NEWS
Allard Investment Fund
29 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Allard Investment Fund increased 0.9% during March, to bring the Fund's last twelve month performance to 25.22%.
Read more...
29 Apr 2015 - Allard Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Report Date | |
Manager | |
Fund Name | |
Strategy | |
Latest Return Date | |
Latest Return | |
Latest 6 Months | |
Latest 12 Months | |
Latest 24 Months | |
Annualised Since Inception | |
Inception Date | |
FUM (millions) | |
Fund Overview | |
Manager Comments | The Fund portfolio was invested 73.70% in equities and 26.30% in cash and fixed income. In terms of industry breakdown, the Fund continues to be most exposed to Financial Services at 18.9%, Conglomerates at 11.2% and Telco's at 9.6%. The geographic breakdown was Hong Kong / China at 41.90%, Singapore 11.2% and Korea 9.1%. The top 5 holdings had 42.40% concentration of the portfolio and 16.50% in the next 5 holdings. Review the Fund's Monthly Report on the AFM website |
More Information |
The Paragon Fund
28 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
In March, The Paragon Fund returned 2.10% (ASX 200 Accum -0.09%). The Fund's annual return since inception has been 21.54% p.a. versus the Index's 11.95% p.a.
Read more...
28 Apr 2015 - The Paragon Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Report Date | |
Manager | |
Fund Name | |
Strategy | |
Latest Return Date | |
Latest Return | |
Latest 6 Months | |
Latest 12 Months | |
Latest 24 Months | |
Annualised Since Inception | |
Inception Date | |
FUM (millions) | |
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 March included solid returns from industrial firms Regis Healthcare and Qantas, from diversified financials Macquarie Bank and Henderson Group, and Netcomm Wireless and Reward Minerals. Short positions in Ardent Leisure and Resolute Gold also contributed. At the end of the month the fund had 30 long positions and 12 short positions. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's Report. |
More Information |
Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund March 2015
28 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
March Fund Review with key statistics for Totus Alpha Fund now available. CPD Points also available.
Read more...
28 Apr 2015 - Fund Review: Totus Alpha Fund March 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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 27.45% since inception in March 2012 as compared to 15.79% for the ASX 200 Accumulation Index. The standard deviation has been higher than the Index at 13.06% as compared to 11.22% and the Sharpe ratio is 1.72.
Sean Webster
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund AFM Review March 2015 (pdf format)
Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund March 2015
27 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
March Fund Review now available for Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund, which has over nine years of positive track record.
Read more...
27 Apr 2015 - Fund Review: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund March 2015
By: Australian Fund Monitors
BENNELONG KARDINIA ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review. You are also able to view the Fund's Profile.
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 long biased, research driven, active equity long/short strategy investing in listed ASX companies with an nine year track record.
- The Fund has significantly outperformed the ASX200 Accumulation Index since its inception in April 2006 and also has significantly lower risk KPI's. The Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund returned 1.24% in March and has volatility of 7.35% pa, compared to the ASX200 Accumulation's 14.23%.
- The Fund also has a strong focus on capital protection in negative markets. Portfolio Managers Mark Burgess and Kristiaan Rehder have significant market experience, while the Bennelong Group provide infrastructure, operational, compliance and distribution capabilities.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sean Webster
Research Manager
Insync Global Titans Fund
27 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund decreased 0.50% in March bringing the Fund's prior 12 month performance to 18.55%.
Read more...
27 Apr 2015 - Insync Global Titans Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Report Date | |
Manager | |
Fund Name | |
Strategy | |
Latest Return Date | |
Latest Return | |
Latest 6 Months | |
Latest 12 Months | |
Latest 24 Months | |
Annualised Since Inception | |
Inception Date | |
FUM (millions) | |
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 our holdings in Roche, Sanofi, Medtronic and Disney. The main negative contributors were Experian, BAT, 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. Read Fund Manager's complete report on the AFM site. |
More Information |
Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund March 2015
24 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Fund review available for Bennelong Long Short Fund which has over twelve year track record and annualised returns of 17.45%.
Read more...
24 Apr 2015 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund March 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 17.45%.
- 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 1.05 (Index 0.37) and 1.75 (Index 0.41) respectively.
-
Fund performance in March was 3.59%, with no major changes to the Fund's positioning. Across the portfolio, 21 of the 31 pairs posted a profit. The Fund's strongest positive contributors were across three separate sectors and included: 1) Retail, 2) Financials and 3) Gaming. On the negative side, the largest setback was in Healthcare sector.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sean Webster
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Avenir Value Fund
24 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Avenir Value Fund rose 0.78% in March in a down Equities Market (-0.09%).
Read more...
