News
Performance Report: DS Capital Growth Fund
5 Mar 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The DS Capital Growth Fund rose +2.20% in February, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +0.75% and taking 12-month performance to +27.61% vs the Index's +6.48%. Since inception in January 2013, the Fund has returned +15.99% p.a....
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5 Mar 2021 - Performance Report: DS Capital Growth Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The investment team looks for industrial businesses that are simple to understand; they generally avoid large caps, pure mining, biotech and start-ups. They also look for: - Access to management; - Businesses with a competitive edge; - Profitable companies with good margins, organic growth prospects, strong market position and a track record of healthy dividend growth; - Sectors with structural advantage and barriers to entry; - 15% p.a. pre-tax compound return on each holding; and - A history of stable and predictable cash flows that DS Capital can understand and value. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund's Sharpe and Sortino ratios (since inception), 1.23 and 1.83 respectively, by contrast with the Index's Sharpe of 0.57 and Sortino of 0.69, highlight its capacity to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns while avoiding the market's downside volatility. The Fund's capacity to outperform in negative markets is demonstrated by its down-capture ratio (since inception) of 45% which indicates that, on average, the Fund has fallen less than half as much as the market during the market's negative months. |
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Performance Report: Insync Global Quality Equity Fund
3 Mar 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Insync Global Quality Equity Fund has risen +5.71% over the past 12 months vs AFM's Global Equity Index's +2.59%. Since inception in October 2009, the Fund has returned +13.41% p.a. vs the Index's +11.07%.
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3 Mar 2021 - Performance Report: Insync Global Quality Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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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 typically of 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. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund returned -3.63% in January. Insync noted there were two main drivers behind the Fund's monthly return; investor uncertainty with the approach of earnings season, and the switch by many institutional investors from growth stocks to cyclicals. Several of the Fund's holdings declined as a result, these included Visa, Nintendo, Disney, Estee Lauder, Facebook, Adobe and Dollar General. Microsoft, Home Depot and Qualcomm all contributed positively. The majority of the Fund's holdings remained flat. Insync believe reinflation prospects remain dim despite the latest US bond rate moves. Contributing factors include negative industry lending flows and investment. Their view is that conditions supporting defensive growth beyond the near-term remain strong. |
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Performance Report: Delft Partners Global High Conviction
2 Mar 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Delft Global High Conviction Strategy rose +3.29% in January, outperforming AFM's Global Equity Benchmark by +3.09% and taking annualised performance since inception in August 2011 to +14.93% with an annualised volatility of 11.78%.
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2 Mar 2021 - Performance Report: Delft Partners Global High Conviction
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The quantitative model is proprietary and designed in-house. The critical elements are Valuation, Momentum, and Quality (VMQ) and every stock in the global universe is scored and ranked. Verification of the quant model scores is then cross checked by fundamental analysis in which a company's Accounting policies, Governance, and Strategic positioning is evaluated. The manager believes strategy is suited to investors seeking returns from investing in global companies, diversification away from Australia and a risk aware approach to global investing. It should be noted that this is a strategy in an IMA format and is not offered as a fund. An IMA solution can be a more cost and tax effective solution, for clients who wish to own fewer stocks in a long only strategy. |
| Manager Comments | The Strategy's Sharpe and Sortino ratios (since inception) are 1.08 and 1.97 respectively, highlighting its capacity to achieve good risk-adjusted returns while avoiding the market's downside volatility. The Strategy has an average positive monthly return of +3.28% and an average negative monthly return of -2.05%. With respect to the Index's 10 best and worst months since the Strategy's inception, the Strategy has outperformed in 9 out of 10 of the Index's best months and 6 out of 10 of the Index's worst months. This highlights its capacity to outperform in both rising and falling markets. |
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Performance Report: Ark Global Fund - Class B AUD Unhedged
2 Mar 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
Since inception in July 2017, the Ark Global Fund - Class B AUD Unhedged has returned +5.99% p.a. with an annualised volatility of 13.07%. The Fund's down-capture ratio (since inception) of -67.12% indicates that, on average, it has...
