NEWS
Alpha Beta Asian Fund
22 Jul 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Alpha Beta Asian Fund returned 1.69% during June bringing the financial year return to 12.33% with a volatility of 4.50%.
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22 Jul 2014 - Alpha Beta Asian Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The investment objective of the Fund is to produce positive annual returns without excessive risk. This is achieved through the use of a quantitative approach to invest both long and short in large cap companies listed on Asian stock exchanges. The Fund may also use index futures to manage risk. Stock prices and company fundamental data are decomposed into directional and mean reverting components. Each of Alpha Beta's models are based on either of these known behaviours with capital management built into each model. The benefit of a quantitative approach is that it is both repeatable and unemotional, and allows a different source of returns to be extracted from a very noisy market environment. |
| Manager Comments | The Sharpe and Sortino ratios were 2.07 and 5.17 respectively. Downside deviation was 1.78. At month-end the Fund's larger geographic exposures were Australia at 11% and Japan at 2% on a net basis, with the Fund's total net exposure 18% and gross exposure 167%. Total number of positions was 413. Major contributors to June's returns were Hong Kong directional at 51 basis points and Australia mean reversion at 45 basis points. |
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Totus Alpha Fund
21 Jul 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund returned -3.02% during June with twelve month performance 28.50% as compared with the ASX 200 Accum return of 17.43%.
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21 Jul 2014 - Totus Alpha Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund is a long/short investment fund principally investing in listed entities, commodities, futures and options in Australia and internationally. The Fund is not a market neutral fund and accordingly may switch between net long positions and net short positions. The Fund may use short sales and derivatives. Gearing may be used to enhance returns and the Fund may be geared in excess of 100% of the Fund's Net Asset Value. There is a limit to net exposure of 150%. |
| Manager Comments | Top contributors to performance in June were long our positions in Intueri Education +0.79% (scarce growth) and Burson +0.32% (scarce growth) and a short position in Monadelphous +0.35% (mining capex bubble). Biggest detractors from performance were our long positions in Flight Centre -1.24% (scarce growth) and Tiger Resources -0.76% (scarcity) and a short position in Liquefied Natural Gas-1.10% (promoter). The ASX300 Accumulation Index is now up just 2.86% for the first half of the 2014 calendar year, making the stellar returns of 2013 harder to come by. However, we view this as a healthy period of market consolidation and remain cautiously optimistic for an improved second half. |
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Insync Global Titans Fund
18 Jul 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund returned -0.70% during June and 10.70% over the 2014 financial year.
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18 Jul 2014 - Insync Global Titans Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The Fun'd's geographic composition was North America 44.0%, UK 24.7%, Cash and Puts 16.8% and Europe 14.8%. Average market cap of portfolio equities is $A81.3 and weighted average dividend yield is 2.60% The Fund's unit price decreased by 0.7% in June. Key positive contributors for the month came from our holdings in BNY Mellon, Discover Financial Services, BSkyB, St Jude Medical and TE Connectivity. The main negative contributors were Coach, Express Scripts, Oracle, British American Tobacco and Baxter International. 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. |
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Avenir Value Fund
17 Jul 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Avenir Value Fund returned 0.22% during June, a month in which the Global Equity Index fell -0.76%. The Fund's financial year performance was 30.04% (Index 17.87%).
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17 Jul 2014 - 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 Sharpe and Sortino ratios are 1.43 and 2.50 respectively since inception in August 2011. Also notable are the Up and Down capture ratios at 0.56 and -0.3 respectively. At month-end the Fund's geographical disposition was 31% US, 14% Asia, 12% Western Europe with 2% Australia, 23% other and 18% cash. The top 10 holdings were 56% of NAV. |
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Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
16 Jul 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund returned -0.31% during June, its first negative monthly return since January 2013.
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16 Jul 2014 - 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 | Lack of volatility remains a feature of most global markets and this continues to be a drain on the Protective Option Strategy (-0.51%). Woodside Petroleum was the most significant draw-down. The Fund took the opportunity through the Shell Energy sell down of 13.6% of the company to establish a position to benefit from a possible re-rating ahead of August profit and dividend announcements whilst still maintaining downside protection. In the current low volatility environment it is not surprising that the Yield Strategy was again the most positive performing section of the portfolio (+0.28%) and that all positions produced positive returns for the month. |
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Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund
15 Jul 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund returned 1.8% during June, a strong turnaround from May, with the annual return 1.89%.
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15 Jul 2014 - Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The manager's investment approach is premised on the belief that fundamental factors (such as earnings, cash flow and profit growth) affect stock prices, but that the adoption of quantitative techniques (i.e. computer based models) provides an advantage in assimilating and analysing this information, and building an efficient portfolio. The Fund's portfolio is constructed to be 'Market Neutral' i.e. it aims to have little or no overall exposure to movements in the equity market. The aim of low exposure to market movements is to enhance the consistency of the portfolio's performance and to provide diversification from other market oriented investments. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund had a next exposure to the market of 0.5% at month-end with correlation and beta to the market of 0.0 since inception. The return to underlying company fundamentals in June with positive contributions across our main investment factors was not enough to offset a poor quarter. Risk appetite fell over the period as lower risk yield stocks remain in favour, while value was largely ignored with prices being driven up by the chase for quality. Falling market volatility and trade volumes combined with a compression in returns across the 20 underlying alphametrics in the model provided little opportunity for our broader factors to gain any meaningful traction over the quarter. |
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Nanuk Global Alpha Fund
14 Jul 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Nanuk Global Alpha Fund returned 1.16% during June, a strong turnaround from May with 12 month performance coming in at 14.83%.
