NEWS
Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund August 2015
5 Oct 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
August Fund Review with key statistics for Totus Alpha Fund is now available.
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5 Oct 2015 - Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund August 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund AFM Fund Review August 2015 (pdf format)
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 $10bn+ long-only manager, and sell side emerging companies experience at UBS. McGarry's emerging company research with UBS included exposure to a range of sectors including energy, materials, industrials, tech, financials, retail and telecommunications.
- The Fund has delivered an annalised return of 28.97% since inception in March 2012 as compared to 10.28% for the ASX 200 Accumulation Index. The standard deviation has been higher than the Index at 14.21% as compared to 12.29% and the Sharpe ratio is 1.69.
Totus Alpha Fund AFM Fund Review August 2015 (pdf format)
Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund August 2015
2 Oct 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review on Insync Global Titans Fund is now available.
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2 Oct 2015 - Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund August 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
INSYNC GLOBAL TITANS FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Insync Global Titans Fund.
We would like to highlight the following:
- The Fund outperformed its benchmark MSCI All Country World ex-Australia Net Total Return Index ($A) by 0.8%, in August. The performance was driven by positive contributions from our holdings in Zimmer, Diageo and Nestle. The main negative contributors were Disney, Medtronic and Time Warner. 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.
- The Global Titans Fund invests in a concentrated portfolio of 15-30 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.
- Emphasis on limiting downside risk is through extensive company research, the ability to hold cash and long protective index put options.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Laminar Credit Opportunities Fund
2 Oct 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Laminar Credit Opportunities Fund rose 0.60% over the month of August, delivered 7.65% over the past 12 months.
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2 Oct 2015 - Laminar Credit Opportunities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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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 | Despite the volatility, the Fund produced a positive monthly return. This was helped by the Fund having a credit duration of less than 2 years and is well positioned to withstand future volatility as well. In August, majority of the Fund's portfolio composition was in Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) at 64%, followed by Short-dated loans at 22%. Click on the link below to read the latest Fund Manager's Report. |
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Supervised High Yield Fund
1 Oct 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Supervised High Yield Fund rose 0.36% in August, to bring annualised performance since inception to 9.98% p.a.
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1 Oct 2015 - Supervised High Yield Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund may also invest in interest rate swaps, options over authorized investments and exchange traded futures contracts. All these will be either listed or traded in a market where they can be independently valued. Fundamental to the investment procedure is the tenet that no debt security will qualify for investment unless it can repay 100% of its principal and interest in a worst case economic scenario. |
| Manager Comments | More than half of the portfolio's composition (as a percentage of NAV) was invested in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) 66.09%. The rest of the portfolio composition was in the US Corporate Loans at 21.87%, Cash at 7.84% and AUD Corporate Loans at 4.20%. The Fund Manager expects the lack of action from the US Fed to not increase interest rate, may lead to more uncertainty and volatility ahead. Click below to view the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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Cor Capital Fund
1 Oct 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
During August, the Cor Capital Fund returned -0.34% bringing the 12-month return to 3.48%. Since inception in 2012, the Fund has returned 4.52% p.a., with very low volatility of 5.5%.
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1 Oct 2015 - Cor Capital Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Cor Capital Fund is a Multi- Asset Fund which combines a pre-determined strategic asset allocation with active but systemised rebalancing to generate returns and manage volatility whilst maintaining transparency and liquidity. The Fund strategy is not reliant on accurate market predictions, forecasts or timing for success. Returns are generated in a number of ways; 1) by maintaining sufficiently large positions in a diverse group of asset classes, 2) via the 'volatility harvesting' consequences of active rebalancing, and 3) from the offsetting behaviour of certain asset classes under specific conditions. The combined portfolio is expected to exhibit relatively low volatility and low turnover. In the interests of avoiding complexity, maintaining liquidity, and minimising reliance on third parties, the Fund strategy does not employ gearing, derivatives or short-selling. |
| Manager Comments | The portfolio's equities position detracted from August returns as the ASX200 Accumulation Index fell 7.8%. However the Fund's positions in gold bullion (+6.0%), bonds (+0.6%) and cash cushioned investors from the correction. The Fund's risk management system resulted in a movement of capital at the end of August, largely away from gold bullion towards equities. |
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Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund August 2015
30 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review now available on Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund, which has over 6 years of track record and annualised return of 9.68% p.a.
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30 Sep 2015 - Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund August 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
PENGANA ABSOLUTE RETURN ASIA PACIFIC FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund.
