NEWS
The Paragon Fund
23 Apr 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Paragon Fund returned a sound 3.60% during March with the 12 month return 24.83% with volatility of 7.73% compared to 11.03% for the ASX 200 Accumulation Index.
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23 Apr 2014 - 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 | The Fund Update notes key drivers for March included a combination of: • Continued solid returns from core holdings in G8 Education and Donaco • Strong gains from machine to machine (M2M) technology company NetComm Wireless, and Liquefied Natural Gas. In the Manager's report they discussed their holding in an emerging infrastructure company exposed to the US shale gas revolution: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG AU). |
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Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund
22 Apr 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund returned 0.70% in March and a very strong 57.71% for the preceding twelve months.
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22 Apr 2014 - Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund focuses on fundamental long and short investments. The Fund may utilise a multi-strategy approach if short term opportunities to increase returns, hedge the portfolio, protect capital or minimise volatility are found. The Fund is a high conviction fund and the combined portfolio will typically have 25-45 positions, investing primarily in stocks in the ASX200. The Fund may be net long, short or neutral depending on the strategies employed at the time. The Fund may hold cash so that it is in a position to take advantage of market volatility and compelling investment opportunities as and when they arise. The Fund may be geared up to 200% gross long or short and up to 150% net long or short. |
| Manager Comments | March average exposures were long 107.4%, short 32.1% and gross 139.5%. Net exposure was 75.2% and Beta-adjusted net 50.6%. The Manager's newsletter discusses the topic 'Does the Real Yield on Equities Represent Value?' and is available at Auscap Asset Management's Profile on the AFM website. |
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Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund
17 Apr 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund had a strong month delivering 3.0% during March (ASX 200 Acc Index 0.29%) and 12.63% (13.46%)for the year.
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17 Apr 2014 - Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The manager's investment approach is premised on the belief that fundamental factors (such as earnings, cash flow and profit growth) affect stock prices, but that the adoption of quantitative techniques (i.e. computer based models) provides an advantage in assimilating and analysing this information, and building an efficient portfolio. The Fund's portfolio is constructed to be 'Market Neutral' i.e. it aims to have little or no overall exposure to movements in the equity market. The aim of low exposure to market movements is to enhance the consistency of the portfolio's performance and to provide diversification from other market oriented investments. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund Commentary highlights the Manager's strategies 'The return to company underlying fundamentals that we saw in February continued to drive fund performance over March with positive contributions from our Earnings Revisions, Value, Quality, and Momentum factors. Following the lead set during reporting season, Earnings Revisions continued to drive share prices as the market extended its outlook past FY1 earnings through into FY3 earnings.' |
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Totus Alpha Fund
16 Apr 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Totus Alpha Fund recorded a solid return of 1.4% during March, which brought the annual return to a strong 55.26% with a Sharpe ratio of 2.64.
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16 Apr 2014 - 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 as determined by Totus Capital. 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 month-end net exposure was 105%, gross exposure 198% and the Fund held 89 positions with an average market cap of $18.02 billion. The Fund's Performance summary notes that 'performance has been delivered with consistently low (usually negative) beta (-0.02) and correlation (-0.015) to equity markets.' |
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Insync Global Titans Fund
15 Apr 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund returned -3.0% (Fund Benchmark MSCI ACWI -3.1%) during March, bringing annual performance to 19.05%.
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15 Apr 2014 - Insync Global Titans Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The monthly commentary notes 'March was a difficult month for equity markets with the sell-off triggered by the mid-month Federal Reserve meeting in the US, which was marginally more hawkish than expected and comments from Chairman Yellen, who appeared to suggest that there would only be a six month pause between the end of tapering and the first rate rise. This resulted in a sell-off in the equity markets with the higher beta stocks, including the biotech, cloud computing, social media, 3-D printing and internet sector, hit the hardest wiping out many months of gains in a matter of weeks.' |
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AFM Prism Active Equity Fund
14 Apr 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM Prism Active Equity Fund returned 2.00% for February and 7.08% over the preceding 12 months. Volatility was very low at 3.07% (11.49% ASX 200 Acc).