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14 Jul 2014 - Nanuk Global Alpha Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | In 2013 Nanuk started to expand the focus of the fund away from just energy and include other industries related to the overarching theme of environmental sustainability, specifically water, waste, recycling, pollution control and agriculture. Nanuk is now investing across a universe in excess of 600 stocks and an aggregate market capitalisation over US$2 trillion. This was a logical move because, while the industries themselves are different, their characteristics and long term drivers are very similar. Nanuk has identified a large, diverse global universe of companies positively exposed to these shifts. Nanuk combines deep fundamental research into these companies with detailed analysis of technological development, policy direction and related economics within each of the relevant sectors to identify profitable trends and opportunities suitable for inclusion in the Fund. Nanuk's principal strategy is to invest, long and short, in securities that are mis-priced on an absolute or relative basis. The Fund aims to achieve long term capital appreciation while reducing volatility of returns and risk of capital loss through appropriate hedging and risk management strategies. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund reported profits coming primarily from long positions in solar and LED stocks which continued to recover from a period of under-performance earlier in the year. At the end of June the Fund's five largest long positions were a Chinese battery manufacturer, a Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer, a Chinese solar cell and module manufacturer and two European lighting equipment business. The fund's five largest short positions included a European wind turbine manufacturer, a US meter manufacturer, a European insulation manufacturer, a European enzyme manufacturer and US electricity utility. |
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Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
11 Jul 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund returned 1.07% during June, ahead of the global equity index at 0.46%, and with financial year performance of 20.81%.
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11 Jul 2014 - Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | At month-end Fund gross exposure was 132%, net exposure 101% and a VaR of 1.05% (95th percentile with a 1 day holding period using a 1 year look back). The best performing Indian stocks held by the fund were Rural Electrification Corp and Canara Bank. The tactic of writing out of the money calls over a portion of the Fund's positions has been maintained, so as to generate income from the high implied volatility, while still leaving substantial room to participate in the slower share price rises expected from here as the market calms down. Other stock gains came from idiosyncratic stock performance. Japanese printer manufacturer, Seiko Epson, in which the Fund has been building a position, rallied 9.7% after presentations to analysts saw a string of earnings estimate upgrades. Semperit, an Austrian industrial rubber products producer, rose 8.7% after announcing a capacity expansion to take advantage of higher margins. The Fund remains fully invested, with similar levels of low regional biases and a focus on stock specific ideas. The Australian dollar's rally has continued, dampening absolute returns, with the Fund's partial hedge providing some offset. |
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Monash Absolute Investment Fund
10 Jul 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Monash Absolute Investment Fund returned -1.01% during June and 23.00% for the financial year.
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10 Jul 2014 - Monash Absolute Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund seeks to identify opportunities in the share market to make positive returns (long and short) irrespective of market conditions. It is style agnostic, as compelling investment opportunities exist across all investment styles from time to time. The Fund places a high priority on capital preservation, and has an absolute return focus in accepting market risk. The Manager's experience across value, growth and discounted cash flow styles allows them to use a comprehensive approach to investment decisions that applies all three. They also have the patience to seek out only compelling opportunities, rather than settling for relative value. The portfolio is somewhat concentrated, looking to diversify across industries and themes, rather than by trying to stay near an index. The portfolio may at times have a large amount of cash or other protection. However once investments are made turnover may be relatively high in order to lock in gains and avoid losses. |
| Manager Comments | At month-end the Fund had a gross exposure of 87%, net exposure of 78% and a VaR of 1.1%. In May the fund was down -1.0% after fees against the backdrop of an even weaker Australian equity market. The portfolio was helped by its property and financials related investments and hurt by its technology and early stage product launch investments. In contrast to the previous month there was a lack of news flow and stocks generally drifted. Our net exposure increased somewhat this month as we have begun to add positions ahead of the upcoming results season. |
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The Paragon Fund
8 Jul 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
In a difficult month for the ASX The Paragon Fund returned a very sound 4.9% bringing 12 month performance to 30.0%.
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8 Jul 2014 - The Paragon Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Paragon accepts that markets are not always efficient in pricing information into securities and that no one investment style works in every stage of the investment cycle. Subsequently Paragon adopts a top down thematic led approach to identify companies exhibiting sustainable or improving returns on capital driven by volume growth, pricing power and competitive advantages. Paragon utilises both quantitative analysis to provide probability weighted high/low/base case valuations and qualitative analysis in assessing management, the business model and likely direction of returns. Paragon will allocate assets to each investment opportunity based on a risk/reward profile. Positions have defined investment parameters and risk limits, which are then monitored on an ongoing basis. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund was 80.9% long and 16.9% short for a net position of 64% at month-end with 24 long positions and 9 short positions. Key drivers of the Paragon Fund performance for June included strong returns from our investment in Liquefied Natural Gas and emerging graphite company Triton Minerals. |
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