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2 Mar 2021 - Performance Report: Ark Global Fund - Class B AUD Unhedged
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The investment objective of the Fund is to achieve long-term capital appreciation with low correlation to global equity markets through investment in the Underlying Fund. Fund One is a global macro fund that utilises quantitative research including machine learning techniques and fully automated trading algorithms which will aim to generate positive uncorrelated returns relative to any significant equity benchmark. The traded instruments are either major FX pairs or the most liquid exchange traded stock index, bond, and commodity futures across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The algorithm backtests over 10 years of tick data and in order to do so effectively requires machine learning to filter noise and identify meaningful signals, which results in statistically significant prediction of price movements. In production this processing is done in real time and the portfolio reacts to asset movements by rebalancing automatically to the desired risk exposure through the market impact optimised execution logic. Risk management layers built into the algorithm have been developed using the experience the team has gained from their decades in highly liquid fast-moving markets in the proprietary High Frequency Trading world. This allows the system to trade autonomously but safely to all trading opportunities and potential system issues, and to alert the team to any behaviour outside of strictly controlled bounds. The Fund is a 'feeder fund' which indirectly gains exposure to the underlying assets by investing all or substantially all of its assets in the Underlying Fund. The Fund may retain a certain amount of cash from the investment in the Fund for the purpose of payment of costs, fees, hedging and expenses. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund returned -0.76% in January. The best performing assets for the month were: Euro STOXX 50 Index (+4.27% of NAV), Nikkei 225 (+1.50% of NAV) and Gold (+1.13% of NAV). The worst performing assets for the month were: E-mini S&P500 (-1.77% of NAV), Hang Seng Index (-1.92% of NAV) and DAX Index (-4.43% of NAV). |
| More Information |
Fund Review: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund January 2021
1 Mar 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review on Insync Global Capital Aware Fund is now available. The Global Capital Aware Fund invests in a concentrated portfolio of 15-30 stocks, targeting exceptional, large cap global companies with a strong focus on dividend...
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1 Mar 2021 - Fund Review: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund January 2021
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - January 2021 (pdf format)
INSYNC GLOBAL CAPITAL AWARE FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Insync Global Capital Aware Fund.
We would like to highlight the following:
- The Global Capital Aware 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.
AFM Fund Review - January 2021 (pdf format)
Performance Report: Bennelong Emerging Companies Fund
1 Mar 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Emerging Companies Fund rose +3.58% in January, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +3.27% and taking 12-month performance to +16.23% vs the Index's -3.11%. Since inception in November 2017, the Fund has risen...
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1 Mar 2021 - Performance Report: Bennelong Emerging Companies Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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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 Sortino ratio (since inception) of 1.14 vs the Index's 0.47 highlights its capacity to avoid the market's downside volatility over the long-term. The Fund's up-capture ratio (since inception) of 340.92% indicates that, on average, it has risen more than 3 times as much as the market during the market's positive months. The Fund has achieved up-capture ratios above 269% over the past 12, 24 and 36 months. Bennelong continue to seek to invest in high quality companies that they believe have solid growth prospects over the foreseeable future. They note that, despite the market's inevitable short-term volatility, they believe the portfolio's investments are all incrementally building value which they expect will underpin strong outperformance over the long-term. The portfolio remains diversified across sector and risk-return drivers. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund
26 Feb 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Insync Global Capital Aware Fund has risen +9.48% over the past 12 months vs AFM's Global Equity Index's +2.59%. Since inception in October 2009, the Fund has returned +11.48% p.a. with an annualised volatility of 9.93%.
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26 Feb 2021 - Performance Report: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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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 returned -3.70% in January. Insync noted there were two main drivers behind the Fund's monthly return; investor uncertainty with the approach of earnings season, and the switch by many institutional investors from growth stocks to cyclicals. Several of the Fund's holdings declined as a result, these included Visa, Nintendo, Disney, Estee Lauder, Facebook, Adobe and Dollar General. Microsoft, Home Depot and Qualcomm all contributed positively. The majority of the Fund's holdings remained flat. Insync believe reinflation prospects remain dim despite the latest US bond rate moves. Contributing factors include negative industry lending flows and investment. Their view is that conditions supporting defensive growth beyond the near-term remain strong. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Ark Global Fund - Class B AUD Hedged
26 Feb 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
Since inception in July 2017, the Ark Global Fund - Class B AUD Hedged has risen +5.49% p.a. with an annualised volatility of 8.99%. The Fund has achieved a down-capture ratio (since inception) of -51.26%.
