NEWS
KIS Asia Long Short Fund
29 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
KIS Asia Long Short Fund rose 1.14% during May, to bring the Fund's annual return since inception to 15.47% p.a.
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29 Jun 2015 - KIS Asia Long Short Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Whilst the Fund's primary strategy is focused on long/short equities, the ability to retain discretionary powers to allocate across a number of other investment strategies is reserved. These strategies may include, but not be limited to: convertible bond investments, portfolio hedging, equity related arbitrage, special situations (e.g. merger arbitrage, rights offerings, participation in international public offerings and placements, etc.). The Fund's geographic focus is Asia excluding Japan, but including Australia). The Fund may invest outside of this region to the extent that: 1. The investment decision is driven from the Asian region or; 2. The exposure is intended to mitigate risk or enhance return from factors external to the Asian region. |
| Manager Comments | Majority of the month's return came from the Long Short Strategy, contributing 119bp. On a geographic basis, HK & China and Australia were the strongest contributors generating 107bp and 70bp respectively. The Fund had positive returns across all market caps: large-cap 33bp, mid-cap 39bp and small-cap 62bp. The Fund lost 15bp using indices to hedge the long biases of +5% of AUM in mid-caps and +21% of AUM in small-caps. Across all market cap segments including index, the Fund's average net bias over the month was +4% of AUM. Click below to read the Fund Manager's monthly commentary. |
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Freehold Absolute Return Fund
26 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Freehold Absolute Return Fund returned -1.77% in May, to bring Fund's annual return since inception to 17.48% p.a., compared to the ASX200 Accumulation Index's 15.15% p.a.
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26 Jun 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 Fund returns were negatively impacted by the mild short position as well as a mean reversion in some of the positions that performed well over April. Some positive contributors in the portfolio were Bunnings Warehouse, Aurizon Group and APN Property Group. Negative contributors were Westfield Group, SCA Property Group and Goodman Group. In May, the Fund had 10-15 stock positions with estimated gross exposure of 80% and net position of 10%. Currently, the Fund is holding a slight short bias on the expectations of a mild correction on the back of sharply rising bond yields, generally a negative for the real estate and infrastructure sectors. Click below to read the latest Report on the Fund's performance. |
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Laminar Credit Opportunities Fund
26 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Laminar Credit Opportunities Fund returned 0.65% over the month of May, bringing its annual performance since inception to 18.96% per annum.
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26 Jun 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 | The Fund believes that volatility in interest rates markets is likely to rise over the next couple of year as the US Federal Reserve starts to raise its cash rate. Funds with interest rate exposure will experience negative returns. The Fund which only has exposure to the credit markets (it has a credit duration of around 2 years) should avoid this volatility. Majority of the Fund's portfolio composition was in Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) at 69% and Short-dated loans at 20%. Click on the link below to read the latest Fund Manager's Report. |
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QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund
25 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Since inception (August 2014), QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund has returned 37.93%.
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25 Jun 2015 - QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund targets a net market exposure of 0% to hedge broader market risks through 30 S&P/ASX-100 positions (15 long and 15 short equally weighted positions). The turnover is generally averaged around 30% of the total portfolio each month. The process is entirely systematic - stock selection and risk management are all employed in a rules based approach. The Market Neutral Long/Short Fund employs no financial leverage, no derivatives and no financial products to imitate leverage. The Investment Manager's three principal investment goals for the Fund are: 1. Market neutral long/short portfolio management with little correlation to equity markets; 2. Over a 3-5 year period, seeking to target annualised volatility of 15% per annum and annualised returns of 15-30% per annum above the Benchmark; Sharpe Ratio 1.0-2.0 and a negative beta to ASX listed equities; and 3. To provide investors with a co-investment opportunity alongside the founding members' investments in the Investment Manager's strategy. |
| Manager Comments | Continuing on from last month, market volatility continued to increase. The range of highs and lows on a month by month basis is also expanding. The market continued its theme from last month, with a further sell-off in large capitalisation quality Australian companies. May Performance was negatively impacted, in particular, by the underperforming banking sector. The Q-Score process continues to identify numerous examples of improving fundamentals. Ramsay Healthcare and Aristocrat reported strong first half profit growth that comfortably beat forecasts; and Qantas continued to benefit from an improving operating environment and encouraged investors with the possibility of capital returns or buybacks. Click below to the read the Fund Manager's latest commentary. |
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Fund Review: Morphic Global Opportunities Fund May 2015
24 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Read the latest Fund Review for Morphic Global Opportunities Fund.
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24 Jun 2015 - Fund Review: Morphic Global Opportunities Fund May 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
MORPHIC GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Morphic Global Opportunities Fund.
