News
Fund Review: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund February 2019
22 Mar 2019 - 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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22 Mar 2019 - Fund Review: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund February 2019
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - February 2019 (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 - February 2019 (pdf format)
Performance Report: Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund
21 Mar 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund rose +4.95% in February, taking annualised performance since inception in November 2009 to +9.76% versus the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +7.75%.
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21 Mar 2019 - 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 | As at the end of February, the Fund's top holdings included Commonwealth Bank, BHP Billiton, Westpac Banking, CSL, Goodman, Aristocrat Leisure, ANZ and Dexus Property. In addition, the portfolios weightings had been increased in the REITs, Health Care, Communication and Materials sectors, and decreased in the Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Industrials, Energy and Financials sectors. |
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Performance Report: Spectrum Strategic Income Fund
20 Mar 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Spectrum Strategic Income Fund returned +0.94% in February, taking 12-month performance to +3.83% and annualised performance since inception in June 2009 to +8.06%.
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20 Mar 2019 - Performance Report: Spectrum Strategic Income Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | Favourable conditions for both global and Australian corporate bonds continued in February and expectations of sustained or even looser monetary policy continue. Spectrum noted what concerns them the most about Australia's economy is the potential economic fallout from a weakening property sector. As a result, they continue to attempt to shelter the portfolio by diversifying away from direct and indirect residential property risk. The Fund's outperformance of the Australian floating rate note index (+43bp) was largely due to price jumps in a handful of positions in the Fund. Spectrum believe the deteriorating economic growth outlook is resulting in some positive influences for credit spreads, however, they note this could be a temporary benefit; fundamentals eventually come to the fore and thus default rates will eventually rise. Therefore their decision making remains centred around protecting investor capital, collecting coupons and trying to take advantage of mis-pricings and technical forces in the A$ corporate bond market. |
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Performance Report: NWQ Fiduciary Fund
19 Mar 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The NWQ Fiduciary Fund rose +1.68% in February, taking annualised performance since inception in May 2013 to +5.56% with an annualised volatility of 4.91%.
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19 Mar 2019 - 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 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 | NWQ noted the 'risk on' sentiment continued in February and drove the major equity indices higher. The prevailing market sentiment continued to present challenges for the long/short strategies employed by the Fund's underlying managers as these strategies prioritise company fundamentals. However, there were pockets of strong performance in February which NWQ see to be a positive sign that conditions are becoming more favourable for these types of strategies. |
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Performance Report: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
19 Mar 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund returned +1.55% in February, taking annualised performance since inception in May 2006 to +9.22% versus the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +5.82%.
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19 Mar 2019 - Performance Report: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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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 | Top contributors included ANZ (+44bp contribution), Macquarie Group (+34bp), Audinate Group (+31bp), Cleanaway (+29bp), Woodside Petroleum (+25bp) and Rio Tinto (+24bp). The short book was the largest detractor (-128bp), with individual stock shorts in the financial, consumer and healthcare sectors and a short in Share Price Index Futures the key detractors. Other detractors included Emeco (-13bp), Evolution Mining (-11bp), Whitehaven Coal (-8bp) and Computershare (-7bp). Net equity market exposure was increased from 40.2% to 42.6% (52.4% long and 9.8% short), with the key changes being new positions in ANZ, Goodman Group and James Hardie, the closure of several short positions and increased weightings in South32, Aristocrat Leisure, Computershare and Magellan. This was partly offset by the sale of positions in Woolworths, Transurban, BHP, Alumina and Evolution. |
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Performance Report: Loftus Peak Global Disruption Fund
18 Mar 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Loftus Peak Global Disruption Fund rose +6.84% in February, outperforming AFM's Global Equity Index by +1.58% and taking annualised performance since inception in November 2016 to +22.19%.
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18 Mar 2019 - Performance Report: Loftus Peak Global Disruption Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The investment process involves a combination of top-down analysis with fundamental bottom-up qualitative and quantitative research to derive a risk-adjusted discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation of companies in the target universe. The investment team will generally buy stocks from the pool of securities that are trading below Loftus Peaks' valuation and sell them when they are trading above Loftus Peak's valuation. The approach allows for both fundamental accounting information as well as market-oriented inputs to be factored into the portfolio construction process. Loftus Peak's model typically does not rely on leverage to deliver investment returns and specifically takes into account risk in the valuation process. Capital preservation can be managed by holding up to 50% cash. Index and currency options and futures may also be used to manage risk. |
| Manager Comments | Loftus peak believe part of the reason for the Fund's strong performance in recent months lies in the decision to significantly increase their stock weighting during the Q4 sell-off on the basis that the global economic recovery was not so well entrenched as to withstand the aggressive rise in interest rates which was mooted by the US Federal Reserve late last year. Xilinx, Alibaba and Nvidia all contributed positively while Amazon, Baidu and Tencent each detracted slightly. Elsewhere, Loftus Peak noted, they remain focused on the development of 5G for cellular telecommunications which they believe will be a game-changer, impacting infrastructure globally and driving a new wave of connectivity and subsequently productivity. The value of the Fund's US dollar positions increased during the month as the AUD depreciated 2.43% against the USD. As at 28 February 2019, the Fund carried a foreign currency exposure of 99%. |
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Performance Report: Harvest Lane Asset Management Absolute Return Fund
15 Mar 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Harvest Lane Absolute Return Fund has returned +13.05% over the past 12 months versus the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +7.05%. This return has been achieved with a volatility of only 7.40% versus the Index's 11.59%.
