InvestorsMutual has launched two new Australian share funds in the wake of its win in the Australian equities category of theMoney Management/Assirt Fund Manager of the Year awards.
The two new funds, the Investors Mutual Industrial Share Fund and the Investors Mutual Futures Leader Fund, will sit alongside the group’s existing Australian Share and Australian Small Companies funds.
The Industrial Share Fund will attempt to replicate the performance of the industrial share fund that Investors Mutual manages on behalf of Sandhurst Trustees, which has returned 24 per cent per annum over the last two years.
The Future Leaders Fund, which will invest in stocks outside of the top 50 listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, will evolve into a replacement for the group’s existing Small Companies Fund.
The Small Companies Fund, available since 1998, will be closed to new direct investors from the end of this month.
The fund will stay open to investors through wraps and master trusts, but will not be added to any new master trust or wrap menus.
The launch of the two new funds comes two weeks after Investors Mutual took out the Australian equities category in the Fund Manager of the Year awards ahead of the larger UBS Global Asset Management and Tyndall.
Investors Mutual managing director Anton Tagliaferro says to take out the award just four year’s after the group was established is a strong endorsement for the abilities of smaller boutique managers in the Australian equities class.
“If there’s one thing we think we’ve proven in taking out this award, it’s that it isn’t size that brings results, it’s the quality of your process and your people. That’s where we think we have an advantage over many larger players,” he says.
Before setting up Investors Mutual in 1998, Tagliaferro had managed Australian equities for over 15 years with Perpetual Funds Management, County Natwest and BNP.
Investors Mutual is currently in negotiation with a range of providers in order to have the two new funds listed on the menus of master trusts and wrap accounts.
