NEWS
BlackRock Australian Equity Market Neutral Fund
2 Oct 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
BlackRock Australian Equity Market Neutral Fund returned -0.04% during August with a five year performance twice that of the ASX 200 Acc Index and less than half the volatility.
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2 Oct 2013 - BlackRock Australian Equity Market Neutral Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's portfolio primarily consists of long and short Australian equity positions. The Fund may also invest in other funds managed by BlackRock. Derivative securities, such as futures, forwards, swaps and options, can be used to manage risk and return. Key insights into the investment process include: Analyst Expectations, Relative Valuation, Earnings Quality, Market Signals and Timing. Short-Term return enhancing opportunities including: Dividend reinvestment plans, Manging index changes, Managing cash flows and Arbitrage, Initial public offerings and Seasoned Equity Offerings and Off Market Buybacks. |
| Manager Comments | The Manager notes that the portfolio lost value in August, due mainly to short positions in sectors related to the resources rally, and in Mining Services and Oil & Gas in particular. Signal performance was led by Market signals, particularly the liquidity provision signals, and Earnings Quality signals. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
LHC Capital Australia High Conviction Fund
1 Oct 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
LHC Capital Australia High Conviction Fund has returned 2.77 times the ASX 200 Accumulation Index since inception in May 2011 with an annualised return of 21.37%.
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1 Oct 2013 - LHC Capital Australia High Conviction Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | LHC Capital will also seek to identify or encourage events that may act as a catalyst for valuations to converge towards their intrinsic value. The emergence of catalyst events will also have an impact on how LHC Capital allocates the Fund's capital between competing investment opportunities. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund returned 0.64% over August and 38.9% over the last 12 months. Month-end exposures were 93% long, 17% short, 110% gross and 76% net with the most profitable holdings over August being Peet, eMerchants and Academies Australia. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund
30 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund has a five year track record of 9.00% pa as compared to the ASX 200 Acc Index return of 4.63%. The August return was -0.28%.
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30 Sep 2013 - BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | - Australian and International Equity Long/Short - Global Fixed Income Long/Short - Global Macro - Commodity Alpha - Alpha Transport The Fund's goal is to provide investors with a source of consistent, risk-controlled, absolute returns that are over time, expected to have low correlations with the returns of major asset classes. The Fund aims to achieve a return of 8% p.a. before fees, above the RBA Cash Rate Target over rolling 3 year periods. In order to achieve its expected return objective, the Fund will target a total expected risk of between 4-6% p.a. over the same rolling 3 year period. |
| Manager Comments | Notable over this period was the Fund's largest drawdown of 2.61% as compared to the Index's largest drawdown of 25.8%. The Multi Opportunity Fund underperformed in August with detractions across equity market neutral and Fixed Income Global Alpha strategies. Global Macro and Commodity strategies added value helping to offset these detractions. The fund returned -0.18% gross of fees versus the RBA cash benchmark return of 0.21%. Year to date, the Fund has returned 5.50% gross of fees. The Australian equity selection strategy had small negative performance in August. This was attributed mainly to underweight positioning in sectors related to the resources rally, in particular Mining Services and Oil / Gas. Signal performance was led by our market signals, particularly the liquidity provision signals, and our earnings quality signals. Earnings direction insights tended to detract value, especially those based on analyst sentiment. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Intelligent Investor Value Fund
27 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Intelligent Investor Value Fund returned 1.13% in August and 40.05% over the 12 previous months.
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27 Sep 2013 - Intelligent Investor Value Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The Fund's value strategy is shown by the Sharpe Ratio of 0.73 as compared to the Index Sharpe Ratio of 0.32 (since inception). The Manager notes that the share price falls in the last week of August wiped out most of the Intelligent Investor Value Fund's gains in the first few weeks of the month. The unit price rose 1.1% but was beaten by the benchmark All Ordinaries Accumulation Index which returned 2.6%. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Allard Investment Fund
26 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Allard Investment Fund returned -1.0% during August with an allocation of 67.1% equity and 32.9% cash.
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26 Sep 2013 - Allard Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | In terms of geographic allocation the Fund's major allocations are 32.1% HK/China and 13.1% Singapore and in terms of industry the biggest exposure is financial services at 14.5% and conglomerates, 12.2%. The Fund's lower risk characteristics are shown by the annualised volatility of 8.2% pa as compared to that of the MSCI ASia Pacific ex Japan ($A) of 13.8%, over the last ten years. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund
25 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for Insync Global Titans Fund for August 2013 shows the Fund delivering sound returns of 9.63% pa with an annualised standard deviation of 8.40% (since inception in October 2009) and sound risk-reward statistics.
