Money Management looked at the five FE Crown-rated funds in the ACS Equity – Australia sector with less than $100 million in funds under management (FUM) to see what top performers might not be on investors’ radars.
The top performer over three years, the SGH Australia Plus fund, has $25.5 million in FUM, and invests in the largest 300 companies listed on the ASX, as well as companies listen in Asia, with the intention of outperforming the S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index by five per cent on a rolling three-year basis.
It made a 49.96 per cent total return over the three years to the end of April 2018, compared with 11.76 per cent from its average ACS Equity – Australia peer and 12.21 per cent from the S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index. This return means the fund was the second-best performer from the whole sector, with only the $556.2 million Bennelong Concentrated Australian Equity fund making a higher total return with 51.78 per cent.
SGH Australia Plus’ top five holdings as of April this year were National Australia Bank (NAB), Macquarie Group, CSL Limited, ANZ and Saracen Mineral Holdings. The fund holds an overweight in materials at 20.92 per cent, with financials at 19.75 per cent and consumer stables at 10.78 per cent.
DDH’s $4.1 million Selector Australian Equities Fund was the second best performing after making 41.70 per cent, employing a high conviction, concentrated, index-unaware strategy when selecting stocks, which is suitable for investors with a medium to long-term investment horizon.
The portfolio consists of between 25 and 40 stocks, with 100 per cent of these resting in Australian shares. Its top holding is Aristocract Leisure Ltd, with 7.11 per cent allocated to the company.
The third-best performer, the Ganes Value Growth fund, has $28.1 million in FUM and made 35.55 per cent the three years in question. It invests in a diversified portfolio of Australian securities and financial products and aims to generate superior returns to the All Ordinaries Accumulation Index.
The fund has allocated 98 per cent of its assets to Australian equities with the remaining two per cent in cash. It’s top holding is Smartgroup Corporation Ltd at 13.12 per cent.
The chart below shows the performance over three years of the seven smallest top-performing funds in the Australian equities sector relative to the sector average and S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index.
