NEWS
Performance Report: Surrey Australian Equities Fund
28 Jan 2020 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Surrey Australian Equities Fund fell in line with the market in December, returning -2.90%. Over CY2019 the Fund rose +19.54% with a volatility of 12.04%.
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28 Jan 2020 - Performance Report: Surrey Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Investment Manager follows a defined investment process which is underpinned by detailed bottom up fundamental analysis, overlayed with sectoral and macroeconomic research. This is combined with an extensive company visitation program where we endeavour to meet with company management and with other stakeholders such as suppliers, customers and industry bodies to improve our information set. Surrey Asset Management defines its investment process as Qualitative, Quantitative and Value Latencies (QQV). In essence, the Investment Manager thoroughly researches an investment's qualitative and quantitative characteristics in an attempt to find value latencies not yet reflected in the share price and then clearly defines a roadmap to realisation of those latencies. Developing this roadmap is a key step in the investment process. By articulating a clear pathway as to how and when an investment can realise what the Investment Manager sees as latent value, defines the investment proposition and lessens the impact of cognitive dissonance. This is undertaken with a philosophical underpinning of fact-based investing, transparency, authenticity and accountability. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund's cash weighting totalled 11% at month-end with 29 individual stock holdings. The top holdings included Bravura Solutions, Cooper Energy, Corporate Travel, IMF Group and Xero Limited. From a macro/global perspective, Surrey noted two features that have emerged include an increasing shift toward gold and the rise in the oil price, both of which are correlated to increasing tensions in the middle-east. Surrey believe the Fund is well positioned for this uncertainty and the Fund's gold and energy weightings increasing materially at the start of January. |
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Performance Report: Harvest Lane Asset Management Absolute Return Fund
24 Jan 2020 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Harvest Lane Absolute Return Fund has returned +8.01% p.a. with an annualised volatility of 6.74% since inception in July 2013. In December the Fund returned -0.94% versus the ASX200 Accumulation Index's -2.17%.
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24 Jan 2020 - Performance Report: Harvest Lane Asset Management Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Harvest Lane Asset Management employs a conservative, highly selective and opportunistic approach. Using their extensive knowledge in the area of corporate actions, the Fund's managers assess each opportunity based on a thoughtful, diligent and disciplined process and invest where they believe an opportunity exists to generate above average investment returns relative to the risk incurred. Investment decisions are made without speculating on market direction, with rigid risk controls enforced to minimise the risk of large losses of investor capital. The Fund invests in securities that are predominantly listed on the ASX and occasionally in those listed in other developed markets. Equity swaps and other derivatives may be used at times to reduce risk. The fund typically holds high levels of cash in the absence of sufficiently attractive opportunities to deploy investor capital in accordance with its objectives. |
| Manager Comments | Harvest Lane noted that, aside from a partial deal break in Panoramic Resources after Independence Group withdrew its bid, the remaining softness in December was predominantly a result of widening spreads rather than fundamental catalysts. Consequently, should the Fund's current positions see their respective transactions complete then Harvest Lane expect a substantial portion of the underperformance to be recouped in time. Harvest Lane saw a steady stream of deals announced to market throughout the month, giving them the opportunity to add several new positions to the portfolio. Transactions in Konekt Limited and Bellamy's Australia closed towards the end of the month, carrying with them a healthy dose of franking credits which are in addition to the Fund's reported performance. Harvest Lane are encouraged by the current positions in the portfolio and believe 2020 offers a favourable outlook for merger and acquisition activity. |
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Performance Report: Glenmore Australian Equities Fund
24 Jan 2020 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Glenmore Australian Equities Fund returned +40.29% over CY2019 versus the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +23.40%. Since inception in June 2017, the Fund has returned +26.11% p.a. versus the Index's +10.74%.
