Pengana Capital has appointed Jeremy Bendeich as a portfolio manager to its High Conviction Equities fund.
Working alongside current manager James McDonald and investment analyst Veronica Price, Bendeich joined Pengana from Avoca Investment Management which he co-founded and was chief investment officer.
Prior to this, he worked as a small-cap fund manager at UBS, an investment analyst at Colonial First State and economist and policy adviser in the Australian and New Zealand Government Treasuries.
The High Conviction Equities fund was a concentrated, ethically-screened portfolio which held around 20 Australian and global companies, with a particular focus on IT, healthcare and materials.
Pengana chief executive, Russel Pillemer, said: “Since the fund’s inception in 2014, the fund has significantly outperformed its benchmark across all time periods, having returned an average to 32.8% per annum to investors.
“It is a highly sought-after product from Pengana’s high net worth investors and private wealth offices.
“Jeremy has 26 years of investing experience, looking predominantly at small and emerging companies, across all market cycles. Whilst this has been largely in an Australian context, we believe that Jeremy’s skills as an investor are more relevant than a particular background in international investing, especially given the breadth of the market with 10,000 companies.”
According to FE Analytics, the Pengana High Conviction Equities fund had returned 40.3% over one year to 30 June, 2021, versus returns of 28.3% by the global equity sector within the Australian Core Strategies universe.
Performance of Pengana High Conviction Equities fund versus sector over one year to 30 June 2021