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25 Sep 2013 - Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund (pdf format)
INSYNC GLOBAL TITANS FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Insync Global Titans Fund.
We would like to highlight the following:
- The Global Titans Fund invests in a concentrated portfolio of 15-25 stocks, targeting exceptional, large cap global companies with a strong focus on dividend growth and downside protection.
- Portfolio selection is driven by a core strategy of investing in companies with sustainable growth in dividends, high returns on capital, positive free cash flows and strong balance sheets.
- The investment strategy has delivered above MSCI ($A) benchmark performance over the medium and longer terms with limited drawdowns and excellent risk statistics.The Sharpe ratio is 0.67 (ASX 200 Acc 0.26) and Sortino ratio 1.17 (ASX 200 Acc 0.28) and are well above those of the ASX with downside deviation approximately one-half of the same Index since inception. The Fund has a record of 62% positive months and a downside capture ratio of -0.42 over the same time frame.
- Emphasis on limiting downside risk is through extensive company research, the ability to hold cash and long protective index put options.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund (pdf format)
Totus Alpha Fund
24 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund rose 2.1% during August with net exposure of 41% and gross exposure of 274% across 86 positions.
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24 Sep 2013 - 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 as determined by Totus Capital. 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 | Since inception in April 2012 the Fund has returned 29.1% (24.2% ASX 200 Acc Index) with a Sharpe Ratio of 1.41, Sortino Ratio of 3.14 and a down capture ratio of -0.84. The Fund also has a negative correlation of -0.209 to the Index. August was a tricky month for the fund. A number of the trends that the Manager had anticipated heading into reporting season did in fact play out but struggled to make money from them. The Manager had anticipated weak outlook statements and consensus earnings downgrades from a number of cyclical companies (and had positioned accordingly) yet many of these stocks rallied in spite of the downgrades. The Manager has been gradually trimming short positions (particularly in cyclical companies) and increasing the net long exposure of the fund. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund
23 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund completed a fifth year of operation recording an annualised return of 9.7% pa.
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23 Sep 2013 - 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 | Since inception the Fund has an annualised standard deviation of 8.02% compared to 15.48% (Index) and the risk-reward and risk statistics are sound with a Sharpe ratio of 0.7 (0.12 Index) and a Sortino Ratio of 1.06 (0.06 Index). The August performance was 3.8%. The Manager notes that the portfolio gained better traction from the Value fundamental factor during August with Value continuing its recent strong performance following the sharp positive shift in July. Risk appetite continues to stay in focus with the higher risk stocks outperforming lower risk, higher yielding stocks. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund
20 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund had a strong August returning 4.28% while maintaining an average net exposure of 61.1%.
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20 Sep 2013 - Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund focuses on fundamental long and short investments. The Fund may utilise a multi-strategy approach if short term opportunities to increase returns, hedge the portfolio, protect capital or minimise volatility are found. The Fund is a high conviction fund and the combined portfolio will typically have 25-45 positions, investing primarily in stocks in the ASX200. The Fund may be net long, short or neutral depending on the strategies employed at the time. The Fund may hold cash so that it is in a position to take advantage of market volatility and compelling investment opportunities as and when they arise. The Fund may be geared up to 200% gross long or short and up to 150% net long or short. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund's biggest exposures were spread across consumer discretionary, financials, healthcare and telecommunications sectors. The Manager has written an interesting piece on their view of the relative merits of large cap versus small cap investing. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
19 Sep 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic's Global Opportunities Fund has recently completed its first year of operations having returned 32.55% over 12 months with volatility of under 10% and a Sharpe ratio of 3.10 since inception in August 2012.
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19 Sep 2013 - Fund Review: Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund (pdf format)
MORPHIC GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND
AFM has updated the 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.
- Portfolio construction is stock selection agnostic with a bias to value based and momentum strategies. Risk management is a primary consideration in portfolio construction and the strong emphasis on risk is evidenced by the Fund's very high Sortino ratio of 14.88 and maximum drawdown of -0.52%.
- Morphic's philosophy is that only funds with flexible 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.
The full Review can be accessed from the link below, or from the Fund's Profile page.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund (pdf format)
