Performance Report: Pengana Australian Equities Core Fund

15 Dec 2009 - Australian Fund Monitors

Pengana\\'s Australian Equities Core Fund posted a gain of 1.0% in November, in part due to rising precious metal prices. Holdings in Aquarius Platinum, Lihir Gold and Sino Gold all made positive contributions, along with industrial...

Performance Report: Austral Equity Fund

9 Dec 2009 - Australian Fund Monitors

The Austral Equity Fund finished the month up 0.78%, mainly attributed to a moderate increase in the value of its interest rate securities holdings and equity long positions.

Performance Report: CSL Active Long/Short Programme

9 Dec 2009 - Australian Fund Monitors

Commodity Strategies' Long Short Fund posted an impressive 4.28% return in November. Metals including gold, silver and platinum were the main positive contributors

Performance Report: AR Capital - Ascot Fund

9 Dec 2009 - Australian Fund Monitors

AR Capital's Ascot Fund returned a positive 0.15% for the month as the fund was caught out with a conservative stance while waiting for events in the middle east to play out, so missing out on the almost 3% upward swing on November 30.

Performance Report: Regal Tasman Market Neutral Fund

9 Dec 2009 - Australian Fund Monitors

Regal's Tasman Market Neutral Fund finished November up 2.7%, making profits on both long and short positions.

9 Dec 2009 - Performance Report: Regal Tasman Market Neutral Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	08 December 2009
Manager	Regal Funds Management
Fund Name	Regal Tasman Market Neutral Fund
Strategy	Equity Market Neutral
Latest Return Date	November 2009
Latest Return	2.70%
Latest 6 Months	44.02%
Latest 12 Months	48.18%
Latest 24 Months	40.51%
Annualised Since Inception	25.08%
Inception Date	03 May 2007
FUM (millions)	AU$21
Fund Overview	The Tasman Market Neutral Fund aims to maximise returns with only moderate risk and little correlation to equity markets. Investments are usually based on fundamental research and may be held for months or years. Hedging is usually achieved through single stock exposures. The fund aims to limit the volatility of returns to less than 15% pa and maintains a beta neutral portfolio. Risk limits (stock, sector, liquidity, systematic etc) are maintained to help achieve the volatility target. Most of the investments are in Australia but investments are also made in other countries on an opportunistic basis (mainly in Europe and no emerging markets).
Manager Comments	Regal's Tasman Market Neutral Fund finished November up 2.7%, making profits on both long and short positions. Stocks experiencing corporate actions were the biggest winners on the long side. These included Sino Gold which is in the process of being taken over by El Dorado, Village which completed a large buyback, and the mining company Indophil which has been in takeover talks. On the short side the best performers were overvalued cyclicals such as Bluescope Steel and Brambles. Profit was also made on fund managers Perpetual and Platinum whose share prices may have increased too much and too quickly. The main loss in the month was BBI which had been a big winner for the fund in October, but fell when preference shares were converted to ordinary shares as part of a recapitalisation process.
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Performance Report: Bennelong Securities Long Short Equity Fund

9 Dec 2009 - Australian Fund Monitors

Bennelong's Long Short Equity Fund performed well in November, gaining 1.71%. However the manager said performance was adversely impacted late in the month by large volatility swings in world makets due to Dubai related credit issues.

November absolute return and hedge fund review

3 Dec 2009 - Australian Fund Monitors

Australian Fund Monitors has just released the November Absolute Return and Hedge Fund Review. Results for October were generally flat, but this still represents outperformance of around 2% when compared with equity markets.

Performance Report: BlackRock Asset Allocation Alpha Fund (Class D)

24 Nov 2009 - Australian Fund Monitors

Blackrock's Asset Allocation Fund gained 0.51% in October and is up 10.6% over the last 12 months. The manager says that major contributors to performance have been the Equity/Equity Strategy

24 Nov 2009 - Performance Report: BlackRock Asset Allocation Alpha Fund (Class D)

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	23 November 2009
Manager	BlackRock Investment Management (Australia)
Fund Name	BlackRock Asset Allocation Alpha Fund (Class D)
Strategy	Global Macro
Latest Return Date	October 2009
Latest Return	0.51%
Latest 6 Months	5.16%
Latest 12 Months	10.66%
Latest 24 Months	52.45%
Annualised Since Inception	20.26%
Inception Date	29 May 2006
FUM (millions)	AU$199
Fund Overview	The Fund implements tactical asset allocation strategies. The strategies adopted are thematic, concentrating on exploiting trends, likely developments and mis-pricing in global asset markets. The fund's objective is to maximise total returns by implementing a diverse range of global tactical asset allocation strategies within a flexible but disciplined risk management framework.
Manager Comments	Blackrock's Asset Allocation Fund gained 0.51% in October and is up 10.6% over the last 12 months. The manager says that major contributors to performance have been the Equity/Equity Strategy (primarily reflecting long US energy sector vs S&P 500 and long Nasdaq vs US small cap), FX Strategy (primarily reflecting long AUD vs USD and Euro, long Brazilian Real vs USD and Euro) and the Commodity/Cash strategy (long gold). Looking ahead, the manager believes there is still some way to go before it is worth worrying about either a relapse into recession or a sustained period of insipid economic growth. The manager says it is too early to expect any meaningful tightening of policy in the major economies due to massive output gaps and falling core inflation. “Central banks in the major developed countries continue to re-affirm that extreme settings are expected to remain warranted for an ‘extended period’. And governments are very unlikely to tighten fiscal policy while the labour market remains so weak and government bond markets remain well supported. As we have argued before this is the ‘sweet spot’ of the economic cycle for equities and risk assets more broadly.”
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Performance Report: AUI Wingate Global Equity Income Fund

