NEWS
Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund February 2015
9 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Fund's unit price in February increased by 4.90%. Read February Fund Review and get CPD points.
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9 Apr 2015 - Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund February 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
INSYNC GLOBAL TITANS FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Insync Global Titans Fund.
CPD Points are now available for all AFM Fund Reviews. Read the review and answer 5 questions to earn half a point toward your continuing professional development.
We would like to highlight the following:
- The Fund's unit price increased by 4.90% in February. The performance was driven by positive contributions from our holdings in Nestle, Reckitt Benckiser, Experian and Sanofi as well as the weaker Australian dollar. The main negative contributors were Time Warner Cable, Microsoft and Discover Financial Services. 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.
- 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.
- 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
Australian Fund Monitors
Signature Quantitative Fund
8 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Signature Quantitative Fund returned -1.30% bringing the Fund's annual performance since inception to 14.98%.
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8 Apr 2015 - Signature Quantitative Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | SQF has been established to profit from anomalies surrounding event driven, behavioural & factor based structural market inefficiencies which generate significant profits and are uncorrelated & persistent over time. Specific strategies such as dividend arbitrage, index addition and deletion, tax year end, capital raisings, among other strategies are used by the Fund. The Fund's initial focus is on investing in Australian and New Zealand markets. |
| Manager Comments | In February, the Alpha Capture and Capital Raising Strategies were positive contributors to the Fund's return. The Index Re-balance Strategy contributed negatively mainly due to the following stocks; Pacific Rubiales Energy (-92bps), Penn West Petroleum (-81bps) and Denbury Resources (-39bps). The Dividend Arbitrage Strategy also under-performed in February, where the long positions outperformed the market, but the short positions out-performed the long positions. Read the complete Monthly Report from the Fund on AFM website. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund February 2015
8 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
February Fund Review with key statistics for Totus Alpha Fund now available. CPD Points also available.
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8 Apr 2015 - Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund February 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund AFM Review February 2015 (pdf format)
TOTUS ALPHA FUND
CPD Points are now available for all AFM Fund Reviews. Read the review and answer 5 questions to earn half a point toward your continuing professional development.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- Totus Capital is a Sydney based long short fund manager established in 2012 by Ben McGarry which aims to place equal emphasis on performance and capital preservation. The Fund invests mainly in Australia, but also in other developed economies, with a primary exposure to equity markets.
- The Totus Alpha Fund?s investment strategy is to identify structural themes, and then seek to drive performance by investing in securities that have concentrated exposure to those themes. Single stock short positions are used to generate alpha, frequently in under researched parts of the market such as the small and mid-cap space. Index derivatives are used to hedge the portfolio?s market risk.
- McGarry qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PWC in 1999 and has 14 years market experience, commencing his career covering European building materials and construction sectors at Morgan Stanley in London. Previous experience included analytical roles at Ausbil, a Sydney based $10bn+ long-only manager, and sell side emerging companies experience at UBS. McGarry?s emerging company research with UBS included exposure to a range of sectors including energy, materials, industrials, tech, financials, retail and telecommunications.
- The Fund has delivered an annalised return of 26.00% since inception in March 2012 as compared to 16.31% for the ASX 200 Accumulation Index. The standard deviation has been higher than the Index at 13.09% as compared to 11.35% and the Sharpe ratio is 1.63.
Sean Webster
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund AFM Review February 2015 (pdf format)
KIS Asia Long Short Fund
7 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
KIS Asia Long Short Fund was flat (0.09%) in February. Since inception the Fund's annual return was 14.61% p.a.
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7 Apr 2015 - 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 portfolio gained 22bp in February due to the Long Short strategy. The Fund's long names contributed 314bp whilst the short positions costed 299bp. On a market cap basis, the Fund's main long was in small caps, which created a profit of 85bp. The most notable contributors in small cap names were Freelancer (FLN. AX) at 24bp and Nirvana Asia Ltd. (1438.HK) at 16bp. HK was an unsuccessful Hong Kong IPO which created a great opportunity to buy value being the cheapest death care service provider in the region and cheap on a global scale. The Portfolio Hedge, Arbitrage, Convertible Bonds and Special Situations Strategies did not make any substantial impact, sum costing the fund 10bp as a total. The impact of interest rate differentials reduced the performance of the US$ series by 25bp. Read the complete Fund Manager's commentary on the AFM website. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
The Paragon Fund
3 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Paragon Fund returned 3.60% (ASX 200 Accum 6.89%) during February and Since inception the fund has returned +47.05% after fees versus the market (Index) +26.63%
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3 Apr 2015 - The Paragon Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Paragon accepts that markets are not always efficient in pricing information into securities and that no one investment style works in every stage of the investment cycle. Subsequently Paragon adopts a top down thematic led approach to identify companies exhibiting sustainable or improving returns on capital driven by volume growth, pricing power and competitive advantages. Paragon utilises both quantitative analysis to provide probability weighted high/low/base case valuations and qualitative analysis in assessing management, the business model and likely direction of returns. Paragon will allocate assets to each investment opportunity based on a risk/reward profile. Positions have defined investment parameters and risk limits, which are then monitored on an ongoing basis. |
| Manager Comments | Key drivers of the Paragon Fund's performance for February included solid returns from industrial firms Regis Healthcare, Qantas and Orora, from diversified financials Macquarie Bank and Henderson Group, and Nanosonics. At the end of the month the fund had 29 long positions and 7 short positions. Read the complete Fund Manager's commentary on the AFM website. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Insync Global Titans Fund
2 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund increased 4.9% in February bringing the Fund's prior 12 month performance to 15.57%.
