NEWS
Insync Global Titans Fund
1 Feb 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund rose 2.76% in December, compared to the MSCI All Country World ex-Australia Net Total Return Index in $A, which returned 4.2%.
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1 Feb 2017 - 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 performance was driven by positive contributions from the holdings in eBay, BAT, Nestle and Microsoft Corp. The main negative contributors were Gilead Sciences, Oracle and S&P Global. 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. Over 50% of the Fund is currently protected using the put protection strategy. |
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Fund Review: QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund December 2016
31 Jan 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review is now available on QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund, investing exclusively in S&P/ASX 100 stocks.
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31 Jan 2017 - Fund Review: QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund December 2016
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - December 2016 (pdf format)
QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- Qato Capital is a Melbourne-based boutique fund manager backed by single family office, Larkfield Funds Management.
- Qato has a systematic, market-neutral strategy which invests exclusively in S&P/ASX 100 stocks.
- The QATO Capital's Q-score process captures and quantifies six broad fundamental factors, which assess multiple underlying sub-categories. Those companies with the top score (quality companies) are included in the "long" portfolio, those with the lowest score are sold short.
- The Fund seeks to preserve capital and maximises absolute returns through active and constant risk management, targeting monthly a net market exposure of 0% to hedge broader market risks through S&P/ASX-100 positions. In a typical environment, the Fund targets 25 long and 25 short positions.
- Qato Capital's process is systematic - stock selection and risk management are employed in a rules-based approach. The Fund employs no financial leverage/gearing to purchase securities, no derivatives, and no financial products to imitate leverage.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
AFM Fund Review - December 2016 (pdf format)
Pengana Global Small Companies Fund
30 Jan 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Global Small Companies Fund generated 2.60% in December 2016, compared to a 3.7% return for the MSCI AC World SMID Cap Index.
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30 Jan 2017 - Pengana Global Small Companies Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund is managed by Founder & CIO Leah Zell, and Portfolio Managers Jon Moog and David Li. The Lizard investment team have over 50 years combined investment experience in global small cap investing. Leah Zell has over 30 years of experience and is a recognized expert in international investing in the international small-cap category. The Fund's investment team uses a value-oriented investment approach to small and mid-cap global equities that seeks to identify and invest in quality businesses that create significant value but are mispriced, overlooked or out-of-favour. The investment manager believes that unique opportunities exist due to limited available research, corporate actions or unfavourable investor perception. The portfolio construction process aims to develop portfolios that incorporate the best investment ideas from the investment manager's research while allowing for liquidity constraints and perceived risk. The Fund's investment manager will not typically hedge currency exposures, however during periods of currency extremes, some currency hedging may be employed. Derivatives may be used to achieve long or short exposures, reduce risk and reduce transaction costs. Derivatives will not be used for the purposes of leverage and the Fund's net exposure will never be short. |
| Manager Comments | The top positive contributors for the month were boohoo.com Plc, CarMax Inc., KRUK S.A., PRA Group Inc. and Wizz Air Holdings Plc. However, positions in 51job Inc, Broadleaf Co Ltd, Credito Real S.A. de C.V., Halogen Software, Inc. and Hostelworld Group Plc detracted from the performance. At month-end, the Fund's top 10 holdings accounted for 34.3% of the Fund's assets, with no single name representing more than 5% of the Fund. Cash represented 14.4% of the Fund. |
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Collins St Value Fund
27 Jan 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Collins Street Value Fund rose 0.89% in December, to take the latest 6 months return to 20.62%.
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27 Jan 2017 - Collins St Value Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The managers of the fund intend to maintain a concentrated portfolio of investments in ASX listed companies that they have investigated and consider to be undervalued. They will assess the attractiveness of potential investments using a number of common industry based measured, a proprietary in-house model and by speaking with management, industry experts and competitors. Once the managers form a view that an investment offers sufficient upside potential relative to the downside risk, the fund will seek to make an investment. If no appropriate investment can be identified the managers are prepared to hold cash and wait for the right opportunities to present themselves. |
| Manager Comments | Click below to learn more about the Fund and read its latest quarterly report. |
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Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund December 2016
27 Jan 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
December 2016 Fund Review is now available on Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund which has an annualised return of 16.14% p.a.
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27 Jan 2017 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund December 2016
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - December 2016 (pdf format)
BENNELONG LONG SHORT EQUITY FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund.
- The Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large large-caps from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with over fourteen-year track record and annualised returns of 16.14% p.a.
- The consistent returns across the investment history indicate the Fund's ability to provide positive returns in volatile and negative markets and significantly outperform the broader market. The Fund's Sharpe Ratio and Sortino Ratio are 0.96 and 1.58 respectively.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
AFM Fund Review - December 2016 (pdf format)
MHOR Australian Small Cap Fund
26 Jan 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
MHOR Australian Small Cap Fund rose 5.14%, outperforming the ASX Small Ordinaries Index which returned 3.61%, by 1.53%.
