NEWS
Performance Report: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
13 Jun 2012 - Australian Fund Monitors
Aurora Fortitude provides a positive May return of 0.26% with the Options book providing the bulk of the returns
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13 Jun 2012 - Performance Report: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | Aurora's Options portfolio provided the bulk of the returns as expected in the above environment, with the book heavily weighted towards financials given the large exposure to the sector in the Yield and parts of the M&A book. Elsewhere gains in the Yield book were offset by negative returns in the M&A book pending the outcome of various deals, while small gains in the Convergence book were offset by losses in the Long/Short book. The positive return takes the Fund's winning streak to 11 months, and it remains the only fund to have recorded positive returns for every month of 2008. |
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Performance Report: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
12 Jun 2012 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Long/Short fund returns +1.19% in a volatile month against the ASX200\\\\'s fall of over 7% as two profit warnings assisted the short book.
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12 Jun 2012 - Performance Report: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The manager, Richard Fish reported that performance was in line with expectations, producing a modest gain in a volatile environment with both long and short cyclical names impacted by the weak market sentiment. At the sector level Healthcare and Industrials added most to performance whilst Media and Materials detracted. Looking forward Fish noted that in the short term Bennelong expect sentiment to remain hostage to events out of Europe, the domestic earnings reporting season and the ability of China to engineer a soft landing. |
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Performance Report: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
8 Jun 2012 - Australian Fund Monitors
Optimal Australia weathers May's market storm thanks to prior caution and a focus on capital preservation
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8 Jun 2012 - Performance Report: 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 | Optimal are cautious at the best of times, considering preservation of capital to be of the highest priority. As such they had reduced their net exposure coming into May to less than 10%, and then focused on stock selection to avoid the market's turmoil. Looking forward Optimal consider these conditions to be as difficult as they can remember in the past 25 years, and continue to focus on risk management. Having returned 7% over the past 12 months and outperforming the market by close to 15% in that time this approach has served their investors well. |
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Performance Report: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
18 Apr 2012 - Australian Fund Monitors
Optimal Australia's onshore fund returns +0.46% in March as the Manager reflects on the difficulties of reading the market.
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18 Apr 2012 - Performance Report: 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 | Ever cautious, and in spite of the Fund returning close to 8% over the past 12 months and significantly outperforming the ASX, the Manager considers that equity markets remain difficult to read, citing persistent earnings downgrades, growing concern about China's growth and heightened political uncertainty. Optimal note that equity market bulls continue to argue that local valuations are undemanding in absolute and relative terms, but consider this to be the case only if the forecast earnings supporting the valuations materialise. However, the Manager points out that industrial earnings have declined in aggregate for four successive years as a result of consumer de-leveraging and as the high AUD has cut manufacturing margins. Optimal's caution and risk aversion is apparent in their performance, having only succumbed to negative monthly return on three occasions since launching the Fund in September 2008. |
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Performance Report: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
17 Apr 2012 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong's Kardinia Capital returns +1.82% in March, opens to retail investors and offers daily liquidity as it approaches a six year track record
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17 Apr 2012 - Performance Report: Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund consists of a concentrated long/short portfolio typically comprising 30 to 40 ASX300 listed stocks, generally with a long bias aligned to the overall market direction. There is a slight bias to large cap stocks in the long side of the portfolio, although in a rising market the portfolio will tend to hold smaller caps, including resource stocks, more frequently. The Fund was launched on 17th August 2011 following the resignation of Portfolio Managers Mark Burgess and Kristiaan Rehder from Herschel Asset Management in late July 2011. While at Herschel Burgess and Rehder had managed the Fund under the name of the Herschel Absolute Return Fund. As a result management of the Fund was transferred to Kardinia Capital, a new boutique fund manager 65% owned by Burgess and Rehder, with the balance owned by Bennelong Funds Management. The Fund's investment strategy and prior track record remains intact. |
| Manager Comments | In addition to opening to retail investors and lowering the minimum investment, Kardinia is also moving to daily liquidity for all investors, offering a point of difference with the majority of wholesale absolute return funds which remain on monthly terms. Kardinia Capital was formed in August 2011 to manage the Fund which was previously under the Herschel brand. Since the move the Fund has seen steady inflows which should increase as the Fund approaches a six year track record of positive annual returns, and as the investor base widens. |
