NEWS
Allard Investment Fund
15 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Allard Investment Fund's (AIF), net of all fees, increased 1.0% during the month of May 2015.
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15 Jun 2015 - Allard Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The Fund portfolio was invested 75.5% in equities and 24.5% in cash and fixed income. There has been little change since the prior month, in terms of the industry and geographic breakdown of the portfolio. The Fund continues to be most exposed to Financial Services at 17.30%, Conglomerates at 10.80% and Telco's at 10.70%. The geographic breakdown was Hong Kong / China at 43.00%, Singapore 10.80% and Korea 9.70%. The top 5 holdings had 40.10% concentration of the portfolio and 17.20% in the next 5 holdings. Click below to review the latest Fund Manager's Report. |
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Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
12 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund performance in May was down 1.91% compared to the ASX200 Accumulation Index return of 0.40%.
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12 Jun 2015 - Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | In a typical environment the Fund will hold around 70 stocks comprising 35 pairs. Each pair contains one long and one short position each of which will have been thoroughly researched and are selected from the same market sector. Whilst in an ideal environment each stock's position will make a positive return, it is the relative performance of the pair that is important. As a result the Fund can make positive returns when each stock moves in the same direction provided the long position outperforms the short one in relative terms. However, if neither side of the trade is profitable, strict controls are required to ensure losses are limited. The Fund uses no derivatives and has no currency exposure. The Fund has no hard stop loss limits, instead relying on the small average position size per stock (1.5%) and per pair (3%) to limit exposure. Where practical pairs are always held within the same sector to limit cross sector risk, and positions can be held for months or years. |
| Manager Comments | The short positions were more the driver of the Fund's under-performance than the long positions. A review of the key contributing loss-making shorts, has the Fund Manager confident it was not due to fundamental factors, more the noise associated short-term monthly measurement. The Fund activity for the month of May was modest with weightings revised for few pairs, with a new pair within the Financials sectors - long National Australia Bank / short Bendigo Bank. Click below to read the Fund Manager's complete commentary and future market outlook. |
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Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund April 2015
11 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review on Insync Global Titans Fund is now available.
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11 Jun 2015 - Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund April 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund AFM Fund Review April 2015 (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 Fund's unit price decreaed by 0.40% during the month of April. 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.
Insync Global Titans Fund AFM Fund Review April 2015 (pdf format)
Monash Absolute Investment Fund
10 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Monash Absolute Investment Fund returned -0.40% in May, and the Australian equity market had its first positive month (0.40%) since February.
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10 Jun 2015 - Monash Absolute Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | 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. The Manager's experience across value, growth and discounted cash flow styles allows them to use a comprehensive approach to investment decisions that applies all three. They also have the patience to seek out only compelling opportunities, rather than settling for relative value. The portfolio is somewhat concentrated, looking to diversify across industries and themes, rather than by trying to stay near an index. The portfolio may at times have a large amount of cash or other protection. However once investments are made turnover may be relatively high in order to lock in gains and avoid losses. |
| Manager Comments | The fund continues to have a low Beta and a relatively weak correlation with the market. Over the last three months, the fund is up 0.75%, while the market is down. Most of the Fund's stocks had a good month, with the average returns from the Outlook Driven stocks and the Product Launch group positive. However the Fund had a weak result from the Event Trade stocks. Click the link below to the rest of the Fund Manager's Report. |
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Fund Review: Supervised High Yield Fund April 2015
9 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Fund review on Supervised High Yield Fund, a fixed income fund, is now available.
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9 Jun 2015 - Fund Review: Supervised High Yield Fund April 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
SUPERVISED HIGH YIELD FUND
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund:
- The Supervised High Yield Fund (SHYF) has a 6 year track record investing in fixed interest investments. The Investment strategy aims to deliver returns with zero correlation to equity markets by investing in debt securities with minimal default probability and offering a premium return above the risk free rate.
- The Fund is managed by Philip Carden whose experience in debt and capital markets spans 33 years, including time with JB Were's Capel Court Securities and Macquarie Bank, where he was the Executive Director responsible for the Debt Markets Division.
