The funds driving Hyperion’s Fund Manager of the Year victory



As Hyperion Asset Management takes this year’s Money Management Fund Manager of the Year award, how have their funds performed in their victorious year?
The fund, which won the coveted award at last week’s awards ceremony, was set up 25 years ago and it was the firm’s second time taking the win, having previously won eight years ago.
To be eligible, all funds were screened for three years and then judged on their performance over one year to 31 January, 2021.
It currently ran three funds: Global Growth Companies, Small Growth Companies and Australian Growth Companies.
The best-performing funds out of the three over one year to 31 January, 2021 was Global Growth Companies which returned 36.2%. The Small Growth fund returned 29.4% and the Australian Growth fund returned 25.9% over the same period.
This compared to returns of 13.4% for the small and mid-cap sector, 3% for the global sector and 0.1% for the Australian equity sector, within the Australian Core Strategies universe.
Over five years to 31 January, the Global Growth Companies fund had returned 190%, the Australian Growth Companies fund returned 105% and the Small Growth Companies fund returned 103%.
Speaking about their win, Hyperion managers, Jason Orthman and Mark Arnold, said the construction of the firm’s portfolios tended to mean it outperformed in a crisis, such as during 2020.
The portfolios, they said, were a collection of modern businesses that had a relevant product or service to the next generation of consumers.
“There’s a whole range of businesses that really just started with a blank piece of paper, often that are founder-led and tend to be more modern and relevant in this digital smartphone internet-enabled world. The next generation, whether it’s the millennials or Generation Z, are clearly digital natives and behave completely differently to baby boomers,” they said.
“Also, many of these large businesses have struggled to transition their business model and their products to be relevant to the next group of users. We really look for firms that are made for the times with products that are really disruptive.”
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