News
Performance Report: Cyan C3G Fund
23 Oct 2018 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Cyan C3G Fund has returned +10.99% over the past 12 months. Since inception, the Fund has returned +22.65% p.a. versus the market's +7.13%.
Read more...
23 Oct 2018 - Performance Report: Cyan C3G Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| 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 | In September the Fund returned -2.2%, taking the gain for the first quarter of FY19 to a modest +0.7% (after all fees). Throughout the month, there were three positive performers - Acrow, Noni B and newly added Spicers Paper. The remaining 20 or so positions fell between 1% - 13% which Cyan noted was in part due to the slightly bearish market disposition mirrored by the -1.1% fall in the All Ords. In addition, Cyan have been involved in a number of transactions (both IPO's and placements) that they expect to add meaningful value to the Fund in the coming months. Cyan noted that, in light of recent performance, their philosophy acknowledges the reality of stock volatility. They noted that even great multi-year investments will have periods of retracement and consolidation, highlighting the fact that CSL, despite rising more than 500% over the past 10 years, has suffered 15 monthly falls of more than 5% during that timeframe. Cyan aim to ignore market gyrations and focus on the underlying fundamentals and growth paths of their investee companies. Cyan remain confident in the future earnings capabilities of their investments. |
| More Information |
Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund September 2018
22 Oct 2018 - Australian Fund Monitors
The latest Fund Review on Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund is now available. The Fund invests in ASX listed stocks, combining an indexed position in the Top 20 stocks with an actively managed portfolio of ex-20 stocks.
Read more...
22 Oct 2018 - Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund September 2018
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - September 2018 (pdf format)
BENNELONG TWENTY20 AUSTRALIAN EQUITIES FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund.
- The Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund invests in ASX listed stocks, combining an indexed position in the Top 20 stocks with an actively managed portfolio of stocks outside the Top 20. Construction of the ex-top 20 portfolio is fundamental, bottom-up, core investment style, biased to quality stocks, with a structured risk management approach.
- Mark East, the Fund's Chief Investment Officer, and Keith Kwang, Director of Quantitative Research have over 50 years combined market experience. Bennelong Funds Management (BFM) provides the investment manager, Bennelong Australian Equity Partners (BAEP) with infrastructure, operational, compliance and distribution services.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
AFM Fund Review - September 2018 (pdf format)
Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund September 2018
18 Oct 2018 - Australian Fund Monitors
The latest Fund Review for the Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund is now available. The Fund is a long-biased, research driven, active equity long/short strategy which invests in listed ASX companies with track records greater than 10 years.
Read more...
18 Oct 2018 - Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund September 2018
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - September 2018 (pdf format)
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 over ten-year track record.
- The Fund has significantly outperformed the ASX200 Accumulation Index since its inception in May 2006 and also has significantly lower risk KPIs. The Fund has an annualised return of 10.16% p.a. with a volatility of 6.89%, compared to the ASX200 Accumulation's return of 5.93% p.a. with a volatility of 13.29%.
- 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.
AFM Fund Review - September 2018 (pdf format)
Performance Report: NWQ Fiduciary Fund
17 Oct 2018 - Australian Fund Monitors
The NWQ Fiduciary Fund has returned +9.97% over the past 12 months with a volatility of only 3.56%. Since inception in May 2013, the Fund has returned +6.81% per annum with an annualised volatility of 4.61%.
Read more...
17 Oct 2018 - Performance Report: NWQ Fiduciary Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| 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 | In September, the Fund returned -0.46%. NWQ noted increasing market volatility due to rising global interest rates, as well as increasing divergence in global growth rates, is likely to continue and present ongoing challenges to risk assets. Market and manager return dispersion remains high and the overall portfolio exposure to the market remains relatively low at approximately 12%. NWQ believe an equity market neutral portfolio that substantially eliminates the likely ongoing equity and bond market volatility should serve investors well over the coming months. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
16 Oct 2018 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund has returned +2.46% over the past quarter and +19.37% over the past 12 months. Since inception in January 2003, the Fund has returned +16.40% p.a. versus the market's +8.19%.