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24 Jan 2020 - Performance Report: Glenmore Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The main driver of identifying potential investments will be bottom up company analysis, however macro-economic conditions will be considered as part of the investment thesis for each stock. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund returned -1.67% in December, outperforming the Index by +0.5%. Top contributors included Moelis Australia (+10.2%), Polynovo (+10.1%), Magellan Financial Group (+8.5%), NRW Holdings and Stanmore Coal. Key detractors included Jumbo Interactive (-27.3%), Phoslock Environmental Technologies (-10.1%), VGI Partners (-8.8%) and Opticomm (-7.0%). Glenmore noted there were no company announcements from VGI or OPC during the month, however both had been strong performers in 2019 and thus some retracement was not unexpected. Glenmore believe the main driver of strong performance in equities throughout 2019 was low interest rates, which continue to underpin demand for stocks. Despite the Fund's significant outperformance over the past 12 months, Glenmore continue to find undervalued stocks in their universe and feel optimistic about the prospects for the portfolio in the year ahead. |
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Performance Report: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund
24 Jan 2020 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Insync Global Capital Aware Fund ended CY2019 up +32.77% versus AFM's Global Equity Benchmark's +27.19%. Since inception in October 2009, the Fund has returned +11.21% p.a. with an annualised volatility of 9.45%.
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24 Jan 2020 - Performance Report: Insync Global Capital Aware Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Insync employs four simple screens to narrow the universe of over 40,000 listed companies globally to a focus group of high quality companies that it believes have the potential to consistently grow their profits and dividends. These screens are size of the company, balance sheet performance, valuation and dividend quality. Companies that pass this due diligence process are then valued using dividend discount models, free cash flow yield and proprietary implied growth and expected return models. The end result is a high conviction portfolio of typically 15-30 stocks. The principal investments will be in shares of companies listed on international stock exchanges (including the US, Europe and Asia). The Fund may also hold cash, derivatives (for example futures, options and swaps), currency contracts, American Depository Receipts and Global Depository Receipts. The Fund may also invest in various types of international pooled investment vehicles. At times, Insync may consider holding higher levels of cash if valuations are full and it is difficult to find attractive investment opportunities. When Insync believes markets to be overvalued, it may hold part of its resources in cash, or use derivatives as a way of reducing its equity exposure. Insync may use options, futures and other derivatives to reduce risk or gain exposure to underlying physical investments. The Fund may purchase put options on market indices or specific stocks to hedge against losses caused by declines in the prices of stocks in its portfolio. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund fell in line with the market in December, returning -0.61% after the cost of downside protection. Positive contributors included London Stock Exchange, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Booking Holdings and Apple. Detractors included Walt Disney, Intuit, PayPal and Facebook. The Fund continues to have no currency hedging in place as Insync consider the main risks to the Australian dollar to be on the downside. |
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Performance Report: Bennelong Australian Equities Fund
23 Jan 2020 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Australian Equities Fund has returned +27.44% over the past 12 months versus the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +23.40%. Since inception in February 2009, the Fund has outperformed the Index by +3.0% on an annualised basis.
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23 Jan 2020 - Performance Report: Bennelong Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Bennelong Australian Equities Fund seeks quality investment opportunities which are under-appreciated and have the potential to deliver positive earnings. The investment process combines bottom-up fundamental analysis with proprietary investment tools that are used to build and maintain high quality portfolios that are risk aware. The investment team manages an extensive company/industry contact program which helps identify and verify various investment opportunities. The companies within the portfolio are primarily selected from, but not limited to, the S&P/ASX 300 Index. The Fund may invest in securities listed on other exchanges where such securities relate to the ASX-listed securities. The Fund typically holds between 25-60 stocks with a maximum net targeted position of an individual stock of 6%. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund returned +4.12% over quarter, outperforming the Index by +3.44%. The main contributor to quarterly performance was the fund's outsized position in the healthcare sector, particularly its positions in Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and CSL. The other main contributor was the significant underweight stance to the underperforming banks. The largest detractor was Afterpay, which gave back some of the outperformance delivered in previous periods. Bennelong believe many of the social, political and economic uncertainties that overshadowed markets over 2019 remain. The Fund is selectively invested in a group of high quality growth stocks which include names like CSL and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. Some general themes across the portfolio include: a growth bias, a significant weighting to global and offshore companies, underweight the top 20 stocks, underweight bond proxies such as utilities and teclo's, selective exposure to commodities and very little exposure to domestic cyclicals. |
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Performance Report: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
23 Jan 2020 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund rose +4.68% with a volatility of 5.05% over CY2019. Since inception in May 2006, the Fund has returned +8.74% p.a. with an annualised volatility of 7.03%.