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14 Apr 2014 - AFM Prism Active Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund invests in a portfolio of underlying managed funds which focus on investing in ASX listed companies. The Fund will not directly invest in equity markets or derivatives, but the underlying funds may use short selling or invest in derivatives to improve performance or reduce risk. The underlying managers and funds are selected only from funds managed in Australia. This reduces the risk of currency fluctuations, facilitates due diligence and ensures that each underlying fund manager is licensed by the Australian Securities Investments Commission (ASIC). A combination of quantitative performance analysis and qualitative operational due diligence is used to create a portfolio generally consisting of five to ten 'best of breed' funds. AFM's research has shown that selecting a relatively small group of funds results in better risk adjusted performance than that of a larger, more diversified group. Significant research from Australia and overseas shows that the performance of boutique funds, (particularly those where the principals remain actively involved in the day to day investment decisions) and smaller managers can provide more attractive returns than larger or more established managers. As a result the Fund may invest in funds managed by boutique fund managers where the principals invest alongside outside investors, creating an attractive alignment of interests. In addition the Fund may also invest in funds managed by early stage managers with less than three years history, but only where the principals concerned have a demonstrated track record of prior performance in a similar role, and where AFM has been able to conduct thorough due diligence on the management company and its operations. The underlying funds are monitored each month by AFM Prism Asset Management and AFM to ensure each fund's strategy and risk limits remain appropriate for current market conditions. The returns of each underlying fund are also analysed to ensure the original basis for inclusion in the portfolio remains relevant, and to allow new or additional funds to be added to enhance overall performance. |
| Manager Comments | The Prism Active Equity Fund returned 2.00% in February, compared to the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index which rose 4.97% and was the Fund's best single month performance. As noted the Fund under-performed in a very strong equity market after out-performing (-0.96%) the weak market (-3.03%) in January. This outcome a result of the Fund's conservative philosophy which emphasizes capital protection. With the equity market now trading at fair to expensive valuations and some earnings growth expected in FY 2014 and 2015, equities are likely to be volatile with capital appreciation likely to be sector specific. In this environment funds with strong stock picking skills and sound risk management are likely to record out-performance. |
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Allard Investment Fund
11 Apr 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Allard Investment Fund had a sound month returning 0.1% during March (Index -1.9%) and 9.69% for the previous 12 months.
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11 Apr 2014 - Allard Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | At month-end the Fund was 77.2% invested and 22.8% cash and fixed income. The top three geographic exposures were HK/China 37.2%, Singapore 14.9% and India 10.7% while the largest three industry exposures were Financial Services at 17.6%, Conglomerates 13.7% and Telco's at 9.4%, each close to the previous month's exposure. |
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Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
10 Apr 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund returned -2.63% for March, slightly above the benchmark ACWI Index (in $A), with annual returns at 27.63%.
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10 Apr 2014 - Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | Manager commentary notes the following regarding fund performance 'The Fund's main gains came from some of its longest held positions. The overweight in US financials generally benefited from better macroeconomic data over the month, and more upbeat commentary from new Reserve Bank Chairman Janet Yellen. Its two largest positions, Wells Fargo and US Bancorp did even better after strong scores in the US Federal Reserve's annual "Stress test" review paved the way for them to raise dividends and increase buy-backs. Reversing last month's under-performance, the long held Japanese drugstores basket, also rose sharply on good sales data, and reduced fears about the impact of higher Japanese sales tax rates.' |
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Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
9 Apr 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
Optimal Australia Absolute Trust returned 0.04% in March with an annual return of 3.30% and standard deviation of 1.89%.
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9 Apr 2014 - 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 Manager Monthly report comments 'The S&P/ASX200 index finished the March quarter up 0.8% the Australian market's worst start to the calendar year since 2010. March's performance is largely at odds with some of the acclaim greeting the February reporting season(characterized as the 'best in five years'), suggesting that investors are not entirely convinced. Earnings have been re-rated about as far as they can be as a result of interest rate suppression and liquidity creation. Early-stage normalisation of the term end of the yield curve is occurring. For equity prices to advance further, growth has to step up, and the signs on that remain mixed at best.' |
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BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund
8 Apr 2014 - Australian Fund Monitors
BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund returned -0.29% in February and 6.55% for the previous twelve months with a volatility of 2.50% (11.49 % ASX 200 Acc Index).
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8 Apr 2014 - BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | - Australian and International Equity Long/Short - Global Fixed Income Long/Short - Global Macro - Commodity Alpha - Alpha Transport The Fund's goal is to provide investors with a source of consistent, risk-controlled, absolute returns that are over time, expected to have low correlations with the returns of major asset classes. The Fund aims to achieve a return of 8% p.a. before fees, above the RBA Cash Rate Target over rolling 3 year periods. In order to achieve its expected return objective, the Fund will target a total expected risk of between 4-6% p.a. over the same rolling 3 year period. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund Update comments 'Strong positive contributions from Fixed Income Global Alpha, European Equity Long/Short and Australian Equity Long/Short were offset by detractions from the Global Macro, Global Equity Long/Short and International Alpha Transport strategies. The Australian Equity Long/Short strategy added value in February benefitting from stock selection in the gold sector and a takeover bid in the oil stock Aurora Oil & Gas Ltd (AUT). The underweight exposure in mining services was again a positive contributor. Stock selection in infrastructure, consumer cyclicals and insurance detracted.' |
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