WaveStone Capital Absolute Return Fund

27 Feb 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors

Wavestone delivers 3.95% over the month, a difficult month for absolute return funds, and 22.2% over the year ended January 2013.

27 Feb 2013 - WaveStone Capital Absolute Return Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	26 February 2013
Manager	WaveStone Capital
Fund Name	WaveStone Capital Absolute Return Fund
Strategy	Equity Long/Short
Latest Return Date	January 2013
Latest Return	3.95%
Latest 6 Months	19.20%
Latest 12 Months	22.16%
Latest 24 Months	18.67%
Annualised Since Inception	11.41%
Inception Date	01 September 2006
FUM (millions)	US$76.4
Fund Overview	WaveStone Capital Absolute Return Fund is a long/ short equity fund that focuses exclusively on the Australian and New Zealand markets. WaveStone identifies businesses with 'superior corporate DNA' operating within favourable industry dynamics that deliver above-market earnings growth, and exploit inefficiencies whereby the market mis-prices the underlying medium- to long-term earnings potential. Typically, the companies selected will be those that are prudently financed, well managed and have a track record.
Manager Comments	Wavestone delivers 3.95% in January 2013, a difficult month for absolute return funds, and 22.2% for the previous 12 months. The manager reported stabilising influences across share markets over the month with diminishing global tail risks. The US fiscal ‘cliff’ was avoided, Japan announced a strong stimulus package and Chinese Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data was pleasingly robust. Commodity markets continued their improvement with a 2.5% price rise in Australia’s basket of exports. However domestic economic data continues to lag the rest of the world with flat building approvals, a small rise in the unemployment rate, largely unchanged consumer sentiment and modest capital spending by corporates. Despite the weak environment, industrial shares have been in a bull-market since June last year with mining and resource-linked shares joining in as the iron ore price rebounded from October. Cheaper money, excess liquidity, attractive dividend yields and now finally the prospect of some earnings per share growth has assisted momentum. Within the fund the better performers for the month were Magellan, News Corporation and ANZ, while detractors included Sirtex, Sydney Airport and PanAust. Most of the short positions detracted over the period. Some profits were harvested in winning positions of the past six months including Sirtex and Ainsworth, as elevated portfolio positions were trimmed to more appropriate levels. The manager also reduced some stock specific short positions on the view that the market would turn its attention towards lagging stocks. At month-end, exposures were long 118.9%, short 22.9% and net long 96.0%
More Information	» View detailed profile of this fund

Magellan Global Fund

26 Feb 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors

The Magellan Global Fund delivers 4.8% during January and 28.3% over 12 months, easily out-performing its MSCI benchmark.

Pimco EQT Wholesale Global Bond Fund

25 Feb 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors

The Pimco EQT Wholesale Global Bond Fund delivers 0.25% for January and 12.18% for the preceding 12 months, a solid return in difficult fixed interest environment.

25 Feb 2013 - Pimco EQT Wholesale Global Bond Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	20 February 2013
Manager	Pimco
Fund Name	Pimco EQT Wholesale Global Bond Fund
Strategy	Fixed Income
Latest Return Date	January 2013
Latest Return	0.25%
Latest 6 Months	4.80%
Latest 12 Months	12.18%
Latest 24 Months	23.84%
Annualised Since Inception	8.35%
Inception Date	31 July 1998
FUM (millions)	AU$3031
Fund Overview	The investment objective of the Fund is to maximise total returns by investing in global fixed interest securities and to seek to preserve capital through prudent investment management. In pursuing the Fund's investment objective, PIMCO applies a range of strategies including Duration analysis, Credit Analysis, Relative Value analysis, Sector Allocation and Rotation and security selection. PIMCO's investment strategy includes active decision making with a long-term focus and seeks to avoid extreme swings in Duration or Maturity with a view to creating a steady stream of returns. PIMCO concentrates on two sources of return: - Sector Allocation and Rotation; and - 'Bottom up' Credit Analysis of individual bonds and issuers.
Manager Comments	The Pimco EQT Wholesale Global Bond Fund delivered 0.25% during January and 12.18% over the previous 12 months, well ahead of its benchmark the Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Bond Index which delivered 7.87% over the same time frame. The fund benefited from the following strategies; financials, non-Agency mortgages, underweight duration and high yield corporate bonds. Negative returns came from agency mortgage backed securities. In terms of outlook the manager remains concerned regarding fiscal policy, sovereign risk and political events. The portfolio is focused on those sectors likely to benefit from the central- banked induced liquidity rally. Due the very low level of interest rates at the short-end and concern regarding the impact of inflation on the long-end of the curve the fund is concentrating on the inter-mediate sector of the curve. The fund is also concentrating on corporates and quasi-sovereign bonds in countries with strong balance sheets, e.g., Brazil. The fund has a 6% exposure to sub-investment grade, a duration of 5 years and a yield of 6.1%.
More Information	» View detailed profile of this fund

