News
Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
17 Jun 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund returned 0.78% during May and 5.79% over the last 12 months.
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17 Jun 2013 - Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund aims to produce positive returns irrespective of the direction of the share market. For each investment the manager considers the risk, the timeline of that risk occurring and then the potential return. Low transaction costs and liquidity are other important factors in the success and implementation of the strategies. |
| Manager Comments | low volatility at 2.84% pa (since inception) as compared to the S&P/ASX 200AI volatility of 14.58%. Despite an official interest rate cut to levels not seen since the 1960's the ASX200 AI fell 4.5% during May and the Australian dollar dropped 7.7% against the US dollar. The major concern appeared to be a slowing Chinese economy and thefollow on effect to Australian economy. Mergers and Acquisitions was the best performing strategy for the month (+0.32%)Long/Short was the only negative performer for the month (0.16%). The strategy consisted of small positions that were predominantly long and hence performed poorly,in line with market conditions. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Insync Global Titans Fund
14 Jun 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Insync Global Titans Fund delivered 4.8% during May bringing its since inception (October 2009) return to 9.5% pa.
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14 Jun 2013 - Insync Global Titans Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | Key positive contributions came from our holdings in Sanofi, Oracle, BAT, GlaxoSmithKline and IBM, with BSkyB being the sole detractor. However, the main driver of the Fund's return in May came from the 7.7% depreciation of the Australian dollar against the US dollar. With the Fund's currency exposure 100% unhedged,the Fund benefited from the AUD's fall (and remains currency unhedged). Despite the strong absolute performance in May, the relative performance of the Fund against the equity benchmark was impacted by the rotation from defensive stocks to financial and cyclical stocks. Insync's philosophy is to invest in the more predictable growth companies and to include downside protection strategies. That has delivered positive absolute returns during previous market downturns. The Fund's average investment market cap is A$103.4bn and the weighted avg forecast dividend yield is 2.97%. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review:Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
14 Jun 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for Morphic Global Opportunities Fund, showing KPI's for May 2013 vs ASX200, Performance (net of fees) and Cumulative Performance since inception.
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14 Jun 2013 - Fund Review:Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
MORPHIC GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Morphic Global Opportunities Fund.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund:
- The Morphic Global Opportunities Fund is an early stage, boutique, Sydney-based fund established in 2012 with experienced CIO's, and an investment team of 6 including a risk manager.
- The Board has a majority of independent members with significant risk and investment experience.
- The Fund is a global equity long/short manager with a long bias and a macro-economic overlay. The mandate allows the Fund to short sell, use derivatives and invest in assets such as commodities & currencies.
- Portfolio construction is stock selection agnostic with a bias to valuebased and momentum strategies. Risk management is a primary consideration in portfolio construction.
- Morphic's philosophy is that only funds with flexible hedging strategies will be able to deliver acceptable, steady, real, absolute returns over the investment cycle.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
13 Jun 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Morphic Global Opportunities Fund recorded 6.77% for May bringing its since inception (Aug 2012) return to 28.7%.
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13 Jun 2013 - Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | Taken as a whole, global stocks in local currency terms were volatile, but largely unchanged by month end. The Australian dollar fell 7.7% against the US dollar. The decision to remain unhedged accounted for all the Fund's gains and a little more. The Fund's top thematic contribution came from a tilt to US financial stocks, led by Wells Fargo and a basket of regional banks. A long-short position in Asian gambling stocks also added performance, as did a basket of stocks expected to benefit from a revival in leverage buyouts. Outside these themes, the largest individual gains came from Irish packaging company Smurfit Kappa; US shoe maker Crocs; Korean cable shopping network GS Home Shopping; US health company Herbalife; Pakistan's Lucky Cement; and US hard disk maker Western Digital. From a macroeconomic perspective, the month saw little improvement in underlying data, but increasing fears about how markets would react to any reduction in the rate of US money printing. The Manager expects nervousness and risk aversion to remain high, and since month end has trimmed net exposure and gone substantially underweight emerging markets. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Allard Investment Fund
12 Jun 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Allard Investment Fund returned 6.30% during May with its twelve month return standing at 14.59%.
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12 Jun 2013 - Allard Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | At the end of May the Fund was 67.3% invested and in terms of country exposures the largest was HK/China 31.4%, followed by Singapore at 13.0% and Korea at 10.3%. In terms of industry exposures the largest was financials at 13.7% followed by conglomerates at 12.4% and telco's at 8.2%. The top ten holdings accounted for 51.8% of the total portfolio. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
11 Jun 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for the Optimal Australia Absolute Trust, showing KPI's for May 2013 vs ASX200 Acc, Performance (net of fees) and Cumulative Performance since inception.
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11 Jun 2013 - Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
By: Australian Fund Monitors
OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA ABSOLUTE FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Optimal Australia Absolute Fund.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund:
- Optimal Australia is a specialist Australian equity investment manager established in 2008.