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26 Feb 2021 - Performance Report: Ark Global Fund - Class B AUD Hedged
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The investment objective of the Fund is to achieve long-term capital appreciation with low correlation to global equity markets through investment in the Underlying Fund. Fund One is a global macro fund that utilises quantitative research including machine learning techniques and fully automated trading algorithms which will aim to generate positive uncorrelated returns relative to any significant equity benchmark. The traded instruments are either major FX pairs or the most liquid exchange traded stock index, bond, and commodity futures across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The algorithm backtests over 10 years of tick data and in order to do so effectively requires machine learning to filter noise and identify meaningful signals, which results in statistically significant prediction of price movements. In production this processing is done in real time and the portfolio reacts to asset movements by rebalancing automatically to the desired risk exposure through the market impact optimised execution logic. Risk management layers built into the algorithm have been developed using the experience the team has gained from their decades in highly liquid fast-moving markets in the proprietary High Frequency Trading world. This allows the system to trade autonomously but safely to all trading opportunities and potential system issues, and to alert the team to any behaviour outside of strictly controlled bounds. The Fund is a 'feeder fund' which indirectly gains exposure to the underlying assets by investing all or substantially all of its assets in the Underlying Fund. The Fund may retain a certain amount of cash from the investment in the Fund for the purpose of payment of costs, fees, hedging and expenses. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund returned -1.57% in January. The best performing assets for the month were: Euro STOXX 50 Index (+4.27% of NAV), Nikkei 225 (+1.50% of NAV) and Gold (+1.13% of NAV). The worst performing assets for the month were: E-mini S&P500 (-1.77% of NAV), Hang Seng Index (-1.92% of NAV) and DAX Index (-4.43% of NAV). |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund
26 Feb 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund rose +2.80% in January, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +2.49% and taking 12-month performance to +10.03% vs the Index's -3.11%. Since inception in November 2009, the Fund has...
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26 Feb 2021 - Performance Report: Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund is managed as one portfolio but comprises and combines two separately managed exposures: 1. An investment in the top 20 stocks of the markets, which the Fund achieves by taking an indexed position in the S&P/ASX 20 Index; and 2. An investment in the stocks beyond the S&P/ASX 20 Index. This exposure is managed on an active basis using a fundamental core approach. The Fund may also invest in securities expected to be listed on the ASX, securities listed or expected to be listed on other exchanges where such securities relate to ASX-listed securities.Derivative instruments may be used to replicate underlying positions and hedge market and company specific risks. The companies within the portfolio are primarily selected from, but not limited to, the S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index. The Fund typically holds between 40-55 stocks and thus is considered to be highly concentrated. This means that investors should expect to see high short-term volatility. The Fund seeks to achieve growth over the long-term, therefore the minimum suggested investment timeframe is 5 years. |
| Manager Comments | At month end, the portfolio's weightings had been increased in the Discretionary, Communication, IT and Industrials sectors, and increased in Health Care, Materials, REITs and Financials. Together with positions in the top 20 ASX listed stocks, the Fund is selectively invested in a group of high quality growth stocks. Bennelong's aim is for this to allow the Fund to outperform over time. The most significant difference in sector weightings between the portfolio and the ASX300 Accumulation Index is in the Discretionary sector; portfolio weighting: 33.1%, benchmark weighting: 8.0%. Bennelong believe the Fund is well set up to provide enhanced index returns over the long-term. |
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Performance Report: NWQ Fiduciary Fund
26 Feb 2021 - Australian Fund Monitors
The NWQ Fiduciary Fund rose +1.41% in January, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +1.1% and taking 12-month performance to +5.91% vs the Index's -3.11%. Since inception in May 2013, the Fund has returned +5.94% p.a. with an...
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26 Feb 2021 - Performance Report: NWQ Fiduciary Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund aims to produce returns after management fees and expenses of RBA Cash Rate + 4.0-5.0% 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 capacity to significantly outperform in falling and volatile markets is highlighted by the following statistics (since inception): Sortino ratio of 1.13 vs the Index's 0.55, maximum drawdown of -8.77% vs the Index's -26.75%, and down-capture ratio of 13.25%. NWQ highlighted that, at the time of writing their latest report, the RBA had completed $120bn (approx. 10% of GDP) of bond purchases since March, and noted with the labour market improving policymakers have to strike a balance between the risk that continuing policy support will lead to overinflated asset prices and the risk that tapering policy support will reduce export competitiveness via a stronger AUD. NWQ believe the way in which this trade-off is navigated has the potential to be a source of equity market volatility in 2021. The Fund continues to maintain a low net exposure to both equity and bond markets. |
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