, Japan's largest drug store chain, funded by a short position in combined drugstore and pharmacy operator Sugi, which the Fund believes to be overpriced. For the month, the Fund had over 42% of their equity exposure in the North American region and over 20% in the Financials Sector. Click below to read the Fund Manager's monthly report and their September outlook of the market. |
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