- The Fund's long/short equity strategy portfolio typically has a low but variable net market exposure comprising 40 to 65 stock broadly selected from within the ASX200.
- The investment team comprising George Colman, Peter Whiting and Stephen Nicholls have close to 90 years combined experience in equity markets.
- Consistent out-performance of the market: Approximately 84 % of monthly performances have been positive with a largest drawdown of -1.38%.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
11 Jun 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Optimal Australia Absolute Trust achieved 1.22% during May with a since inception (Sept '08) return of 11.48% pa.
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11 Jun 2013 - Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's bias is likely to be net long under normal market conditions, with the core strategy being to construct a portfolio of listed equity securities priced at levels that do not adequately reflect their underlying value. The Fund will seek to boost returns and limit potential market downside by selective short selling of individual stocks which are priced at levels that are viewed as materially above their underlying value. The Fund will also use certain trading strategies both within its core portfolio (through rebalancing stock weights and overall market exposure in response to price movements) and in certain other situations (typically of a shorter-duration and/or opportunistic nature) with the objective of further increasing returns. |
| Manager Comments | Major contributors to the Trust's return for the month was driven by a return from both long investments (+0.22% attribution) and shorts (+1.25% attribution). The Australian equity market was very weak in May, finishing down 5.1%. There was a sharp reversal in the pattern of leadership, with the market led down by high-yield defensive and financials, and with the consumer staples and financial sectors both falling by over 9%. A key influence behind this was the decline in the AUD, which fell almost 7% during the month, to USD 0.966. The manager had the view that the AUD 'carry' trade (offshore yield-seeking investment) has worked its way right across the fixed income spectrum and into higher-yield equities. This 'carry' buying, when added to support from retail investors and (largely passive) institutional money flows, meant that way too much money was on this same trade. The result was a number of stocks in the broad yield category trading at valuations that were bewildering (at least to us) on almost any other metric, and the weaker currency in May was the trigger for a decent very decent correction in this group. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
K2 Asian Absolute Return Fund
7 Jun 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The K2 Asian Absolute Return Fund returned 2.38% during April to bring the twelve month performance to 33.82%.
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7 Jun 2013 - K2 Asian Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The Fund's net exposure band has been maintained at 80% to 100%, ending the month at 96%, marginally lower than April. Increasing volatility in recent weeks together with seasonal weakness justifies a wider trading band with respect to the fund's net exposure.With the AUD's substantial fall against the USD total currency gains for the fund were approximately 288bps. Given forward PE valuations remain well below long term averages, the attractiveness of equities remains in place. The longer term question facing the region is how well China responds to the new leadership's shift of growth drivers away from government led stimulus towards a more private sector led economy. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
7 Jun 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund, showing KPI's for May 2013 vs ASX200, Performance (net of fees) and Cumulative Performance since inception.
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7 Jun 2013 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund (pdf format)
http://www.fundmonitors.com/_showfile.php?FID=8361
BENNELONG LONG SHORT EQUITY FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund:
- Research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large cap stocks from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with a ten year track record and annualised net returns of over 20% .
- Portfolio Manager Richard Fish has over 25 years market experience, while Bennelong Funds Management, who have over $3 billion in FUM across various funds, provide infrastructure, operational and compliance functions.
- The Fund's Investment history commenced in January 2002 and has positive annual returns each year, including an 11.95% return in 2008 and 20.6% in 2011, both of which were negative years for the ASX200.
- Consistent returns across the investment history indicates the Fund's ability to provide positive returns in volatile and negative markets and significantly outperform the broader market.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund (pdf format)
Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
6 Jun 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund delivered 0.4% during May and the twelve month return now stands at 18.46%.
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6 Jun 2013 - Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund consists of a concentrated long/short portfolio typically comprising 30 to 40 ASX300 listed stocks, generally with a long bias aligned to the overall market direction. There is a slight bias to large cap stocks in the long side of the portfolio, although in a rising market the portfolio will tend to hold smaller caps, including resource stocks, more frequently. The Fund was launched on 17th August 2011 following the resignation of Portfolio Managers Mark Burgess and Kristiaan Rehder from Herschel Asset Management in late July 2011. While at Herschel Burgess and Rehder had managed the Fund under the name of the Herschel Absolute Return Fund. As a result management of the Fund was transferred to Kardinia Capital, a new boutique fund manager 65% owned by Burgess and Rehder, with the balance owned by Bennelong Funds Management. The Fund's investment strategy and prior track record remains intact. |
| Manager Comments | The Australian equity market (All Ordinaries Accumulation Index) fell 4.39% in May, heavily under-performing its global peers. Following Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony to Congress, equities markets fell on heightened concerns that the FED would wind down the $85 billion per month asset purchase program earlier than expected. Domestic investors rotated away from yield towards foreign currency exposed stocks. A number of profit warnings were announced by domestic cyclicals and companies operating in the mining services sectors. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
