NEWS
Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund
26 Apr 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund gained 0.59% for the month of March. The Fund has a low systematic risk (beta) to the ASX 200 and the MSCI World Indices of 0.07 and 0.08 respectively.
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26 Apr 2017 - Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | PanAgora believes the best way to find opportunities in the global markets is to combine fundamental analysis with robust quantitative techniques in order to filter the investment universe and select the investments. The Fund invests primarily in listed equity securities from a global universe of developed markets and a select group of emerging market countries. The Fund's objective is to seek absolute returns by identifying and exploiting multiple inefficiencies that may exist in global equity markets. These inefficiencies are primarily exploited through the use of a long/short equity strategy which aims to construct a portfolio that is generally neutral to market movements. As such the performance of the investment strategy is largely independent of the market's performance. The Fund seeks to achieve its objective by using a diversified set of strategies that have low correlation to one another. In addition, because many of these strategies are designed to generate profit under different market conditions, their combination is expected to result in more stable returns over time than any individual strategy in and of itself. |
| Manager Comments | The March performance was driven by the long-term portfolio (+0.61%), primarily from the U.S. sleeve. The U.S. portfolio contributed +0.84% to performance, with Information Technology and Health Care, being the top performing sectors (+0.44% and +0.34% respectively). A short position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc was the top contributor in the portfolio (+0.30%). However, the international portfolio detracted -0.23%, largely due to the reversals in the post-US election reflation trade, which resulted in stocks that benefit the most from rising GDP growth and firmer monetary policies to underperform in March. The intermediate-term portfolio also detracted slightly (-0.02%), while the short-term portfolio ended flat for the month. |
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KIS Asia Long Short Fund
24 Apr 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
KIS Asia Long Short Fund rose 0.8% in March, taking the return for the most recent 12 months to 13.27%.
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24 Apr 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 month's performance was driven largely by long positions in Cardinal Resources Ltd (CDV.AX) 0.41%, Wynn Macau Ltd (1128.HK) 0.21% and Primary Health Care Ltd (PRY.AX) 0.21%. Detractors for the month included short positions in Metcash Ltd (MTS.AX) -0.33%, MTR Corp (0066.HK) -0.18% and Woodside Petroleum Limited (WPL.AX) -0.16%. |
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Affluence Investment Fund
24 Apr 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Affluence Investment Fund increased 0.60% in March, resulting in a +12.72% return for the latest 12 months.
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24 Apr 2017 - Affluence Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund does not invest directly into any asset class, rather, it invests in investment managers which satisfy Affluence Funds Management's investment criteria; its investment philosophy is based on a formula developed by CEO/Portfolio Manager Daryl Wilson since the start of his career in 1999. The Fund targets total returns of at least 5% above inflation over rolling 3 year periods with volatility of returns less than 50% of the ASX200 Index. The Fund also aims to provide investors with a distribution yield of at least 5% p.a. To ensure appropriate diversity of managers and limit the potential for conflicts of interest, no more than 20% of the Fund will be invested with any one external manager. Affluence seeks to achieve the Funds' investment objective by choosing attractively priced investments overseen by quality managers. The Fund uses a number of processes to identify potential investments including quantitative screens for investments which meet historical performance, volatility and other criteria. They also use a number of external researchers and information sources to assist in this process. |
| Manager Comments | The top performing investments for the month included the Terra Capital Natural Resources Fund, the India Avenue Equity Fund, the Smallco Broadcap Fund and the Smallco Investment Fund. However, the Fund's small holding in the Baker Steel Gold Fund and the Brookfield Prime Property Fund detracted from the performance. At the end of March, the Fund provided exposure to over 25 unlisted funds, and over 20 LIC's, and other listed entities. Around 15% of the portfolio was in cash. |
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Collins St Value Fund
21 Apr 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Collins Street Value Fund rose 1.75% for the month of March, to take the latest 12 months return to 24.70%.
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21 Apr 2017 - Collins St Value Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The managers of the fund intend to maintain a concentrated portfolio of investments in ASX listed companies that they have investigated and consider to be undervalued. They will assess the attractiveness of potential investments using a number of common industry based measured, a proprietary in-house model and by speaking with management, industry experts and competitors. Once the managers form a view that an investment offers sufficient upside potential relative to the downside risk, the fund will seek to make an investment. If no appropriate investment can be identified the managers are prepared to hold cash and wait for the right opportunities to present themselves. |
| Manager Comments | At the end of the month, more than half of the portfolio was composed of securities from the Diversified Financials (26%), Media (16%) and Commercial & Professional Services (16%) sectors. Cash holdings increased from the prior month's 10% to 17%. The investment team continues to remain focused on creating a concentrated 'deep value' investing philosophy - buying assets for less than their intrinsic value. This is reflected in the portfolio, consisting only 14 ASX listed securities for the month of March. |
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Quay Global Real Estate Fund
21 Apr 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Quay Global Real Estate Fund returned -0.13% for the month of March 2017.
