NEWS
Fund Review: APN Asian REIT Fund April 2017
17 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
April Fund Review is now available on APN Asian REIT Fund, a property securities fund, investing primarily in the Asian REITS.
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17 May 2017 - Fund Review: APN Asian REIT Fund April 2017
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - April 2017 (pdf format)
APN Asian REIT Fund
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the APN Asian REIT Fund.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- APN is an ASX-listed fund manager specialising in property investment, with an investment team of six. Established in 1996, APN now has FUM of $A2.4bn including four REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) funds.
- The APN Asian REIT Fund (Fund) is a property securities fund that invests in a quality portfolio of Asian REITs, listed on the securities exchanges of the Asian Region, with the ability to hold some cash and fixed interest investments.
- The Fund aims to deliver a competitive yield with lower risk than the market. The underlying stocks are selected based on a highly disciplined investment approach that focuses on the fundamentals and number of valuation approaches. The universe can include new IPO's, other corporate actions take place and/or corporate governance improvements at the country or REIT level bring new stocks into focus.
- The Fund provides access to a wide spread of property-based revenue streams that are specifically analysed, selected and weighted with the aim of delivering strong and sustainable income returns. The Fund is an unhedged product.
- APN's Asian REIT Fund invests in a portfolio of 25-40 listed Asian REITs with a core philosophy of investing in properties with sustainable rental income streams.
- The Fund has delivered an annualised return of 14.28% p.a., since inception in July 2011 with a standard deviation of 9.35% p.a. The Sharpe and Sortino ratios are 1.2 and 2.14 respectively.
AFM Fund Review - April 2017 (pdf format)
NWQ Fiduciary Fund
16 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
NWQ Fiduciary Fund returned +0.25% in April and has returned +5.74% p.a. since its inception in May 2013.
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16 May 2017 - NWQ Fiduciary Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund aims to produce returns, after management fees and expenses of between 8% to 11% p.a. over rolling five-year periods. Furthermore, the Fund aims to achieve these returns with volatility that is a fraction of the Australian equity market, in order to smooth returns for investors. |
| Manager Comments | There was a higher level of dispersion in the performance of the Fund's underlying managers in April with four of the nine managers delivering a positive return. The Fund's Alpha managers made a positive contribution (+0.50%) to the Fund's overall performance. However, in a month, where the market was up, the Fund's Beta managers made a negative contribution to performance (-0.18%). NWQ continues to believe that there exists further potential for destructive equity and bond market volatility in the coming months, and therefore, the portfolio continues to remain overweight to the Alpha or market neutral strategies. |
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Bennelong Australian Equities Fund
16 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Australian Equities Fund returned a positive 2.79% in April, outperforming the S&P/ASX-300 Accumulation Index which returned 0.98%, by 1.80%.
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16 May 2017 - 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 | Some of the Fund's larger stock positions performed positively over the month, including Aristocrat Leisure, CSL and Domino's Pizza Enterprises. The Fund also benefited from having no exposure to the Telecommunications sector, which was very weak. The investment team continues to remain focused on the company fundamentals, particularly in an environment of macro and political uncertainty. |
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Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
15 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund rose 0.89% in April, taking the annualised return since inception to 11.09% p.a.
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15 May 2017 - 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 | For the month, Aristocrat Leisure (+27bp) was the largest contributor to the Fund's performance. Other key positive contributors included ANZ (+25bp), NAB (+16bp), Challenger (+16bp), Computershare (+14bp) and CSR (+14bp). The key negative contributors included Bluescope Steel (-14bp), RCR Tomlinson (-10bp), and Bapcor (-6bp). Net equity market exposure fell from 69.9% to 60.3% (70.6% long and 10.3% short). The Fund reduced its exposure to the Banks during the month and initiated a short position in SPI Futures. |
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APN AREIT Fund
15 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
APN AREIT Fund gained 2.27% for the month of April, to take the latest 24 months return to 22.79%.
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15 May 2017 - APN AREIT Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The senior management of APN FM all have significant experience in their fields. They include CEO Real Estate Securities, Michael Doble who has 25 years'experience having held various senior roles specialising in real estate valuation, consultancy and funds management. Immediately prior to joining APN in 2003 he was Head of Property at ANZ Funds Management. He is a fellow of the Australian Property Institute and FINSIA as well as holding a Bachelor of Business (Property). The Fund aims to deliver a competitive yield with lower risk than the market. The underlying stocks are selected based on a highly disciplined investment approach that focuses on the fundamentals and number of valuation approaches. The Fund provides access to a wide spread of property-based revenue streams that are specifically analysed, selected and weighted with the aim of delivering strong and sustainable income returns. The Fund is suited to medium to long term investors seeking a relatively high monthly income and some capital growth over the long term. |
| Manager Comments | For the month of April, the portfolio's property sector allocation remained mainly unchanged, with 60% in the Retail sector, followed by 20% in the Office sector. More than half of the portfolio consisted of the Fund's top 5 holdings, which included Scentre Group, Vicinity Centres, Stockland, Charter Hall Retail REIT and Dexus Property Group. |
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APN Asian REIT Fund
11 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
APN Asian REIT Fund rose 3.12% for the month of April, outperforming the Bloomberg Asia REIT Index which returned 1.98%, by 1.14%.
