NEWS
Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust March 2014
30 May 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for the Optimal Australia Absolute Trust for April 2014 has been released. The fund is characterised by very low risk with an annualised standard deviation 3.51% (Index 14.85%)and a Sharpe Ratio since inception of 1.74.
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30 May 2014 - Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust March 2014
By: Australian Fund Monitors
OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA ABSOLUTE TRUST
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Optimal Australia Absolute Trust.
We would like to highlight the following:
- 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 Fund returned 0.57% in April with an annual return of 4.62% and a very low standard deviation of 1.60% (ASX 200 Acc 10.48%).
- The Fund has recorded out-performance of the market since inception in September 2008 with approximately 84% of monthly performances having positive returns and the largest drawdown was -1.38% (Index -33.11%).
- The Fund has sound Sharpe and Sortino ratios at 1.74 and 5.08 since inception, as compared to the Index ratios of 0.20 and 0.18 respectively.
- The investment team comprising George Colman, Peter Whiting supported by Stephen Nicholls and Justin Hay have over 100 years combined experience in equity markets.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Avenir Value Fund
30 May 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Avenir Value Fund recorded a return of -2.08% during April with annual performance very strong at 40.16% with a volatility of 8.50%.
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30 May 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 | Since inception (August 2011) the Fund's annualised return is 20.57% (ASX 200 Accum 13.34%). The Fund's Sharpe and Sortino ratio are sound at 1.44 (0.84) and 2.50 (1.21) respectively with 76% (70%) positive months. The Fund's largest geographic allocations are US 33%, cash 25% and other 20%. The top ten holdings are 56% of NAV. The Fund publishes a monthly report which is available on the AFM website under the Fund's profile. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund
29 May 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund returned -1.20% during April with twelve month performance of 12.29% and volatility of 8.43% over that time.
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29 May 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 | Since inception (Sept 2008) the Fund has returned 9.43% pa with a volatility of 7.96% pa. ASX 200 Accum index comparatives are 5.81% and 14.85% respectively. The Fund's maximum draw-down is 13.47% as compared to the Index at 33.11%, reflecting the market neutral strategy. Since inception the Fund has a beta and correlation to the ASX 300 of 0.00. Quality was the only factor that provided a positive return over the month with Revisions, Value and Momentum factors under-performing. Falling market volatility combined with a compression in returns across 20 underlying alpha metrics provided little opportunity for broader factors to gain any real traction. Risk appetite continued to fall in April as lower risk yield stocks remained in favour, while value continued to be largely ignored with prices being driven up by the chase for quality. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Monash Absolute Investment Fund - April 2014
29 May 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for the Monash Absolute Investment Fund for April 2014. The Fund is characterised by strong absolute returns and low risk. Since inception (July 2012) the Fund has returned 23.86% pa with a volatility of 7.72%.
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29 May 2014 - Fund Review: Monash Absolute Investment Fund - April 2014
By: Australian Fund Monitors
MONASH ABSOLUTE INVESTMENT FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review. You are also able to view the Fund's Profile.
The Fund is a research driven, active equity long/short strategy investing in listed ASX companies.
Monash Absolute Investment Fund returned -1.3% dueing April in a volatile equity market. The Fund's 12 month record is strong at 24.77% (Index 10.46%) with a vol of 9.11% (10.48%). Sharpe and Sortino ratios are notable at 2.22 and 8.77 over the same time frame. The Fund had a net exposure of 76% at month-end with gross exposure 88%. Since inception VaR is 1.20%.
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.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sean Webster
Research Manager
Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund April 2014
29 May 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for Insync Global Titans Fund for April 2014 shows the Fund delivering an annualised return of 9.92% and standard deviation of 8.85% (since inception in October 2009) with sound risk-reward statistics.
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29 May 2014 - Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund April 2014
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund AFM Review - April 2014 (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 15-30 stocks, targeting exceptional, large cap global companies with a strong focus on dividend growth and downside protection.
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The Fund's unit price decreased by 1.0% in April. Key positive contributors for the month came from our holdings in British American Tobacco, Nestle, Glaxosmithkline and Sanofi. The main negative contributors were Discover Financial Services, Coach and Express Scripts. 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.
- 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.
- Emphasis on limiting downside risk is through extensive company research, the ability to hold cash and long protective index put options.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sean Webster
Research Manager
Insync Global Titans Fund AFM Review - April 2014 (pdf format)
KIS Asia Long Short Fund
28 May 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
KIS Asia Long Short Fund returned -0.77% during April and 14.33% for the preceding 12 months with a very low volatility of 3.3%
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28 May 2014 - 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 funds 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 (ex Japan incl. 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 | The Manager reported that: Within the Long Short portfolio no other single underlying position created an impact of more than 20bp this month. In March only 44% of our long and short ideas, i.e. excluding hedges, were winning. Unfortunately this month our success ratio was evenly balanced, rather than being biased to winning trades, with the average sized loss on a failed trade idea being very close to the profit on a winning trade idea. Within the portfolio's Hedge and Convertible Bonds exposure, there was no significant impact on returns for the month. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Pengana Australian Equities Fund
27 May 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Australian Equities Fund the Fund had a sound month, given market rotation and volatility, returning 1.24% with a 12 month performance of 4.46%.
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27 May 2014 - Pengana Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | As at 30th April 2014, cash (including notes and preference shares) represented 23% of the Fund. The top five holdings by value were: DUET Group, ANZ Bank, Telstra, Resmed and Tatts Group. In addition, the Fund's exposure to non-Australian dollar earnings streams (inclusive of companies with global earnings profiles such as Resmed, Fox Group, CSL, Crown Resorts, NZ based companies and US dollar exposure) stood at 24%. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund
27 May 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund returned 0.29% in a volatile month, with annual performance 44.01% to April 2014.
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27 May 2014 - 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 | Average gross capital employed by the Fund was 123.9% long and 24.5% short. Average net exposure over the month was +99.4% and at the end of the month the Fund had 35 long positions and 7 short positions. The Fund Newsletter is entitled 'Australian Federal Government Budget 2014 ' Historical Indications As To The Potential Effect On Discretionary Spend' and is available on the AFM website under the Auscap profile. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Nanuk Global Alpha Fund
26 May 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Nanuk Global Alpha Fund returned -2.93% during April, in a volatile market for it's sectors, with annual performance 17.11%.
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26 May 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 Monthly Report discusses performance noting that 'contributions from a number of long and short stock specific ideas were more than offset by losses incurred on positions across three significant thematic ideas represented in the portfolio, namely LED lighting component manufacturers, solar manufacturers and developers, and Chinese renewable energy generators. The Fund's exposures in these areas was increased following the meaningful price corrections experienced in March and early April and despite a short term rise these stocks fell sharply in the last week of the month. While we continue to maintain most of these positions in the portfolio due to their attractive valuation, position sizes have been reduced until we see clearer evidence that the market will respond positively to the developments we anticipate in these industries in coming months.' |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Allard Investment Fund
26 May 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Allard Investment Fund returned 0.0% (0.8% MSCI Asia ex Japan $A) in April and 8.84% for the last year with a vol of 6.68%.
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26 May 2014 - Allard Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | At the end of April the asset breakdown of the portfolio stood at 75.8% invested in equities and 24.2% held in cash and fixed income. In terms of geographic breakdown the largest holdings were HK/China 36.7%, Singapore 15.2% and Korea at 8.8%. In terms of sectors the largest holdings were Financials 17.1% , Conglomerates 13.9% and Telcos at 8.5%. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
