The upgrade followed the recognition by Lonsec of the fund’s “long-standing and well-proven investment philosophy and process along with a track record of meeting investment objectives”.
Commenting on the fund’s approach to investing Perptual’s portfolio manager, Garry Laurence, said: “Obtaining a rating takes time – you need to demonstrate patience in building a consistent performance track record, highlight your expertise and nurture a strong, high performing team”.
“As a value manager, with a bottom-up investment process, we aim to choose the best quality investments at prices that represent good value, based on their potential risks and returns,” he said.
The fund delivered a five-year performance return of 19.3 per cent per annum newt of fees, as of 28 February, outperforming the MSCI World Index benchmark by 2.4 per cent per annum, according to the company.
The top five sectors the fund held stocks in were healthcare (12.7 per cent), consumer staples (12.1 per cent), online advertising and transaction businesses (10.8 per cent), telecommunications (8.1 per cent) and banks (7.8 per cent).