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26 Jan 2017 - MHOR Australian Small Cap Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | MHOR looks for investment that exhibit the following set of characteristics: -Opportunity - to take advantage of growth and positive alignment with industry themes and trends. -Quality business - competitively advantaged product or service offering. -Financial flexibility - appropriately resourced to capture its opportunity. -Management - with the vision and capability to bring it all together. -Fundamentally undervalued. MHOR also considers labour standards, environmental, social and ethical considerations when making investment decisions but only to the extent that these factors impact the assessment of risk or return. There is a high level of risk associated with this fund, therefore the minimum suggested investment timeframe is 3-5 years. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund entered December 2016, with 34 stocks (including 1 unlisted) and just 1.4% as cash, in aims to take advantage of the post-Trump rally. In December, the Fund changed course, with the later part spent preparing the Fund for the upcoming earnings season, steadily de-risking the portfolio into market strength and raising cash. At month end, the Fund had 33 stocks and cash increased to 11.2%. The Fund's largest positive contributions came from Spirit Telecom (ST1), Robo 3D (RBO) and Nextdc (NXT). The only major detractor for the month was Ellex Medical Lasers (ELX). The portfolio continues to have growth bias and has considerable exposure to smaller 'undiscovered' stocks as the team believes these have attractive growth opportunities. Click below to learn more about the Fund. |
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Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund
25 Jan 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund lost -1.38% in December, to take the latest 6 months to 6.74%. The Fund has a low systematic risk (beta) to the ASX 200 and the MSCI World Indices of 0.07 and 0.08 respectively.
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25 Jan 2017 - Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | PanAgora believes the best way to find opportunities in the global markets is to combine fundamental analysis with robust quantitative techniques in order to filter the investment universe and select the investments. The Fund invests primarily in listed equity securities from a global universe of developed markets and a select group of emerging market countries. The Fund's objective is to seek absolute returns by identifying and exploiting multiple inefficiencies that may exist in global equity markets. These inefficiencies are primarily exploited through the use of a long/short equity strategy which aims to construct a portfolio that is generally neutral to market movements. As such the performance of the investment strategy is largely independent of the market's performance. The Fund seeks to achieve its objective by using a diversified set of strategies that have low correlation to one another. In addition, because many of these strategies are designed to generate profit under different market conditions, their combination is expected to result in more stable returns over time than any individual strategy in and of itself. |
| Manager Comments | The December return was largely driven by the US and International long-term models, which contributed -0.78% and -0.48% respectively. The intermediate strategies outperformed modestly, resulting in a total contribution of +0.04% (both the US merger arbitrage and the US share class arbitration trades performed strongly). The short-term arbitrage strategies detracted -0.17%. The underperformance of the sleeve was almost exclusively caused by levered ETF trades. |
| More Information |
Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund
25 Jan 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund returned +2.62% in December to take the latest 6 months return to 8.42%.
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25 Jan 2017 - Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund is managed as one portfolio but comprises and combines two separately managed exposures: 1. An investment in the top 20 stocks of the markets, which the Fund achieves by taking an indexed position in the S&P/ASX 20 Index; and 2. An investment in the stocks beyond the S&P/ASX 20 Index. This exposure is managed on an active basis using a fundamental core approach. The Fund may also invest in securities expected to be listed on the ASX, securities listed or expected to be listed on other exchanges where such securities relate to ASX-listed securities.Derivative instruments may be used to replicate underlying positions and hedge market and company specific risks. The companies within the portfolio are primarily selected from, but not limited to, the S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index. The Fund typically holds between 40-55 stocks and thus is considered to be highly concentrated. This means that investors should expect to see high short-term volatility. The Fund seeks to achieve growth over the long-term, therefore the minimum suggested investment timeframe is 5 years. |
| Manager Comments | The largest contributors to the year's performance were Fortescue Metals Group, Newcrest, Vocus Communications and Flight Centre. The main detractors included TPG Telecom, Domino's Pizza Enterprises, South32 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. Throughout the year, the Fund trimmed or sold out of a number of high PE names, but maintained positions in companies in which the company fundamentals justified doing so. The investment team remains confident that these fundamentals will dictate returns over the long-term and therefore comfortable with the Fund's holdings. In more general terms, the Fund benefitted from an underweight position in bond proxies, such as REITs, Infrastructure, and Utilities stocks. On the other hand, the Fund's performance was hindered by an overweight exposure to the Healthcare sector, specifically through positions in Ramsay Health Care and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, and from its exposure to the Retail sector, where a number of names held underperformed. |
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King Tide NZ/Australian Long/Short Equity Fund
24 Jan 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
King Tide NZ/Australian Long/Short Equity Fund returned -0.64% in December and +19.17% over the latest 24 months.
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24 Jan 2017 - King Tide NZ/Australian Long/Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund seeks to outperform the market with less volatility than the market by allocating capital to a select group of eight to sixteen funds whose investment mandates allow them to use short selling of equities and equity indices, to use derivatives to manage risk, to use leverage and to hold large amounts of cash. In-depth proprietary research is used to select and monitor fund managers with particular emphasis on their ability to manage equity market risk through stock selection, short selling and the use of derivatives and cash. |
| Manager Comments | However, LHC was hit by two very large downgrades in two of core its positions; Sirtex and Mayne Pharma which fell 50% and 16% respectively, resulting in a -9.7% fall in the fund. Paragon, Wavestone, Monash, Smallco and Wilson all rose less than 1%, while Bennelong Long/Short, from which the Fund has now fully redeemed, fell -3.2%. The Listed Investment Company (LIC) 8EC's share price was down -0.5% despite their underlying portfolio gaining 2%. The two PIE funds (NZ based funds) were weaker but performed better than the sector once again in 2016. The Fund is considering a couple of funds and plans on adding one new underlying manager on February 1, bringing the total to 16. |
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Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund December 2016
24 Jan 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review is now available on Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund, which has an annualised return of 8.56% p.a.
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24 Jan 2017 - Fund Review Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund December 2016
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - December 2016 (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 8.56% p.a., compared to the MSCI ACWI Asia Pacific Price Index's return of 2.86% p.a.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
AFM Fund Review - December 2016 (pdf format)