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Performance Report: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
16 Apr 2012 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong's long short equity fund returns 6.35% in March as gains on both longs and shorts aids the recovery from February's decline
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16 Apr 2012 - Performance Report: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The best performing sector for the month for the Fund was Consumer discretionary, closely followed by Healthcare, while stock selection in the Financial sector detracted from performance, as did Industrials. Looking forward Bennelong believe the market is unlikely to continue its move higher after the strong March quarter, and given the soft domestic economic environment and their assessment of the profit outlook they believe that risk continues to lie on the downside. Leverage at month end was 4.6 times, slightly higher than the fund's long term average, and remains closed to new investors. |
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Performance Report: KIS Asia Long Short Fund
15 Mar 2012 - Australian Fund Monitors
KIS Asian Fund up 2.89% in February with long/short book generating the majority of the the return
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15 Mar 2012 - Performance Report: KIS Asia Long Short Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | 1. Markets change and evolve, constantly stressing quantitative models. They believe their discretionary approach to portfolio management is the most appropriate manner to manage their wealth and their client's wealth. 2. Their platform and mandate allows them to achieve the scale, access and diversification needed to deliver high quality risk adjusted returns. 3. They believe, 'To achieve superior investment results, your insight into value has to be superior. Thus you must learn things others don't, see things differently or do a better job of analysing them -ideally, all three.' Howard Marks, Founder, Oaktree Capital Management (Oaktree Capital Management is a global investment management corporation with USD82b of assets under management). |
| Manager Comments | KIS remain wary of the downside risks caused by the ongoing repercussions from the Greek debt restructuring as well as potential for further tensions between Israel and Iran. However, in the absence of these the manager expects equity markets to continue to perform, although probably not as strongly as in the first two months of the year. In this environment KIS believe that as the macro issues subside, stock-picking will be rewarded which will benefit the Fund's investment process, although they will reduce risk again if this does not eventuate. |
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Performance Report: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
9 Mar 2012 - Australian Fund Monitors
Optimal Australia up 1.03% in February to steer clear of reporting season risks of crowded long and short situations
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9 Mar 2012 - Performance Report: 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 | February 2012 was another example of just that danger according to Optimal, with those heavily-shorted ‘victim’ stocks (cyclical industrials with structural issues - e.g. retail and media) producing the most spectacular re-ratings, as bad earnings news was discounted, and was just not bad enough to provoke anything other than violent short-covering rallies. Optimal noted that statistically the earnings were balanced, with 35% of results ahead of estimates, and 35% missing them, with dividends missing estimates overall. Looking forward the manager believes that future earnings estimates for the ASX200 in FY2013 at 13% growth look ambitious, while those for 2012 are little changed at around 3%. |
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Performance Report: Regal Amazon Market Neutral Fund
8 Mar 2012 - Australian Fund Monitors
Regal's Amazon offshore market neutral fund returns 0.19% in February as gains on Australian positions partially offset by a small loss in the Asian portfolio
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8 Mar 2012 - Performance Report: Regal Amazon Market Neutral Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | Regal noted that the rise in the Australian market in February hid a large dispersion in individual stock returns, with 67 stocks in the ASX S&P 300 Index up by 10% or more, after investors had in many cases been overly pessimistic. The best performing sectors sectors for the fund were Consumer Discretionary and Industrials, while positions in Energy and Health Care detracted from performance. |
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Performance Report: Mathews Velocity Fund
1 Mar 2012 - Australian Fund Monitors
Mathews Velocity Fund returns 7.27% in January 2012 aided by the general tailwind provided by the market.
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1 Mar 2012 - Performance Report: Mathews Velocity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Manager does not target a specific investment style. The Manager's investment strategy is based on attempting to pick emerging trends in the equity and commodity markets. |
| Manager Comments | Hedging positions although reduced in January mitigated performance, with top 4 detractors SPI, Merrill Lynch Mining Basket, Euro Stoxx50 & S&P500 Futures. The high relative volatility reflects the Fund's concentration - a key part of the investment strategy. At the end of January the Top 5 equity positions accounted for 43% of Net Assets and the Top 10 for 67%. |
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