Read more...
16 Oct 2018 - Performance Report: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| 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 | In September the Fund returned -3.85%, which Bennelong noted was due to a lack of profitable pairs. The short portfolio produced a small positive return whilst the long portfolio fell with the market. At the pair level around one third of pairs were positive, which Bennelong noted was out of the ordinary as a more typical outcome is that between half and two thirds of pairs tend to be profitable. Bennelong noted that, post reporting season, there was limited fundamental news during the month. Noteworthy for the Fund was a strong TPG Telecom FY18 result; the Fund is long TPG/short Telstra. Bennelong are optimistic about the proposed merger with Vodafone. In addition, Sims Metal downgraded their guidance only four weeks after delivering their result and guidance; the Fund is long BlueScope Steel/short Sims Metal. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Bennelong Emerging Companies Fund
12 Oct 2018 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Emerging Companies Fund rose +0.87% in September, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +2.13% and taking the Fund's quarterly return to +5.92%.
Read more...
12 Oct 2018 - Performance Report: Bennelong Emerging Companies Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| 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 | At the end of September, the portfolio composition by sector comprised 29% Discretionary, 17% Industrial, 14% Financials, 11% Materials, 10% Consumer Staples, 9% IT, 7% Health Care and 3% cash. The Fund's top holdings included Pinnacle Investment Management, Baby Bunting, Clover, BWX and Helloworld. The Fund invests predominantly in micro and small-cap stocks listed on the ASX. It is managed via a research-intensive and predominantly bottom-up investment approach. The Fund focuses on high quality stocks and seeks to avoid the higher risk that usually comes with micro and small-cap stocks. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Bennelong Australian Equities Fund
10 Oct 2018 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Australian Equities Fund rose +1.75% in August, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +0.33% and taking annualised performance since inception in January 2009 to +14.88%.
Read more...
10 Oct 2018 - Performance Report: Bennelong Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The Bennelong Australian Equities Fund seeks quality investment opportunities which are under-appreciated and have the potential to deliver positive earnings. The investment process combines bottom-up fundamental analysis with proprietary investment tools that are used to build and maintain high quality portfolios that are risk aware. The investment team manages an extensive company/industry contact program which helps identify and verify various investment opportunities. The companies within the portfolio are primarily selected from, but not limited to, the S&P/ASX 300 Index. The Fund may invest in securities listed on other exchanges where such securities relate to the ASX-listed securities. The Fund typically holds between 25-60 stocks with a maximum net targeted position of an individual stock of 6%. |
| Manager Comments | As at the end of August, Bennelong had increased the Fund's weightings in the Discretionary, Health Care, IT, REITs and Financials sectors, and decreased its weightings in the Consumer Staples, Industrials and Materials sectors. The Fund's cash weightings was increased to 0.9% from 0.4% at the end of the previous month. The Fund aims to invest in high quality companies with strong growth outlooks and underestimated earnings momentum. By comparison with the ASX300 Accumulation Index, the Fund's holdings, on average, have a higher Return on Equity and lower Debt/Equity (Premium Quality), higher sales growth and higher EPS growth (Superior Growth), and higher Price/Earnings and lower dividend yield (Reasonable Valuation). |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Quay Global Real Estate Fund
9 Oct 2018 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Quay Global Real Estate Fund rose +4.4% in August, outperforming its benchmark (FTSE/EPRA NAREIT Developed Index Net TR AUD) by +0.6%. Since inception in July 2014, the Fund has returned +15.35% per annum.
Read more...