24 Apr 2015 - Avenir Value Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Report Date | |
Manager | |
Fund Name | |
Strategy | |
Latest Return Date | |
Latest Return | |
Latest 6 Months | |
Latest 12 Months | |
Latest 24 Months | |
Annualised Since Inception | |
Inception Date | |
FUM (millions) | |
Fund Overview | The Fund will invest in securities where Avenir believes the company is simply mis-priced and deeply undervalued and offers significant potential for revaluation. The Fund will also invest in companies that are subject to specific corporate events such as mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, recapitalisations, spin-offs, demergers, management change, distressed situations, and other sharply delineated corporate events. The Fund will also selectively invest in short positions in companies where Avenir believes the company is significantly overvalued or where the company's business model is broken or structurally challenged. |
Manager Comments | The Fund's Sharpe and Sortino ratios are 1.17 and 2.05 respectively since inception in August 2011. Also notable are the Up and Down capture ratios at 0.42 and -0.26 respectively. At month-end, the Fund's geographical disposition was 47% US, 12% Asia, 13% Western Europe, 1% Australia, 11% other and 15% cash. The top 10 holdings were 58% of NAV. Review the latest Fund Report on the AFM website. |
More Information |
Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund
23 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund returned 0.42% in March, bringing the annualised return since inception to 10.93%.
Read more...
23 Apr 2015 - Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Report Date | |
Manager | |
Fund Name | |
Strategy | |
Latest Return Date | |
Latest Return | |
Latest 6 Months | |
Latest 12 Months | |
Latest 24 Months | |
Annualised Since Inception | |
Inception Date | |
FUM (millions) | |
Fund Overview | The Fund will usually hold 40 to 80 positions and will be well diversified across the various event strategies. In keeping with the absolute return focus the Manager will eliminate market risk where appropriate by hedging market and foreign currency risks. Since inception the Fund has averaged a net equity market exposure of ~10%. Sizing of an investment position will depend on the expected risk adjusted returns while taking account the liquidity and volatility of the stock. In addition, the maximum potential loss on any one position should be greater than 0.5% of the NAV and the position should not exceed 30% participation of stressed volume assuming a $200m NAV. Other criteria considered are ability to hedge and the availability of pair candidates as well as the average bid-ask size. For M&A strategies average long position is 3 to 5.5% and average short position 2 to 5%. |
Manager Comments | In comparison the HFR Event Driven Index closed +0.40%, the Asia Pacific markets were flat, whilst Asia Pacific markets ex Japan, posted a small detraction of -0.5%. The Fund maintained average net and gross exposure of 14.3% and 246% respectively. The relaxation on cross border shopping for H shares saw a considerable re-risk on deeply discounted H shares, driving significant intra-month volatility in Hong Kong. Over 46% of the Fund's monthly gross exposure by strategy was in M&A followed by Capital management at 25.1%. Whereas the country exposure as percentage (%) of NAV was most in Hong Kong/China with gross of 86.1% and Australia with gross of 34.5%. Read the latest Fund Manager's Commentary on the AFM website. |
More Information |
Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
23 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund rose 0.55% in March to bring annual performance since inception to 7.32%.
Read more...
23 Apr 2015 - Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Report Date | |
Manager | |
Fund Name | |
Strategy | |
Latest Return Date | |
Latest Return | |
Latest 6 Months | |
Latest 12 Months | |
Latest 24 Months | |
Annualised Since Inception | |
Inception Date | |
FUM (millions) | |
Fund Overview | The Fund aims to produce positive returns irrespective of the direction of the share market. For each investment the manager considers the risk, the timeline of that risk occurring and then the potential return. Low transaction costs and liquidity are other important factors in the success and implementation of the strategies. |
Manager Comments | All portfolio strategies were positive with the Option Strategy (0.42%) as the biggest contributor for the month. The impact of lower iron ore prices saw a significant fall in Fortescue Metals (FMG.ASX) and this was a major contributor. Conversely, the rallies in Macquarie Group (MQG.ASX) and all the major commercial banks (ANZ.ASX, CBA.ASX, NAB.ASX & WBC.ASX) also saw positive contributions. The Fund Manager anticipate further large moves within the resources sector. The other strategies provided small positive contributions for towards the month's performance. Read the latest Fund Manager Report on the AFM website. |
More Information |
Totus Alpha Fund
22 Apr 2015 - Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund had a strong performance in March of 5.50% compared to the ASX200 Accumulation Index of -0.09%.
Read more...
22 Apr 2015 - Totus Alpha Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Report Date | |
Manager | |
Fund Name | |
Strategy | |
Latest Return Date | |
Latest Return | |
Latest 6 Months | |
Latest 12 Months | |
Latest 24 Months | |
Annualised Since Inception | |
Inception Date | |
FUM (millions) | |
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 March, the fund had a net exposure of 21.70% and a gross exposure of 279.90%. The fund is diversified across a number investment themes and geographies with 123 positions (55 long and 68 short) at the end of March. The average market cap of stocks in the portfolio is $20.15 billion. Top contributors were the long positions in 1-Page +1.9% (Online) and Altium +0.61% (Online). The short position in G8 Education added +0.83% (Promoter). Biggest detractors were the short positions in Ardent -0.25% (Earnings Risk) and in long position in Greencross -0.26% (Scarce Growth). Read the latest Fund Manager's Report now available on the AFM website. |
More Information |