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23 Jan 2020 - Performance Report: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's discretionary investment strategy commences with a macro view of the economy and direction to establish the portfolio's desired market exposure. Following this detailed sector and company research is gathered from knowledge of the individual stocks in the Fund's universe, with widespread use of broker research. Company visits, presentations and discussions with management at CEO and CFO level are used wherever possible to assess management quality across a range of criteria. Detailed analysis of company valuations using financial statements and forecasts, particularly focusing on free cash flow, is conducted. Technical analysis is used to validate the Manager's fundamental research and valuations and to manage market timing. A significant portion of the Fund's overall performance can be attributed to the attention and importance given to the macro economic outlook and the ability and willingness to adjust the Fund's market risk. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund returned -2.84% in December, with health care and information technology stocks reversing the gains from last month. Positive contributors during the month included Lifestyle Communities, Rio Tinto, Magellan, Aerometrex and Charter Hall. Key detractors included SPI Futures, Paradigm, Goodman Group, EML Payments and Ecofibre. The Fund's net equity market exposure was held steady at 74.2% (83.6% long and 9.4% short), with the key changes being a new position in Aerometrex, increased weightings in BHP, Commonwealth Bank, CSL and Rio Tinto, partially offset by the sale of Paradigm, Ecofibre and Clover and four new short positions. |
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Performance Report: Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund
22 Jan 2020 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund rose +25.70% over CY2019 versus the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +23.40%. Since inception in November 2009, the Fund has returned +10.59% p.a. versus the Index's +8.30%.
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22 Jan 2020 - Performance Report: Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund is managed as one portfolio but comprises and combines two separately managed exposures: 1. An investment in the top 20 stocks of the markets, which the Fund achieves by taking an indexed position in the S&P/ASX 20 Index; and 2. An investment in the stocks beyond the S&P/ASX 20 Index. This exposure is managed on an active basis using a fundamental core approach. The Fund may also invest in securities expected to be listed on the ASX, securities listed or expected to be listed on other exchanges where such securities relate to ASX-listed securities.Derivative instruments may be used to replicate underlying positions and hedge market and company specific risks. The companies within the portfolio are primarily selected from, but not limited to, the S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index. The Fund typically holds between 40-55 stocks and thus is considered to be highly concentrated. This means that investors should expect to see high short-term volatility. The Fund seeks to achieve growth over the long-term, therefore the minimum suggested investment timeframe is 5 years. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund fell in line with the market in December, returning -2.14% versus the Index's -2.17%. Over the quarter the Fund returned +1.89% versus the Index's +0.68%. Bennelong point out the relative performance of the Fund versus the benchmark depends on the ex-20 sleeve of the portfolio. The largest contributors to outperformance over the quarter were Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Viva Leisure. The main detractor over the quarter was Afterpay, which Bennelong noted gave back some of the outperformance delivered in previous periods. Bennelong believe many of the social, political and economic uncertainties that overshadowed markets over 2019 remain. They expect the ASX to produce reasonable returns over the medium term, albeit with ups and downs along the way. |
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Performance Report: 4D Global Infrastructure Fund
22 Jan 2020 - Australian Fund Monitors
The 4D Global Infrastructure Fund rose +1.34% in December, taking 12-month performance to +29.38% and annualised performance since inception in March 2016 to +14.33%.
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22 Jan 2020 - Performance Report: 4D Global Infrastructure Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund will be managed as a single portfolio of listed global infrastructure securities including regulated utilities in gas, electricity and water, transport infrastructure such as airports, ports, road and rail as well as communication assets such as the towers and satellite sectors. The portfolio is intended to have exposure to both developed and emerging market opportunities, with country risk assessed internally before any investment is considered. The maximum absolute position of an individual stock is 7% of the fund. |
| Manager Comments | The strongest portfolio performer for the month was Brazilian renewable player AES Tiete up 28.1%. 4D noted the company is successfully executing its diversification strategy. The Fund's top performer over CY2019 was Cellnex, up +99% as it successfully executed its growth strategy. The weakest performer in December was Chilean water operator Aguas Andinas, down -3% as a result of ongoing political concerns. The Fund's weakest performer over CY2019 was global port operator DPWorld, down -21% as trade wars and political conflict weighed on the stock. 4D believe DPWorld is offering very attractive value at current levels. 4D Infrastructure noted 2019 was a strong year for the infrastructure sector as well as for the portfolio. Heading into 2020, with a macro backdrop of slower growth and lower interest rates (but no imminent recession), the portfolio remains overweight user pay assets and overweight emerging markets. 4D's biggest concern remains ongoing geopolitical issues compounded by the 2020 US election. |
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Performance Report: Cyan C3G Fund
20 Jan 2020 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Cyan C3G Fund rose +19.54% over CY19, taking annualised performance since inception in August 2014 to +18.14% versus the ASX200 Accumulation Index's +7.89%.