PM Capital Emerging Asia Fund

22 Feb 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors

PM Capital Emerging Asia Fund delivers 4.7% for January and 20.7% for the previous 12 months, well ahead of the MSCI Asia benchmark.

PM CAPITAL Enhanced Yield Fund

21 Feb 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors

The PM Capital Enhanced Yield Fund delivers 0.7% during January and 6.6% over the preceding 12 months, a solid return in a low interest rate environment.

21 Feb 2013 - PM CAPITAL Enhanced Yield Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	22 February 2013
Manager	PM CAPITAL
Fund Name	PM CAPITAL Enhanced Yield Fund
Strategy	Equity Long/Short
Latest Return Date	January 2013
Latest Return	0.70%
Latest 6 Months	3.45%
Latest 12 Months	6.59%
Latest 24 Months	11.40%
Annualised Since Inception	6.89%
Inception Date	01 March 2002
FUM (millions)	AU$295
Fund Overview	PM CAPITAL holds concentrated positions in companies viewed to be substantially mis-priced by the market, expecting the businesses to generate significant returns over a two- to three-year time horizon. The fund aims to invest a significant portion of its assets in higher-yield and/or securities with fully-franked dividends and limited risk of capital loss. The fund will limit its net exposure (gross exposure adjusted for hedging via short positions in stocks and/or futures and option positions) to equity securities to a maximum 20% of portfolio. It is not afraid to hold cash. The investment process is focused on 'buying good businesses at good prices'. It is a research-intensive, bottom-up approach. PM CAPITAL is not a market timer; rather, it aims to deliver superior returns through selective and concentrated long-term investments in undervalued businesses. The fund is managed with an absolute return focus, wary of interest rate and equity market risk, with the majority invested in yield securities and cash.
Manager Comments	The PM Capital Enhanced Yield Fund returned 0.7% over January and 6.6% over the preceding 12 months well above the benchmark RBA Cash Rate over that time of 3.7%. The fund has not had a negative month since September 2011, some 17 months. The manager has noted that credit spreads continued to tighten over January as global stimulus and the stronger US economy fueled confidence and assets moved out of cash into riskier assets. As a result some of the funds investments were sold and rotated into more attractive opportunities. Strong results were recorded from a number of yield securities including APT Pipelines, Tabcorp, Crown and RBS. Buy and write strategies over Google, Applied Materials and MGM contributed. Notably there were no negative contributors for the month. The fund has a very low interest rate duration of 0.2 years and a cash exposure at end-Jan of 31.8% and a 92% allocation to Australia.
More Information	» View detailed profile of this fund

Platinum International Brands Fund

20 Feb 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors

The Platinum International Brands Fund rose 2.44% during January and 26.1% over the preceding 12 months, strongly out-performing the global MSCI ($A) benchmark.

