BAEP ranked as top equity fund
The Bennelong Concentrated Australian Equities Fund (BAEP) has been confirmed as the number one Australian equities fund over three months as well as one, three and five years, according to the Morningstar’s Australian Sector Survey.
The fund was said to have returned 26.4 per cent after fees, against its benchmark which returned 14.7 per cent over one year.
According to BAEP’s investment director, Julian Beaumont, such an outperformance could be attributed to the fact that the fund managed money ‘in a flexible way’ and tended to select stocks on the basis of their upside potential and downside risk rather than their weighting or position on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
“As high-conviction managers, we aren’t compelled to invest just because it’s a big stock or sector. It’s irrelevant to us how big, popular or well-covered the company, in fact, it’s often the case that the best opportunities arise where the opposite is true,” he said.
“Many of the well-owned large caps seem unexciting to us at present, so for example we don’t hold Commonwealth Bank, BHP, Telstra, Woolworths or Wesfarmers in our concentrated fund.
“We believe this approach will continue to stand us in good stead in 2018, as volatility is likely to increase and global growth may start to ease.”
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