Strong growth as Milford launches new funds
Milford’s flagship Australian Absolute Growth funds has seen more than 20% returns over the past year as the firm confirms plans to launch multiple strategies in the second half of the year.
According to FE Analytics, the Australian Absolute Growth fund returned 24.3% over one year to 31 May, 2021 compared to returns by the absolute return sector of 15% within the Australian Core Strategies universe. Launched in 2017, it was the first fund the New Zealand firm launched in Australia.
In its most recent factsheet, the Milford Australian Absolute Growth management team said performance had been helped by the preference by the market for cyclical names.
“At the beginning of May, the ASX 200 had a strong rally driven by a lot of the cyclical names we have favoured this year, including banks and miners,” it said.
“With signs of some short-term overheating in commodity markets we used this opportunity to trim our position in miners BHP, RIO, IGO and Oz Minerals. We also sold out of CBA as the bank climbed sharply towards $100 a share. Overall, the fund retains significant positions in miners and banks through NAB, Westpac and Virgin Money UK where we have a positive medium-term view.
“Our cash levels increased again in May as the abovementioned profit taking in cyclicals was greater than various purchases we made in companies like Woolworths. We are comfortable with slightly more cash in the short-term as the Australian markets sits at record levels and the Fund has already made strong gains this year. We will deploy the cash when attractive risk-adjusted opportunities present.”
Kristine Brooks, head of distribution at Milford, said the company would be launching several new funds later this year.
This was a private equity fund, a global real assets fund, two global equity funds and three listed exchange traded funds.
The global real assets fund had previously been run as an internal fund which the company was rolling out to investors following client feedback while the global equities fund was already running in New Zealand. However, the second global equity fund was new to Australian market and Brooks said it filled a “gap in the market”.
The ETFs would be ASX-listed versions of the firm’s Australian Absolute Growth, Dynamic and upcoming Global Real Assets fund which the firm said would “give advisers the option” as to how they purchased funds.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Recommended for you
In the latest Meet the Manager profile, Money Management speaks with Michael Skinner, founder and managing director at Blackwattle Investment Partners.
Perpetual has seen AUM rise 6 per cent in the last quarter but the departure of a longstanding JOHCM fund manager led to outflows of $2.2 billion from his strategy.
Global fixed income fund Bentham Global Opportunities has been added to several major platforms, enabling it to be accessed more easily by financial advisers.
Following yesterday’s news about First Sentier Investors closing four investment teams, a second global asset manager has announced it is closing its only dedicated Australian fund.