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21 Apr 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 | The portfolio increased its exposure to Europe during the month, allocating to the Spanish REIT Hispania, which become the biggest contributor to the Fund's total return. Hansteen (UK) also performed well for the month. Among the laggards were Life Storage (US) and Apartment Investment Co (US). The Fund also did well relative to global real estate indices by avoiding the large US Mall owners/managers, with Simon Property Group and General Growth Properties both significantly underperforming the broader market. Multifamily/apartments (17.4%), Storage (12.3%) and Industrial (11.9%) were the most heavily weighted sectors in the portfolio. The Fund holds continues to hold around 10% in cash as the investment team looks for better entry prices or new opportunities. |
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Pengana Global Small Companies Fund
20 Apr 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Global Small Companies Fund returned +2.9% in March, outperforming the MSCI AC World SMID Cap Index, which returned 1.8%, by 1.1%.
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20 Apr 2017 - Pengana Global Small Companies Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund is managed by Founder & CIO Leah Zell, and Portfolio Managers Jon Moog and David Li. The Lizard investment team have over 50 years combined investment experience in global small cap investing. Leah Zell has over 30 years of experience and is a recognized expert in international investing in the international small-cap category. The Fund's investment team uses a value-oriented investment approach to small and mid-cap global equities that seeks to identify and invest in quality businesses that create significant value but are mispriced, overlooked or out-of-favour. The investment manager believes that unique opportunities exist due to limited available research, corporate actions or unfavourable investor perception. The portfolio construction process aims to develop portfolios that incorporate the best investment ideas from the investment manager's research while allowing for liquidity constraints and perceived risk. The Fund's investment manager will not typically hedge currency exposures, however during periods of currency extremes, some currency hedging may be employed. Derivatives may be used to achieve long or short exposures, reduce risk and reduce transaction costs. Derivatives will not be used for the purposes of leverage and the Fund's net exposure will never be short. |
| Manager Comments | The positions that were acquired in the last 6 months had the most significant contribution to the March performance. Currency also had a positive impact on the performance of both, the Fund (+0.8%) and the Index (+0.6%), as the AUD depreciated against most other major currencies. The worst performer for the month was PRA Group Inc., which reported lackluster results and as the company continues to work through several issues. The investment team continues to ignore the market 'noise' and remains focused on the fundamental factors that drive long-term value: buying great companies at cheap prices. |
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Fund Review: APN Asian REIT Fund March 2017
20 Apr 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
March Fund Review is now available on APN Asian REIT Fund, a property securities fund, investing primarily in the Asian REITS.
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20 Apr 2017 - Fund Review: APN Asian REIT Fund March 2017
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - March 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 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 13.89% p.a., since inception in July 2011 with a standard deviation of 9.38% p.a. The Sharpe and Sortino ratios are 1.16 and 2.05 respectively.
AFM Fund Review - March 2017 (pdf format)
Cyan C3G Fund
19 Apr 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Cyan C3G Fund gained 1.2% in March, to take the Fund's one year return to 21.22%.
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19 Apr 2017 - 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 | The Fund didn't have much in the way of either outlying positive or negative performers over March. There were some small rises experienced from the Fund's core holdings, which included Capitol Health (CAJ), PSC Insurance (PSI), and Skydive the Beach (SKB). The only disappointing performance came from a domestic credit provider Money3 (MNY), which fell 13%. The Fund continues to be conservatively positioned with the cash weighting occasionally reaching 50%. However, the investment team believes that there have been a number of positive signs that the rotation of interest has returned to the small cap sector and thereby creating new investment opportunities for the Fund. |
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Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
19 Apr 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund rose 1.04% in March, taking the annualised return since inception to 11.09% p.a.
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19 Apr 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, AGL Energy (+36bp) was the largest contributor to performance. The Banks (NAB, ANZ, CBA, WBC) and Aristocrat Leisure were also solid contributors to performance (combined +98 basis points). The key negative contributors included a short position in Spotless Group (-23bp) and a short position in SPI Futures (-19bp). Resources (RIO, MIN, BHP, MGX) also detracted (combined -42bp). Net equity market exposure increased from 53.9% to 69.9% (73.1% long and 3.2% short). |
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Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust March 2017
18 Apr 2017 - Australian Fund Monitors
Read the latest Fund Review on Optimal Australian Absolute Trust.
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18 Apr 2017 - Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust March 2017
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Fund Review - March 2017 (pdf format)
OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA ABSOLUTE TRUST
AFM have released the most recently updated Fund Review on the Optimal Australia Absolute Trust.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- 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 investment team comprising George Colman, Peter Whiting, and Stephen Nicholls bring 100 years combined experience in equity markets.
- In February, the Fund returned +0.9%, to take annualised return since inception to 8.15% p.a. The Fund's approach to risk is shown by the Sharpe ratio of 1.30 (Index 0.28), Sortino ratio of 2.65 (Index 0.29), both of which are well above the ASX 200 Accumulation Index and has recorded over 78% positive months.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
AFM Fund Review - March 2017 (pdf format)
