Only one day left of the blandest, longest and most tedious election campaign ever. This one's been going on since January 30th this year, when then PM Julia Gillard called the election for September 14th - a record 32 weeks of campaigning.
Of course the real reason for the abnormally long campaign was that it meant her minority government was protected from the risks of a by-election in the meantime, and therefore could maintain power a tad longer.
If we have one thing to thank Kevin Rudd for when he finally plucked up the ticker to depose Gillard it must be that he shortened the campaign to 31 weeks. Phew!
We hope that the incoming government will at least win a clear mandate in both houses to allow them to govern in their own right, and come what may be judged on their record, not that of a hotchpotch of deals and compromise. That said one of the reforms we'd love to see is some real clarity on implementing Mark Johnson's recommendations from his November 2009 report into creating Australia as a Financial Centre.
There's no doubt Australia has the talent and the governance for its financial services and fund management sector to compete on the world stage. While the geographic realities make it difficult, the taxation environment makes it nearly impossible to do so.
It's too easy to sit back and let Australia's ever growing superannuation pool support the financial services industry, in the way we've let the mining industry keep the rest of the economy afloat for the past few years. Australia needs to compete on the global stage, and to do so the taxation treatment of offshore investors in local funds needs to become an incentive, not a disadvantage.
While on our soap box we were reminded this week by one fund manager that the increasing number of "My Super" products being announced by the larger super funds and financial houses will be rated by APRA based on fees, ahead of their net performance. There's nothing wrong with trying to keep fees as competitive as possible, and as transparent as possible, but surely they are not the primary method of comparison?
EVENTS
Just a few more days until the the AIMA Hedge Fund Forum , to be held next week on Tuesday 10th September at Hilton Hotel, Sydney. For further details visit AIMA Australia's website or register here. (This event is FREE for institutional investors).
Another upcoming event that may be of interest for Superannuation member administration and investment operation service providers is the Superannuation Fund Back Office conference coming up on 21-22 October. Visit the International Business Review Conferences website for more details.
Specific results received this week include the following PERFORMANCE and NEWS UPDATES:
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund returned 2.27% for August bringing the since inception (January 2003) return to 21.18% p.a. achieved with a down-capture ratio over the same time of -1.91% (in other words, the fund rose 1.91% for every 1% fall in the market).
The Monash Absolute Investment Fund returned 1.40% in August with a gross and net exposure of 86%, and a portfolio Beta of 0.59. Monash remarks that the outlook driven stocks reported very strong business growth and outlook statements. These are detailed in the Manager's Month End Note.
Updated AFM Fund Reviews were also completed on the following funds this week:
BlackRock's Multi-Opportunity Fund offers broad diversification across asset classes including equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities with an attractive risk profile, having provided double digit returns since 2009 with low volatility. The current strategy has seen the Fund return only two negative months since May 2010, leading to annualised returns over the past 36 months (to July 2013) of 12.81% (ASX 200 Accumulation 8.79%), an annualised standard deviation of 1.88% (11.74%) and a three year Sharpe Ratio of 4.62, significantly outperforming targeted returns and risk.
Hedge Funds: Two strategies working in 2013, written for the Eureka Report this week, tracks the performance of all hedge fund strategies over the last 7 years.
For something completely different - if you like the Game of Thrones series, you will love the "how to vote" style of Game of Seats.
On that note, enjoy the week-end, and may the best party win - and not have to return to the polls anytime soon.
Regards,
Chris
CEO, AUSTRALIAN FUND MONITORS
