News
Insync Global Titans Fund
3 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Insync Global Titans Fund returned 6.6% in July, outperforming its benchmark MSCI All Country World ex-Australia Net Total Return Index ($A) by 1.0%.
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3 Sep 2015 - Insync Global Titans 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's performance was fairly broadly based across the portfolio, with the biggest positive contributions coming from their holdings in eBay, Reckitt Benckiser, Sanofi, BAT and Medtronic. A small negative contribution came from their holding in Zimmer. 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. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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Fund Review: Supervised High Yield Fund July 2015
2 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Fund review on Supervised High Yield Fund, which is a fixed income fund, is now available.
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2 Sep 2015 - Fund Review: Supervised High Yield Fund July 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Supervised High Yield Fund AFM Review July 2015 (pdf format)
SUPERVISED HIGH YIELD FUND
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund:
- The Supervised High Yield Fund (SHYF) has a 6 year track record investing in fixed interest investments. The Investment strategy aims to deliver returns with zero correlation to equity markets by investing in debt securities with minimal default probability and offering a premium return above the risk free rate.
- The Fund is managed by Philip Carden whose experience in debt and capital markets spans over 32years, including time with JB Were's Capel Court Securities and Macquarie Bank, where he was the Executive Director responsible for the Debt Markets Division.
- SHYF is an Alternative Income fund which invests in Global and Australian debt markets, with all foreign currency receivables hedged back to Australian dollars.
- The Fund utilises a top down analysis of the economic environment and market to screen and identify debt market opportunities which it believes offer low risk with high yield. The next stage is the development of a risk matrix and investment strategy, following which detailed research is undertaken on specific investment opportunities which meet the pre-defined criteria established in the investment strategy.
- Prior to approving an investment for the Fund each potential investment is subject to two stress tests. The first of these is for credit and default risk, in which the investment is stress-tested to ensure that in a worst case economic environment it can repay 100% of its principal and interest obligations case scenario for the asset by examining the highest margin over the risk rate that the investment has previously experienced in a crisis situation. Any decline in value under the stress test that exceeds 10% of the Fund's value is avoided The second test examines market risk. In this case Carden looks at the worst case scenario for the asset by examining the highest margin over the risk rate that the investment has previously experienced in a crisis situation. Any decline in value under the stress test that exceeds 10% of the Fund's value is avoided.
Supervised High Yield Fund AFM Review July 2015 (pdf format)
Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund July 2015
1 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 10.63% p.a.
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1 Sep 2015 - Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund July 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: July 2015 (pdf format)
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 10.63% p.a., compared to the AFM's Asia Pacific Index of 6.62%. The Fund has achieved this with lower volatility of 5.84% (Index 11.85%).
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Fund Review: July 2015 (pdf format)
Freehold Absolute Return Fund
1 Sep 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Freehold Absolute Return Fund delivered a positive 1.45% return for the month of July.
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1 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 July were Westfield Group, Sydney Airport and Macquarie Atlas. Negative Contributors were Bunnings Warehouse, Asciano and Aurizon. Over June and July the AREIT market returned +1.3% whilst the broader equities market declined 1.1%. The Fund returned +3.3% over the same period with considerably lower volatility. Click below to view the latest Fund & Market commentary. |
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Avenir Value Fund
31 Aug 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Avenir Value Fund rose 3.3% for the month of July, to bring the Fund's annualised performance since inception to 15.19% p.a.
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31 Aug 2015 - Avenir Value Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund will invest in securities where Avenir believes the company is simply mis-priced and deeply undervalued and offers significant potential for revaluation. The Fund will also invest in companies that are subject to specific corporate events such as mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, recapitalisations, spin-offs, demergers, management change, distressed situations, and other sharply delineated corporate events. The Fund will also selectively invest in short positions in companies where Avenir believes the company is significantly overvalued or where the company's business model is broken or structurally challenged. |
| Manager Comments | At month-end, the Fund's geographical exposure was 54.4% in US, 13.9% in Asia, 10.6% in Western Europe, 3.9% in other and rest 17.2% as cash. The portfolio concentration in the top 10 holdings were 61% of NAV. Click below to view the July 2015 Fund Report. |
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Totus Alpha Fund
31 Aug 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund was up 12.2% net of fees in July, being the Fund's best monthly performance since 2013.
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31 Aug 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 the end of July, the Fund had a net exposure of 37.5% and a gross exposure of 261.0%. The Fund was diversified across a number investment themes and geographies with 114 positions (53 long and 61 short).No single position contributed more than 1% to the July performance. Top contributors in July were their short positions in LNG +0.95% (promoter) and Newcrest +0.72% (Gold). A long position in CSL added +0.64% (USD Beneficiary). The biggest detractors were the short positions in S&P Futures -0.65%, G8 Education -0.27% (Promoter) and Nanosonics -0.24% (Earnings Risk). Click below to read the latest Fund's Monthly Report. |
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Supervised High Yield Fund
28 Aug 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Supervised High Yield Fund rose 0.47% in July, to bring annualised performance since inception to 10.06% p.a.
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28 Aug 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) 66.29%. The rest of the portfolio composition was in the US Corporate Loans at 22.06%, Cash at 7.45% and AUD Corporate Loans at 4.20%. Click below to view the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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Laminar Credit Opportunities Fund
28 Aug 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Laminar Credit Opportunities Fund returned 0.48% over the month of July, delivered 7.58% over the past 12 months.
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28 Aug 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 low weighted average credit duration (1.87 years as at July 31)/ The Fund Manager expects this low credit duration should help avoid significant volatility going forward, which could seen when the US Federal Reserve raise rates. In July, majority of the Fund's portfolio composition was in Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) at 69% and Short-dated loans at 19%. Click on the link below to read the latest Fund Manager's Report. |
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Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund July 2015
27 Aug 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest fund review now available on the Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund, which has one of the most risk averse Key Performance Statistics of any fund in AFM's database.
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27 Aug 2015 - Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund July 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AURORA FORTITUDE ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- 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 85% of monthly performances have been positive with no losing months in 2008, the Fund's largest drawdown is -2.09% and the Sharpe ratio 1.07.
- 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.
APN Asian REIT Fund
27 Aug 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
APN Asian REIT Fund rose 2.13% for the month July 2015.
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27 Aug 2015 - APN Asian REIT Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | 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 likely 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 under-performed the Bloomberg Asian REIT Index (Index) by 0.03%. Over the month, the top detractor contributing to the Fund's under-performance was their underweight position on Link REIT, which is the biggest constituent of the Index.The Fund had over 37% invested in the Retail REITs section and over 37% in Japan, geographically. Click below to read the latest Fund's July commentary. |
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