9 Oct 2018 - Performance Report: Quay Global Real Estate Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The Fund will invest in a number of global listed real estate companies, groups or funds. The investment strategy is to make investments in real estate securities at a price that will deliver a real, after inflation, total return of 5% per annum (before costs and fees), inclusive of distributions over a longer-term period. The Investment Strategy is indifferent to the constraints of any index benchmarks and is relatively concentrated in its number of investments. The Fund is expected to own between 20 and 40 securities, and from time to time up to 20% of the portfolio maybe invested in cash. The Fund is $A un-hedged. |
| Manager Comments | Top contributors included LEG Immobilien (German Residential) and Ventas Inc (US Health). Key detractors included Safestore (European Storage) and Wharf REIC (Hong Kong Retail). Quay noted fear that the strength of the USD (and therefore HKD) would curtail inbound tourism, and therefore retail spending, had a negative impact on the Fund's Hong Kong exposure. Quay also noted, with reporting season over, that they were pleased their investees' results and outlooks were generally in line with their expectations. In their latest report they detail their views on Scentre Group's reported results; their view is that Scentre was oversold and, as a result, Quay took advantage and increased their position. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Wheelhouse Global Equities Income Fund
5 Oct 2018 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Wheelhouse Global Equities Income Fund rose +4.61% in August, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +3.19% and taking 12-month performance to +20.73%.
Read more...
5 Oct 2018 - Performance Report: Wheelhouse Global Equities Income Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | To pursue this objective, the Investment Manager is responsible for actively managing, monitoring and tailoring the integration of derivative contracts alongside the Morningstar Portfolio, while taking into account changing market and stock specific conditions. The Investment Manager is responsible for maximising the structural benefits of short option positions (lowered Volatility, improved capital preservation, higher income generation), whilst mitigating, minimising and monitoring the structural negatives (variable market exposure, option expiries, collateral management and asymmetric return profiles). In addition, long derivatives positions are also used to enhance the capital preservation characteristics of the Fund in more extreme market movements. As a consequence of the integration of Derivatives, returns of the strategy, intra-cycle, are expected to vary from the underlying Morningstar Portfolio due to these characteristics. For example in weak markets, or in extended sideways markets, the Fund is expected to outperform relative to the Morningstar Portfolio. Conversely in strong positive markets the Fund is expected to underperform. |
| Manager Comments | The Manager noted August's return comprised a return of +1.77% from the portfolio (in USD) and a positive return of +2.84% from the strengthening of the Australian dollar versus the US dollar. Top contributors included Guidewire Software, Veeva Systems, Amazon, Salesforce and Express Scripts. Detractors included Nabtesco Corp, Transdigm Group, Microchip Technology, Hoshizaki and Compass Minerals. |
| More Information |
Performance Report: Frazis Fund
4 Oct 2018 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Frazis Fund rose +1.63% in August, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +0.21%.
Read more...
4 Oct 2018 - Performance Report: Frazis Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
| Report Date | |
| Manager | |
| Fund Name | |
| Strategy | |
| Latest Return Date | |
| Latest Return | |
| Latest 6 Months | |
| Latest 12 Months | |
| Latest 24 Months (pa) | |
| Annualised Since Inception | |
| Inception Date | |
| FUM (millions) | |
| Fund Overview | The manager follows a disciplined, process-driven, and thematic strategy focused on five core investment strategies: 1) Growth stocks that are really value stocks; 2) Traditional deep value; 3) The life sciences; 4) Miners and drillers expanding production into supply deficits; 5) Global special situations; The manager uses a macro overlay to manage exposure, hedging in three ways: 1) Direct shorts 2) Upside exposure to the VIX index 3) Index optionality |
| Manager Comments | In August, the Manager sold out of Xero and the UK land developers. Frazis believe Xero has considerable pricing power but believe it to be better to sell and buy cheaper companies that are growing faster. They also allocated to iQiyi, Weibo and Alibaba, reasons for which are given in their latest report. In addition, they added a genetic testing company growing at over 150% per annum; Frazis believe the market for genetic testing has barely been scratched. Finally, Frazis added portfolio hedges in emerging markets in August. The Manager noted they have conducted most of their hedging in the United States where markets are most liquid. They noted this period of outperformance of the United States, and bear markets in many places elsewhere, squeezed the Fund on both sides of the trade. Going forward, Frazis aim to better match their hedging with their exposure, whilst maintaining their usual VIX and index protection. |
| More Information |