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20 Jan 2020 - Performance Report: Cyan C3G Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Cyan C3G Fund is based on the investment philosophy which can be defined as a comprehensive, clear and considered process focused on delivering growth. These are identified through stringent filter criteria and a rigorous research process. The Manager uses a proprietary stock filter in order to eliminate a large proportion of investments due to both internal characteristics (such as gearing levels or cash flow) and external characteristics (such as exposure to commodity prices or customer concentration). Typically, the Fund looks for businesses that are one or more of: a) under researched, b) fundamentally undervalued, c) have a catalyst for re-rating. The Manager seeks to achieve this investment outcome by actively managing a portfolio of Australian listed securities. When the opportunity to invest in suitable securities cannot be found, the manager may reduce the level of equities exposure and accumulate a defensive cash position. Whilst it is the company's intention, there is no guarantee that any distributions or returns will be declared, or that if declared, the amount of any returns will remain constant or increase over time. The Fund does not invest in derivatives and does not use debt to leverage the Fund's performance. However, companies in which the Fund invests may be leveraged. |
| Manager Comments | Despite pulling back -4.2% in December and -8.8% over Q4, the Fund ended CY19 up +19.5%. Cyan put the recent retracement down to a lack of momentum resulting in smaller stocks being sold off aggressively for no particular fundamental reason, and widespread forced selling of smaller cap ASX stocks due to a number of bigger institutional funds pulling large mandates from Cyan's competitors. During December the Fund generated some strong positive performance from three recent IPO's - Carbon Revolution (CBR), Aerometrix (AMX) and Amearo (3DA). Key detractors included Alcidion (ALC), Atomos (AMS), Quickstep (QHL), Oventus (OVN), Readcloud (RCL), Victory Offices (VOL) and Jaxsta (JXT). So far in January 2020 the Fund has already pared back more than half its December losses. Cyan's view is that, on the whole due to little negative underlying news, the new year is starting from an attractive base and they hold good hopes for another profitable year in 2020. |
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Performance Report: Paragon Australian Long Short Fund
17 Jan 2020 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Paragon Australian Long Short Fund outperformed the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +2.47% in December, taking 12-month performance to +24.69% and annualised performance since inception in March 2013 to +9.90%.
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17 Jan 2020 - Performance Report: Paragon Australian Long Short Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Paragon's unique investment style, comprising thematic led idea generation followed with an in depth research effort, results in a concentrated portfolio of high conviction stocks. Conviction in bottom up analysis drives the investment case and ultimate position sizing: * Both quantitative analysis - probability weighted high/low/base case valuations - and qualitative analysis - company meetings, assessing management, the business model, balance sheet strength and likely direction of returns - collectively form Paragon's overall view for each investment case. * Paragon will then allocate weighting to each investment opportunity based on a risk/reward profile, capped to defined investment parameters by market cap, which are continually monitored as part of Paragon's overall risk management framework. The objective of the Paragon Fund is to produce absolute returns in excess of 10% p.a. over a 3-5 year time horizon with a low correlation to the Australian equities market. |
| Manager Comments | The Paragon Australian Long Short Fund outperformed the ASX200 Accumulation Index by +2.47% in December, taking 12-month performance to +24.69% and annualised performance since inception in March 2013 to +9.90%. By contrast, the Index has returned +23.40% over the past 12 months and +8.65% p.a. since the Fund's inception. The Fund's down-capture ratio for performance over the past 12 months of -26.23% and for performance since inception of 41.02% highlight the Fund's capacity to significantly outperform in falling markets. Positive contributors for December included Adriatic and Atrum (resource upgrades), offset by declines in Audinate and Telix Pharma. In their latest report Paragon discuss the Fund's performance over the past 12 months, noting that the Fund outperformed almost all relevant indices. Their latest report also includes Paragon's 2020 outlook. In their view, many macro flags, such as central banks globally resuming quantitative easing and improvements in the US-China trade war, have turned green (from red a year ago). Around half of the Fund's exposure is in Resources (which includes the Fund's gold stocks) and the other half is in structural growth stocks across tech/medtech/fintech. Paragon anticipate near-term catalysts to drive ongoing re-ratings for many of the Fund's stocks and their performance for 2020 and beyond. |
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