Looking beyond the Mainstream

Taking the time to look away from industry leaders and source boutique investment managers has helped the IOOF MultiMix Balanced Growth win at this year’s Money Management Fund Manager of the Year awards. 

The fund, which was launched in 2008, took the title in the Multi-Asset Growth category, beating off strong rivals from BlackRock, Bendigo and Macquarie.

IOOF described the multi-asset strategy as an option for investors ‘paralysed by a proliferation of investment products’ by offering one single investment which accessed a wide of variety of markets and strategies.

It aimed to provide capital growth over the medium to long-term by investing in a diversified portfolio from asset managers of growth assets such as Australian and international equities and property with a smaller defensive exposure from cash, fixed interest and alternatives. 

At the end of March, allocations included 23% to Australian shares, 27% in international shares and 10% to Australian fixed interest, all of which, management said, had contributed to outperformance over the last 12 months. In the fixed interest space specifically, the management team increased the firm’s exposure to credit after the COVID-19 sell-off.

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IOOF deputy chief investment officer and head of equities, Stanley Yeo, said the fund particularly looked at boutique managers as well as the mainstream players to find the best options available. 

“We have the confidence to utilise a unique approach to boutique investing to meaningfully enhance returns which involves finding and investing in a new up and coming boutique investment managers, who have the drive and flexibility to perform well.”

As well as well-known names like Janus Henderson and Pendal, the fund held assets from smaller firms such as Northcape Capital, Alphinity and Ardea. 

Looking ahead to 2021 performance, Yeo said the fund had pro-growth positioning and was also looking to add to property.

“We are still reasonably pro-growth assets and within Australian equities, we maintain a bias to small caps and within international equities, we maintain an overweight to emerging markets. We will also seek exposures to real assets such as property and infrastructure.

“Our diversified fixed interest portfolio continues to perform very strongly with the short duration position adding a lot of value. Although somewhat decreased, the diversified fixed interest portfolio continues to be short duration versus its benchmark.”