Key points include:
- 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.
- Morphic's philosophy is that only funds with flexible investment and hedging strategies will be able to deliver acceptable, steady, real, absolute returns over the investment cycle.
- The 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.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund
24 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund finished +1% for the month, compared to the HFR Event Driven Index which closed +0.5%.
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24 Jun 2015 - Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund will usually hold 40 to 80 positions and will be well diversified across the various event strategies. In keeping with the absolute return focus the Manager will eliminate market risk where appropriate by hedging market and foreign currency risks. Since inception the Fund has averaged a net equity market exposure of ~10%. Sizing of an investment position will depend on the expected risk adjusted returns while taking account the liquidity and volatility of the stock. In addition, the maximum potential loss on any one position should be greater than 0.5% of the NAV and the position should not exceed 30% participation of stressed volume assuming a $200m NAV. Other criteria considered are ability to hedge and the availability of pair candidates as well as the average bid-ask size. For M&A strategies average long position is 3 to 5.5% and average short position 2 to 5%. |
| Manager Comments | Asia Pacific markets broadly traded down -1.0% (Asia Pacific ex Japan -3%) in an otherwise unexciting month, with ASEAN bourses bearing the brunt of a spike in the US treasury yields on the back of anticipated interest rate hikes later this year. The Fund's average gross and net exposures were 193.6% and 15.5% respectively. The M&A and Options strategies contributed most towards the Fund's monthly performance at 0.40% each. However the Stubs strategy was a major distractor at 0.50%. The country exposure as percentage (%) of NAV was most in Hong Kong/China with gross of 61.50% and Japan of 45.70%. Click below to read the complete Fund Manager's Report |
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Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust May 2015
23 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Read the latest Fund Review on Optimal Australian Absolute Trust Fund, which reported a positive 2.04% in May compared to the ASX200 Accumulation Index's 0.40%.
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23 Jun 2015 - Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust May 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA ABSOLUTE TRUST
AFM have released the most recently updated Fund Review on the Optimal Australia Absolute Trust.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- Optimal Australia is a specialist Australian equity investment manager and the Fund has a long/short equity strategy typically with a low but variable net market exposure comprising 40 to 65 stocks broadly selected from within the ASX200.
- The investment team comprising George Colman, Peter Whiting supported by Stephen Nicholls and Justin Hay have over 100 years combined experience in equity markets.
- The Fund's approach to risk is shown by the Sharpe ratio of 1.46, Sortino ratio of 3.33, both of which are well above the ASX 200 Accumulation Index and has recorded 80% positive months.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Avenir Value Fund
23 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Avenir Value Fund had a strong performance of 4.50% during the month of May, compared to the ASX 200 Accumulation Index's 0.40%.
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23 Jun 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 | The Fund's notable Sharpe and Sortino ratios are 1.12 and 1.92 respectively since inception in August 2011. At month-end, the Fund's geographical disposition was 46.3% in US, 13.4% in Asia, 12.8% in Western Europe, 9.9% in other and rest 17.20% as cash. The top 10 holdings were 61% of NAV. Click below to view the May 2015 Fund Report |
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Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund May 2015
22 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review now available on Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund, which has over nine years of positive track record.
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22 Jun 2015 - Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund May 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
BENNELONG KARDINIA ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review. You are also able to view the Fund's Profile.
- The Fund is long biased, research driven, active equity long/short strategy investing in listed ASX companies with an nine year track record.
- The Fund has significantly outperformed the ASX200 Accumulation Index since its inception in April 2006 and also has significantly lower risk KPI's. The Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund rose 0.41% in May. The Fund has an annualised return of 13.01% p.a. with a volatility of 7.30%, compared to the ASX200 Accumulation's return of 5.60% p.a. with volatility of 14.12%.
- The Fund also has a strong focus on capital protection in negative markets. Portfolio Managers Mark Burgess and Kristiaan Rehder have significant market experience, while the Bennelong Group provide infrastructure, operational, compliance and distribution capabilities.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
22 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Australian equities had a mixed month in May and the Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund returned
0.31% for the month of May outperforming the cash benchmark of 0.17%.
0.31% for the month of May outperforming the cash benchmark of 0.17%.
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22 Jun 2015 - 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 | In May, all strategies except Long/Short and Convergence strategies, contributed positively to the performance. The Options Strategy was the best contributor at 0.18%. The banks (NAB.ASX, ANZ.ASX, WBC.ASX and CBA.ASX) all provided good returns as volatility increased significantly at the beginning of the month. Click below to read the lastest monthly commentary and market outlook. |
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