Hunter Hall to launch institutional fund after tough year
Listed boutique equities manager Hunter Hall will launch a new Australian equities fund into the institutional market and close two of its retail fund offerings after posting a net profit after tax of $4.8 million for the financial year to 30 June 2013.
The profit figure was 32 per cent lower than that reported by Hunter Hall for the 2011-12 financial year, with the group stating that its funds under management had also fallen 11 per cent to $1.1 billion at 30 June 2013.
In his first report as managing director, David Deverall stated Hunter Hall would launch an Australian equities fund covering the ASX300 which would also aim to deliver a higher Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) score than the benchmark.
The fund has been running on paper for six months, was seeded in July of this year and is being pitched to institutional investors.
Deverall also stated that over the past year Hunter Hall had closed its Asian Value Trust and its Global Equities Trust-Hedged, as they were unprofitable. It had renovated its Global Equities Trust and Australian Value Trust to address issues around portfolio construction, risk management and investment performance.
Deverall stated that performance for the manager had been difficult in the current market cycle. He said this had created net outflows of $308 million which had begun to drop away as performance improved, and subject to ongoing positive performance outflows should reduce or reverse in the 2014 financial year.
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