After a weak end to 2018, Bennelong’s Emerging Companies Fund has trended up this year with a sizeable lead in the Australian small/mid cap sector.
The best performing in the Australian small-mid cap sector were Bennelong Emerging Companies (62.05%), SGH Emerging Companies Professional Investors (37.75%), Australian Ethical Emerging Companies Wholesale (36.64%), Fairview Equity Partners Emerging Companies (33.57%) and 8IP Australian Small Companies (31.83%).
Bennelong’s performance in the last three months, from 1 August – October 31, 2019, saw an increase of 21.7% which placed them at the top of the sector.
Julian Beaumont, investment director for Bennelong Australian Equity Partners, said it was a team effort across all the stocks they had picked.
“We had a volatile down period in the last three or four months of last year and from January we’ve been basically ripping it up,” Beaumont said.
“You can expect that 12-month number will only get better from every month, from here on in.”
Bennelong’s strong recent performance was a result of strong performance from holdings in Viva Leisure, BWX, Sezzle, EML Payments and Prospa, the latter was the only not to be in their top five holdings.
According to the company’s fact sheet from 30 September, it stated one of the benefits of this fund was the access it offered to corporate activity.
“Viva Leisure, Sezzle and Prospa… are examples of recent IPOs,” the factsheet said.
“The IPO market itself is quite cyclical, with attractive opportunities tending to come in ebb’s and flows.”
“The current IPO market is rich in opportunities, and indeed, we have committed to adding a number of new ones into the portfolio in coming months.”