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15 Mar 2019 - Performance Report: Harvest Lane Asset Management Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Harvest Lane Asset Management employs a conservative, highly selective and opportunistic approach. Using their extensive knowledge in the area of corporate actions, the Fund's managers assess each opportunity based on a thoughtful, diligent and disciplined process and invest where they believe an opportunity exists to generate above average investment returns relative to the risk incurred. Investment decisions are made without speculating on market direction, with rigid risk controls enforced to minimise the risk of large losses of investor capital. The Fund invests in securities that are predominantly listed on the ASX and occasionally in those listed in other developed markets. Equity swaps and other derivatives may be used at times to reduce risk. The fund typically holds high levels of cash in the absence of sufficiently attractive opportunities to deploy investor capital in accordance with its objectives. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund returned 0.81% in February. Harvest Lane noted that, even as many of their positions steadily increase in price as their respective transaction endpoints approach, there remains sufficient implied discount in the portfolio for them to be optimistic about the Fund's performance over the remainder of the year. Overall, February was a relatively quiet month for the Fund. Two larger sized transactions in PropertyLink Group and Greencross Limited were concluded intra-month, allowing Harvest Lane to rotate capital straight back into new opportunities. In total, five new deals passed Harvest Lane's due diligence process, while several more are currently being monitored for inclusion in the portfolio at a later time. |
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Performance Report: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
12 Mar 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund has returned +15.11% p.a. since inception in January 2003 versus the ASX200 Total Return's +8.05% p.a. over the same period.
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12 Mar 2019 - Performance Report: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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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 as a Listed Investment Company (LIC) on the ASX. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund's performance was modestly negative in February (-0.82%). Bennelong experienced a mix of winners and losers across the 31 pairs in the portfolio. They noted reporting season led to a slight downgrade to market earnings forecasts with resources positive and industrials negative. They were comfortable with their overall hit rate based on earnings revisions. By sector, the Fund saw positive contributions from Financials and Healthcare, while Mining/Resources and Energy lagged. Top contributors included long Macquarie / short Bendigo Bank and long Ramsay Health Care / short Healius. The worst pairs in the portfolio were long Challenger / short IOOF/ANZ and long Caltex / short Viva Energy. Bennelong noted the long portfolio continues to deliver superior earnings growth and return on equity/capital relative to the short portfolio. |
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Performance Report: Cyan C3G Fund
12 Mar 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Cyan C3G Fund has returned +18.29% since inception in July 2014 versus the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +6.70% over the same period. This return has been achieved with a similar level of volatility to the market.
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12 Mar 2019 - Performance Report: Cyan C3G Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Cyan C3G Fund is based on the investment philosophy which can be defined as a comprehensive, clear and considered process focused on delivering growth. These are identified through stringent filter criteria and a rigorous research process. The Manager uses a proprietary stock filter in order to eliminate a large proportion of investments due to both internal characteristics (such as gearing levels or cash flow) and external characteristics (such as exposure to commodity prices or customer concentration). Typically, the Fund looks for businesses that are one or more of: a) under researched, b) fundamentally undervalued, c) have a catalyst for re-rating. The Manager seeks to achieve this investment outcome by actively managing a portfolio of Australian listed securities. When the opportunity to invest in suitable securities cannot be found, the manager may reduce the level of equities exposure and accumulate a defensive cash position. Whilst it is the company's intention, there is no guarantee that any distributions or returns will be declared, or that if declared, the amount of any returns will remain constant or increase over time. The Fund does not invest in derivatives and does not use debt to leverage the Fund's performance. However, companies in which the Fund invests may be leveraged. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund posted a modest gain of 0.6% in February following on from a 4.0% rise in January. 8 out of the Fund's 25 positions moved in excess of 20% during the month. Top contributors included Splitit (+58%), Experience Co (+22%) and Afterpay (+15%). Detractors included Murray River Group (-20%) and Motorcycle Holdings (-28%). Despite regretting not having participated in more of the market's upside in recent months, Cyan maintain that the market was too volatile to have been fully invested at the end of 2018. They noted they've added a couple of new and exciting positions to the portfolio and they feel that positive and unexpected (or undiscovered) company performances will be well-rewarded. |
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Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund February 2019
11 Mar 2019 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review for the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund is now available. The Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large-caps from the ASX/S&P100 Index...
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11 Mar 2019 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund February 2019
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - February 2019 (pdf format)
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-caps from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with over 16-years' track record and an annualised returns of 15.11%.
- The consistent returns across the investment history highlight 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 0.90 and 1.45 respectively.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
AFM Fund Review - February 2019 (pdf format)