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2 Apr 2015 - Insync Global Titans 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 | More than half of the Fund's geographic composition was in North America at 62.60%. The key industry compositions consisted of Health Care at 27.40%, Consumer Discretionary at 20.80%, Consumer Staples at 17.90% and IT at 15.90%. The performance was driven by positive contributions from the Fund's holdings in Medtronic, Microsoft, McGraw-Hill and Disney. The main negative contributors were Baxter, McDonald's and Hugo Boss. 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. Read Fund Manager's complete report on the AFM site. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund February 2015
1 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Fund review available for Bennelong Long Short Fund which has over twelve year track record and annualised returns of 17.25%.
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1 Apr 2015 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund February 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
BENNELONG LONG SHORT EQUITY FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund.
CPD Points are now available for all AFM Fund Reviews. Read the review and answer 5 questions to earn half a point toward your continuing professional development.
- The Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large cap stocks from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with a twelve year track record and annualised returns of 17.25%.
- The consistent returns across the investment history indicates the Fund's ability to provide positive returns in volatile and negative markets and significantly outperform the broader market. The Fund's Sharpe Ratio and Sortino Ratio are 1.03 (Index 0.37) and 1.72 (Index 0.42) respectively.
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Fund performance in February was 0.05%, with no major changes to the Fund's positioning. Behind this month?s result was generally sound pair positioning, with strong positive contributions from long QBE Insurance / short Suncorp Group, long Ramsay Healthcare / short Primary Healthcare, and a long position in Whitehaven Coal. However offsetting these gains was the Fund's long Brambles / short Toll Holdings.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sean Webster
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Allard Investment Fund
1 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Allard Investment Fund decreased 0.2% during February 2015, bringing the Fund's past twelve month performance to 24.23%.
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1 Apr 2015 - Allard Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The Fund portfolio stook at 70.60% invested in equities & 29.40% held in cash & fixed income. In terms of industry breakdown the Fund was most exposed to Financial Services at 18.7%, Conglomerates 10.9% and Telco's with 9.7%. The geographic breakdown was Hong Kong / China at 40.5%, Singapore 10.9% and Korea 8.5%. The top 5 holdings had 42.50% concentration of the portfolio and 16.10% in the next 5 holdings. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Totus Alpha Fund
31 Mar 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund was down slightly during February at -0.20% as performance from the Fund's long positions were cancelled out by the short positions.
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31 Mar 2015 - Totus Alpha Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund is a long/short investment fund principally investing in listed entities, commodities, futures and options in Australia and internationally. The Fund is not a market neutral fund and accordingly may switch between net long positions and net short positions. The Fund may use short sales and derivatives. Gearing may be used to enhance returns and the Fund may be geared in excess of 100% of the Fund's Net Asset Value. There is a limit to net exposure of 150%. |
| Manager Comments | At the end of February, the fund had a net exposure of 30.6% and a gross exposure of 252.25%. The fund held 124 positions (56 long and 68 short). Top contributors to performance in February were our long positions in Domino's +1.65% (Scarce Growth), Macquarie +1.37% (Financial Services) and Altium +1.08% (Online). Biggest detractors from performance were our short positions in ASX Index Futures -0.85% and LNG Limited -0.58% (Promoter), and a long position in Intueri -0.85% (Scarce Growth). The Fund looks for stocks with medium to long term tailwinds for longs and headwinds for shorts. Over shorter periods, the Fund can occasionally experience a 'short squeeze' due to investor positioning driving the share prices rather than the fundamentals and if too many investors are short. The Fund expects that these squeezes inevitably run out of steam and fundamentals come back into play. Read the complete Fund Manager's Report now available on the AFM's Fund Profile. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund February 2015
30 Mar 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest fund review now available for the Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund, which has one of the most risk averse Key Performance Statistics of any fund in AFM's database. CPD Points available.
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30 Mar 2015 - Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund February 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AURORA FORTITUDE ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND
CPD Points are now available for all AFM Fund Reviews. Read the review and answer 5 questions to earn half a point toward your continuing professional development.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- The Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund (AFARF) has a 8 year track record investing in ASX listed equities. A Market Neutral overlay is used across a multi strategy approach which allows for flexible asset allocation to maximise returns and minimise risk under a variety of market conditions and cycles.CIO John Corr has over 20 years financial market experience with a strong focus on risk.
- Significant use of low risk "long" derivatives and option overlays has provided positive returns with low volatility during periods of market dislocation. Risk statistics are impressive and shows the Funds risk philosophy; over 85% of monthly performances have been positive with no losing months in 2008, the Fund's largest drawdown is -2.09% and the Sharpe ratio 1.05.
- ASX listed Aurora Funds Limited was established on the merger of three existing fund management businesses, managing approx. $230m on behalf of more than 2,500 retail and wholesale investors.
Sean Webster
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