20 Feb 2013 - Platinum International Brands Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	17 February 2013
Manager	Platinum Asset Management
Fund Name	Platinum International Brands Fund
Strategy	Equity Long/Short
Latest Return Date	January 2013
Latest Return	2.44%
Latest 6 Months	21.58%
Latest 12 Months	26.13%
Latest 24 Months	16.83%
Annualised Since Inception	12.58%
Inception Date	18 May 2000
FUM (millions)	AU$826.25
Fund Overview	The Fund primarily invests in companies with well-recognised consumer brand names from around the world. Platinum aims to provide capital growth over the long term. Successful brand management allows a company to earn superior profits from what otherwise might be a commodity. This process entails the creation of an emotional bond between the consumer and the product/product provider which allows the latter to charge a premium price. As such, successful brand owners have a tendency to achieve superior growth and profitability to the purveyors of commodities. The concept behind the Fund is that the process of globalisation, which involves the removal of impediments to ownership, international trade and promotion, will see the emergence of 'mega-brands'. Companies with these strong positions are likely to be able to augment the growth in their relatively mature but stable home markets by tapping faster growth in emerging markets, which are experiencing rising living standards. Alternatively, powerful regional brands can expect to enjoy strong growth and profitability and may even be taken over by global operators on account of the regional brand's local dominance. The portfolio will invest in companies around the world, including producers of luxury goods, other consumer durables, as well as food, beverages, household and personal care products, retailers, and financial services.
Manager Comments	The Platinum International Brands Fund delivered 2.44% over January and 26.1% over the preceding 12 months, a strong out-performance of the MSCI benchmark ($A). The fund achieved the above returns while holding cash and short positions at 24.8% of the fund's value. The manager notes that a number of companies have benefited from the very low interest rates to become more acquisitive. This has assisted some of the Fund's holdings more recently. In addition, the fund is looking to exploit some of the opportunities that are arising in Africa from the rapid increase in consumer spending and flowing from this, demand for luxury brands. Notably the fund has a 71% exposure to the consumer staples and consumer discretionary sectors with little exposure to the other Index components. Investors should keep this exposure in mind as a risk factor. Despite a generally positive outlook the manager remains concerned about periodic volatility deriving from global sovereign debt issues and is therefore likely to continue hold higher levels of cash.
More Information	» View detailed profile of this fund

Platinum Japan Fund - AUD

19 Feb 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors

The Platinum Japan Fund rose 4.66% in January, assisted by moves in the Yen, and is up 21.2% for 12 months, out-performing the buoyant Japanese equity market.

Kapstream Absolute Return Income Fund

18 Feb 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors

Kapstream Absolute Return Income Fund delivers 8.42% over the last 12 months despite low global interest rates.

18 Feb 2013 - Kapstream Absolute Return Income Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	17 February 2013
Manager	Kapstream Capital
Fund Name	Kapstream Absolute Return Income Fund
Strategy	Fixed Income
Latest Return Date	January 2013
Latest Return	0.46%
Latest 6 Months	4.38%
Latest 12 Months	8.42%
Latest 24 Months	14.63%
Annualised Since Inception	6.52%
Inception Date	31 May 2007
FUM (millions)	AU$1295
Fund Overview	Kapstream will actively manage the Fund and aims to generate absolute returns over multiple business cycles by incorporating high quality/high conviction trades into the portfolio. Capital preservation coupled with income generation serve as the driving force behind Kapstream's investment strategy. Kapstream draws on information from many sources such as economic roundtables, investment banks, brokers, rating agencies and central banks. Kapstream employs a rigorous evaluation process for individual trades, first confirming that a prospective trade meets Kapstream's global macroeconomic view, then taking account of various decision variables such as duration, yield curve and volatility which must support the research and analysis.
Manager Comments	The Kapstream Absolute Return Income Fund returned 0.46% during January and 8.42% over the last 12 months,despite very low global interest rates. The manager attributes the good returns to a credit spread rally and a conservative interest-rate position in the portfolio. Other strategy themes include a preference for; floating rate assets to fixed-rate assets on the assumption that monetary policy will tighten at some point, corporate bonds to sovereign bonds and a preference for Asian names and larger allocations to the region. Of interest is that the Fund also favors the debt of Australian/Asian and US financials. In Australia, the fund holds the debt of the big 4 banks including senior debt and lower Tier 1 and Tier 2 paper. The fund has also taken short positions on the 10 year bonds rates of Australia, Korea and Japan via options. The Manager has a reasonably positive view on the US but remains concerned with respect to the outlook for Europe and, to a lesser degree, Australia.
More Information	» View detailed profile of this fund

Platinum International Fund

15 Feb 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors

Platinum delivers 4.68% during January and up a strong 18.72% over the six months.

Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund

14 Feb 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors

Aurora Fortitude delivers -0.19% during January, a difficult month for absolute return funds.

Fund Monitors Pty Ltd

News

27 Feb 2013 - WaveStone Capital Absolute Return Fund

26 Feb 2013 - Magellan Global Fund

25 Feb 2013 - Pimco EQT Wholesale Global Bond Fund

22 Feb 2013 - PM Capital Emerging Asia Fund

21 Feb 2013 - PM CAPITAL Enhanced Yield Fund

20 Feb 2013 - Platinum International Brands Fund

19 Feb 2013 - Platinum Japan Fund - AUD

18 Feb 2013 - Kapstream Absolute Return Income Fund

15 Feb 2013 - Platinum International Fund

14 Feb 2013 - Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund

Funds Found

Featured Fund