- The Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund ("PARAP") was established in 2008 by portfolio managers Antonio Meroni and Vikas Kumra. The Fund is a feeder fund into a Cayman Islands AUD share class fund.
- The Fund invests both long and short in Asia Pacific equities, including in Australian and New Zealand, after a stock specific "event" has either occurred or been announced and the portfolio aims to be uncorrelated to the underlying equity markets. A combination of the Manager's experience, thorough research and continuous back- testing identify the most attractive of these events.
- Risk controls include limits on individual positions as well as gross and net exposure. Limits are in place for option exposure and cash borrowing, with stop loss limits on individual positions. Overall the manager is looking to derive returns from the event strategies as opposed to any currency or market exposures.
- Since inception, the Fund has an annualised return of 9.68% p.a., compared to the AFM's Asia Pacific Index of 5.76%. The Fund has achieved this with lower volatility of 6.21% (Index 11.96%).
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Freehold Absolute Return Fund
30 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Freehold Absolute Return Fund delivered -0.65% in a weak and volatile equity market (ASX200 Total Return), which declined 7.79%.
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30 Sep 2015 - Freehold Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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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 portfolio's positive contributors in August were Westfield Group, Investa Office and Goodman Group. Negative Contributors were DUET, Federation Centres, APN Property Group. Both, the Retail and the Infrastructure sectors continued to present a strong reporting season. In Retail, specialty sales growth averaged 4.5% and was the highest in many years for Scentre Group, GPT Group and Stockland. In the Infrastructure sector, the dividend announcements and guidance were strong from Sydney Airport (SYD), Spark Infrastructure and Transurban. Click below to read the complete Fund's Monthly Performance Report. |
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KIS Asia Long Short Fund
29 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
KIS Asia Long Short Fund rose 0.34% for the month of August, when the AFM Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index returned -6.93%.
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29 Sep 2015 - KIS Asia Long Short Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Whilst the Fund's primary strategy is focused on long/short equities, the ability to retain discretionary powers to allocate across a number of other investment strategies is reserved. These strategies may include, but not be limited to: convertible bond investments, portfolio hedging, equity related arbitrage, special situations (e.g. merger arbitrage, rights offerings, participation in international public offerings and placements, etc.). The Fund's geographic focus is Asia excluding Japan, but including Australia). The Fund may invest outside of this region to the extent that: 1. The investment decision is driven from the Asian region or; 2. The exposure is intended to mitigate risk or enhance return from factors external to the Asian region. |
| Manager Comments | In August, the HK and Chinese markets were extremely weak, with falls of 12% in the HSCEI, Shanghai Shenzhen 300 and Shanghai Composite (with 14 to 15% falls last month). Majority of the Fund's return came from the Special Situations Strategy, which contributed 24bp. The main driver of this profit was the trading of the competitive takeover of Affinity Education Group (AFJ.AX) with an initial bid by G8 Education (GEM.AX) and a competing bid from PE group Anchorage Capital. Other strategies such as Long Short contributed 17bp, while Portfolio Hedge did not make a significant contribution. To read more, cLick below for Fund's Monthly performance report. |
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APN Asian REIT Fund
29 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
APN Asian REIT Fund decreased -4.67% in August. Since inception, the Fund has an annualised return of 17.67% p.a.
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29 Sep 2015 - APN Asian REIT Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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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 such as Japan at 38.3% and Singapore at 30.6%. Majority of the underlying property sector allocation was in the Retail REITs sector 37.5%, followed by Office REITs sector 28.4%. Top 5 Asian REIT holdings were in Croesus Retail Trust, Keppel Dc REIT, Normura Real Estate Office Fumd, Capitaland Retail China Trust and Mapletree Commerical Trust. Click below to read the latest Fund's August commentary. |
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Totus Alpha Fund
28 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund was up 3.0% net of fees in August, outperforming the ASX 300 Accumulation Index by 10.7%.
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28 Sep 2015 - 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. 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,had a net exposure of -2.4% and a gross exposure of 290.6%. The Fund was diversified across a number investment themes and geographies with 126 positions (54 long and 72 short).Top contributors in August were the short positions in S&P Futures +1.99% and Woodside +0.96% (Commodities). A long position in SmartGroup added +1.45% (Scarce Growth). Biggest detractors were our long positions in Telstra -1.11% (Sustainable Yield) and CBA -0.92% (Sustainable Yield). SPI Futures cost the fund -1.00%. Click below to read the latest Fund's Monthly Report. |
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