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11 May 2017 - APN Asian REIT Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Pete Morrissey and Corrine Ng are the Portfolio Managers of the Fund. Morrissey has over 15 years financial markets experience and joined APN in 2006. Previously, he worked at Lonsec and also managed an internationally focused private investment fund as well as spending several years as an analyst in the UK for Nomura, amongst others. He has also completed Masters level academic research papers on both commercial real estate cycles and global property cycles. Ng also has a strong background in property and REITs in Australia, Asia and the North American markets. Prior to joining APN, Ng worked for Aviva Investors (Senior Investment Analyst, North America Real Estate Securities Team) and Goldman Sachs & Co (Vice President, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Real Estate Securities Team) in New York. The Fund aims to deliver a competitive yield with lower risk than the market. The underlying stocks are selected based on a highly disciplined investment approach that focuses on the fundamentals and number of valuation approaches. The universe is expected to be dynamic as new IPO's, other corporate actions take place and / or corporate governance improvements at country or REIT level bring new stocks into focus. The Fund focuses on passive rental earnings derived from well managed Asian REITs listed in mature capital markets and will not invest in infrastructure, property development companies or stocks with a 'loose association with property'. The Fund provides access to a wide spread of property-based revenue streams that are specifically analysed, selected and weighted with the aim of delivering strong and sustainable income returns. The Fund is an unhedged product. The Fund is suited to medium to long term investors seeking a relatively high income and some capital growth over the long term. |
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Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
11 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Optimal Australia Absolute Trust reported a net return of +0.07% in April 2017, to take the annualised return since inception to 8.08% p.a.
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11 May 2017 - Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's bias is likely to be net long under normal market conditions, with the core strategy being to construct a portfolio of listed equity securities priced at levels that do not adequately reflect their underlying value. The Fund will seek to boost returns and limit potential market downside by selective short selling of individual stocks which are priced at levels that are viewed as materially above their underlying value. The Fund will also use certain trading strategies both within its core portfolio (through rebalancing stock weights and overall market exposure in response to price movements) and in certain other situations (typically of a shorter-duration and/or opportunistic nature) with the objective of further increasing returns. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund's long investments generated around 30bps of return, on average long exposure of 58% of NAV. Many of the long investments are heavily weighted to stocks that have little dependence on the domestic economy or are otherwise desynchronised from it, including offshore financials Clydesdale and Henderson, CSL, Orocobre, and even Woolworths. The stock shorts and the short index futures position both cost the Fund, slightly more than 10 bps of performance, but the investment team believes that it is crucial to have portfolio insurance after a year of such stellar market gains. |
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Allard Investment Fund
10 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Allard Investment Fund (AIF) increased 2.23% during the month of April 2017 and is up 21.51% for the latest 12 months.
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10 May 2017 - Allard Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Allard's investment approach has remained consistent throughout their history: That is to invest prudently but proactively in well-managed businesses that achieve superior returns on capital in industries with long-term growth potential. The Manager uses both broad top-down guidance and detailed bottom-up analysis to identify suitable markets, industries and companies. Although long only investors, a critical factor in their strategy and performance is the ability to hold cash when they cannot find companies that meet their criteria or are at a sufficient discount to their valuations. |
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KIS Asia Long Short Fund
9 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
KIS Asia Long Short Fund returned -1.59% in April, taking the return for the most recent 12 months to 8.51%.
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9 May 2017 - 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 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 excluding Japan, but including 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 main winner for the month, producing 27bp on the return, came from a short in Metcash (MTS.AX) whose share price suffered on concerns of supermarket price wars and Aldi's expansion. The Fund also made money on two of its long positions in BBMG Corp (2009.HK) and Altium Ltd (ALU.AX), both contributing 22bp each. The Fund, however, suffered a loss of -101bp from its long position in Range International Ltd (RAN.AX) and another -23bp from its the long position in Cardinal Resources Ltd (CDV.AX). |
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Quay Global Real Estate Fund
8 May 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Quay Global Real Estate Fund rose 3.89% for April 2017, outperforming the global real estate (FTSE/ EPRA NAREIT Developed Index Net TR AUD) which returned 3.11%, by 0.78%.
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8 May 2017 - Quay Global Real Estate Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund will invest in a number of global listed real estate companies, groups or funds. The investment strategy is to make investments in real estate securities at a price that will deliver a real, after inflation, total return of 5% per annum (before costs and fees), inclusive of distributions over a longer-term period. The Investment Strategy is indifferent to the constraints of any index benchmarks and is relatively concentrated in its number of investments. The Fund is expected to own between 20 and 40 securities, and from time to time up to 20% of the portfolio maybe invested in cash. The Fund is $A un-hedged. |
| Manager Comments | Safestore (UK) and Hansteen (UK) were the strongest contributors to the Fund, both assisted by a recovering GBP. Multifamily/apartments (17.7%), Storage (12.8%) and Industrial (11.8%) were the most heavily weighted sectors in the portfolio. During the month, cash holdings reduced from the prior month's 10% to around 5.2% as better entry prices or new opportunities emerged in the market for the investment. |
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