24 Nov 2009 - Australian Fund Monitors

The Wingate Global Equity Income Fund saw a small loss of 1.15% in October and over the last year remains down 2.18%. However this is significantly better than the fund's benchmark

24 Nov 2009 - Performance Report: AUI Wingate Global Equity Income Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	23 November 2009
Manager	Wingate Investment Managers
Fund Name	AUI Wingate Global Equity Income Fund
Strategy	Equity Income
Latest Return Date	October 2009
Latest Return	-1.15%
Latest 6 Months	-0.08%
Latest 12 Months	-2.18%
Latest 24 Months	-15.79%
Annualised Since Inception	3.89%
Inception Date	01 October 2005
FUM (millions)	AU$42
Fund Overview	The Wingate Global Equity Income Fund is a specialised global equities Fund investing in large cap, high quality companies using an investment process designed to reduce risk and generate income. The Fund primarily invests in global equities, either directly or via derivatives, to generate income from dividends and option premiums, and capital growth. Preservation of investors' capital is an overriding priority. The Fund typically has between 14 and 40 holdings (stock and options) and can invest 100% of its assets in international equities. The Fund restricts exposure to any individual company to a maximum of 15% of the net assets of the Fund.
Manager Comments	The Wingate Global Equity Income Fund saw a small loss of 1.15% in October and over the last year remains down 2.18%. However this is significantly better than the fund's benchmark MSCI World (ex Australia) which fell 4.14% in the month and is down 14.53% over the last 12 months. The manager said that a significant performance headwind for both the fund and its benchmark was generated by a combination of the weak equity market and stronger Australian dollar. Major contributors to the fund's performance included oil and gas companies BP and ConocoPhillips on the back of strong earnings announcements. During the month the manager increased exposure to McDonalds as well as two healthcare equipment providers, CR Bard and Becton Dickinson, all of which the manager believes exhibit attractive valuations, well established market positions and strong cash flows.
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Performance Report: Apostle Loomis Sayles Credit Opportunities Fund

24 Nov 2009 - Australian Fund Monitors

Apostle's Loomis Sayles Credit Opportunities Fund was up 1.07% for the month, bringing their return for the year to 28.25%, although looking at the last two years the fund is still down 3.69%.

24 Nov 2009 - Performance Report: Apostle Loomis Sayles Credit Opportunities Fund

By: Australian Fund Monitors

Report Date	23 November 2009
Manager	Apostle Asset Management
Fund Name	Apostle Loomis Sayles Credit Opportunities Fund
Strategy	Credit
Latest Return Date	October 2009
Latest Return	1.13%
Latest 6 Months	16.45%
Latest 12 Months	28.25%
Latest 24 Months	-3.69%
Annualised Since Inception	1.21%
Inception Date	22 December 2005
FUM (millions)	AU$691
Fund Overview	The Apostle Loomis Sayles Credit Opportunities Fund's investment objective is to seek to outperform three month US Dollar LIBOR by 400 basis points per annum (net of fees) over a market cycle. The Fund aims to achieve its objective by tactically rotating the investment allocation between Senior Loans and Global High Yield Securities. The Fund offers an alternative that heavily weights (generally at a level of 80%) either Senior Loans or Global High Yield Securities depending on global economic conditions and valuations. The allocation process is augmented by the Investment Manager's emphasis on bottom-up, credit research-driven issue selection with awareness of the macro-economic environment.
Manager Comments	Apostle's Loomis Sayles Credit Opportunities Fund was up 1.07% for the month, bringing their return for the year to 28.25%, although looking at the last two years the fund is still down 3.69%. The fund moved to a 50/50 split between Bank Loans and riskier High Yield loans in July. Since then the High Yield portion has sisnificantly outperformed the Bank Loans which the manager says is consistent with broad market trends. The manager expressed concern about an apparent disparity between the real economy and investment markets. \'In the real economy, unemployment is rising (reducing consumer expenditures) and banks are not lending at a torrid pace to real businesses. Home prices will not likely find a floor until mid-2010 and commercial real estate seems to be in decline. Meanwhile, investment cash returns are essentially zero and has been flowing in high volume towards anything easily buyable: stocks, bonds, and commodities. This disparity is unsustainable, in our opinion. We worry that it will take so much time for the real economy to show real strength that a significant number of overlevered credits will default. Our scepticism continues to drive our portfolio construction.\'
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Fund Monitors Pty Ltd

News

15 Dec 2009 - Performance Report: Pengana Australian Equities Core Fund

9 Dec 2009 - Performance Report: Austral Equity Fund

9 Dec 2009 - Performance Report: CSL Active Long/Short Programme

9 Dec 2009 - Performance Report: AR Capital - Ascot Fund

9 Dec 2009 - Performance Report: Regal Tasman Market Neutral Fund

9 Dec 2009 - Performance Report: Bennelong Securities Long Short Equity Fund

3 Dec 2009 - November absolute return and hedge fund review

24 Nov 2009 - Performance Report: BlackRock Asset Allocation Alpha Fund (Class D)

24 Nov 2009 - Performance Report: AUI Wingate Global Equity Income Fund

24 Nov 2009 - Performance Report: Apostle Loomis Sayles Credit Opportunities Fund

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