- SHYF is an Alternative Income fund which invests in Global and Australian debt markets, with all foreign currency receivables hedged back to Australian dollars.
- The Fund utilises a top down analysis of the economic environment and market to screen and identify debt market opportunities which it believes offer low risk with high yield. The next stage is the development of a risk matrix and investment strategy, following which detailed research is undertaken on specific investment opportunities which meet the pre-defined criteria established in the investment strategy.
- Prior to approving an investment for the Fund each potential investment is subject to two stress tests. The first of these is for credit and default risk, in which the investment is stress-tested to ensure that in a worst case economic environment it can repay 100% of its principal and interest obligations case scenario for the asset by examining the highest margin over the risk rate that the investment has previously experienced in a crisis situation. Any decline in value under the stress test that exceeds 10% of the Fund's value is avoided The second test examines market risk. In this case Carden looks at the worst case scenario for the asset by examining the highest margin over the risk rate that the investment has previously experienced in a crisis situation. Any decline in value under the stress test that exceeds 10% of the Fund's value is avoided.
Signature Quantitative Fund
5 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Signature Quantitative Fund returned -2.10% for April, to bring the annual performance since inception to 13.11%.
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5 Jun 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 April, the Capital Raisings and Alpha Capture strategies continued their recent strong performance. The Dividend Arbitrage strategy under-performed, due to an exposure to the banking sector as well as the relative under-performance of dividend yield stocks. Click the link below to view the latest Monthly Report. |
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Insync Global Titans Fund
4 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund decreased 0.40% in April, bringing the Fund's prior 12 month performance to 19.27%.
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4 Jun 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 | The performance was driven by positive contributions from holdings in Microsoft, Publicis, BAT, Reckitt Benckiser and Nestle. The main negative contributors were McDonald's, Zimmer and Medtronic. 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 Click below to read the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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Supervised High Yield Fund
3 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Supervised High Yield Fund rose 0.52% during April to bring the Fund's annual return since inception to 10.18%. In the same time frame the RBA Cash Rate returned 3.47%.
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3 Jun 2015 - Supervised High Yield Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund may also invest in interest rate swaps, options over authorized investments and exchange traded futures contracts. All these will be either listed or traded in a market where they can be independently valued. Fundamental to the investment procedure is the tenet that no debt security will qualify for investment unless it can repay 100% of its principal and interest in a worst case economic scenario. |
| Manager Comments | More than half of the portfolio's composition was in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) at 60.36%. The rest of the portfolio was divided in the following sectors: US Corporate Loans at 26.67%, Cash at 9.11% and AUD Corporate Loans at 3.86%. Click below to view the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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Cor Capital Fund
2 Jun 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Cor Capital was down 0.65% in April to bring annual performance since inception to 5.55% p.a., compared to the RBA cash rate of 2.68% p.a.
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2 Jun 2015 - Cor Capital Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Cor Capital Fund is a Multi- Asset Fund which combines a pre-determined strategic asset allocation with active but systemised rebalancing to generate returns and manage volatility whilst maintaining transparency and liquidity. The Fund strategy is not reliant on accurate market predictions, forecasts or timing for success. Returns are generated in a number of ways; 1) by maintaining sufficiently large positions in a diverse group of asset classes, 2) via the 'volatility harvesting' consequences of active rebalancing, and 3) from the offsetting behaviour of certain asset classes under specific conditions. The combined portfolio is expected to exhibit relatively low volatility and low turnover. In the interests of avoiding complexity, maintaining liquidity, and minimising reliance on third parties, the Fund strategy does not employ gearing, derivatives or short-selling. |
| Manager Comments | Although market indices for equities, bonds and gold (AUD) were all down by more than 1.0% during the month, the equities component of the Fund posted a positive return (+1.04%) due to its more balanced weighting between financial and resources/energy stocks. The Fund also benefited from its 25% cash weighting. |
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Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund April 2015
2 Jun 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.
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2 Jun 2015 - Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund April 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
AURORA FORTITUDE ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- The Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund (AFARF) has a 10 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 1.06.
- 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.
