Munro’s head of investments, Nick Griffin, branded the team “glass half-full guys”, reflecting their strategy for investing in companies that have the potential to grow at a faster rate and on a more sustainable basis than their competitors.
Griffin said the firm has been invested in big retail names like Amazon, Netflix and Facebook for a number of years.
“People can see the need for the product. People can understand that Netflix is doing very well because they watch it, yet none of their fund managers own the stock,” said Griffin. Munro credited its success in these areas to “an established process”, which was inherent in the fund’s existing investment team even prior to the Global Growth Fund’s inception just under two years ago.
The head of investments said the team has remained relatively unchanged, and incentive to succeed derives from a profit-share model rather than a bonus model.
The Lonsec panel commented on Griffin’s experience, branding the portfolio manager a growth-minded long/short investor, who was well-known in the long/short circles.
Griffin said their leverage over competitors is their unique product and their absolute return model.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of people doing what we’re doing.”
The Lennox Australian Small Companies Fund was also nominated for the category, with founder Liam Donohue crediting the nomination to the fund’s hard-hitting investment strategy and focussed methodology.
“Our investment philosophy is that change is mispriced by the market. In the short term, if we can identify that change, we can invest in mispriced opportunities on behalf of our unit holders.”
Quay Global Investors, which took out the Global Property Securities category this year, was also a finalist in the Emerging Manager category.
Portfolio manager Justin Blaess credited their boutique structure, high-conviction strategy and experienced personnel.
