Fund Manager of the Year Awards 2024

FMOTY_2024

The 2024 Financial Newswire/SQM Research Fund Manager of the Year Awards

The team at Financial Newswire is proud to announce that together with our research partner, SQM Research, we are bringing the wholly objective Fund Manager of the Year awards back for 2024 – recognising the best of the best across the Australian Wealth Management Industry.

WHERE

Grand Ballroom
Four Seasons Hotel Sydney
199 George St, The Rocks
Sydney NSW

Dress Code
Business formal / Black tie

WHEN

Thursday, 12 September 2024
6:00pm – 10:30pm

AWARDS FINALISTS AND WINNERS

Australian Equities - Large Cap

  • AB Concentrated Australian Equities Fund (Class A)
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Allan Gray Australia Equity Fund (Class B)
  • Elston Australian Large Companies Fund – Class A
  • WINNER: Lazard Australian Equity Fund (W Class)
  • Maple-Brown Abbott Australian Share Fund – Wholesale

Australian Equities - Small/Mid Cap

  • Dimensional Australian Small Company Trust
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Investors Mutual Wholesale Australian Smaller Companies Fund
  • Perpetual ESG Australian Share Fund
  • Spheria Opportunities Fund
  • WINNER: Yarra Ex-20 Australian Equities Fund

Global Equities - Large Cap

  • AXA IM Sustainable Equity Fund
  • Dimensional Global Value Trust
  • WINNER: GQG Partners Global Equity Fund
  • MFS Blended Research Global Equity Trust
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Vinva Global Systematic Equities Fund

Emerging Markets Equities

  • Capital Group New World Fund (AU)
  • Dimensional Emerging Markets Value Trust
  • GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Pzena Emerging Markets Value Wholesale Fund
  • WINNER: Robeco Emerging Conservative Equity Fund (AUD)

A-REITs

  • Martin Currie Property Securities Fund – Class A
  • Pendal Wholesale Plus Property Securities Fund
  • Resolution Capital Core Plus Property Securities Fund – Series II
  • WINNER: Resolution Capital Real Assets Fund (Class B)
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Zurich Investments Australian Property Securities Fund

G-REITs

  • WINNER: CBRE Global Real Assets Fund
  • Dexus Global REIT Fund
  • Dimensional Global Real Estate Trust
  • Quay Global Real Estate Fund (Unhedged)
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: SGH LaSalle Concentrated Global Property Fund

Listed Infrastructure

  • BlackRock Global Listed Infrastructure Fund (Class D)
  • ClearBridge RARE Infrastructure Value Fund – Unhedged
  • Global Listed Infrastructure Mandate No. 1 Fund
  • WINNER: Macquarie International Infrastructure Securities Fund – Unhedged
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure Fund

Long/Short Equities

  • WINNER: Apis Global Long/Short Fund (W Class)
  • Atlantic Pacific Australian Equity Fund (Class A)
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Investors Mutual Private Portfolio Fund
  • Totus Alpha Fund – Platform Class
  • WaveStone Dynamic Australian Equity Fund

Multi-Sector Growth

  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: IOOF Foundation Assertive Fund
  • JANA Moderate Trust
  • WINNER: Martin Currie Diversified Growth Fund – Class A
  • MLC Navigator Access Pre Select Growth Fund
  • Pendal Wholesale Plus Active Balanced Fund

Multisector Growth - SMAs

  • Drummond Strategic 70 – SMA
  • Innova Traditional Portfolio – Growth
  • MLC Premium Growth 85 Model Portfolio
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Morningstar Growth (70) Managed Account Portfolio
  • WINNER: Watershed Growth Model

Other Alternatives

  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: DigitalX Bitcoin Fund
  • Harvest Lane Asset Management Absolute Return Fund
  • WINNER: Spire US Data Centre Colocation Fund (AUD)

Direct Property Funds

  • Australian Unity Healthcare Property Trust (Retail)
  • WINNER: GDA Diversified Property Trust
  • JANA Real Estate Trust
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Trilogy Industrial Property Trust

ETF Product

  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Aoris International Fund – Class B (Managed Fund)
  • iShares Core MSCI World ex Australia ESG ETF
  • WINNER: iShares Global 100 ETF
  • SPDR MSCI World Quality Mix Fund
  • Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF

Australian Fixed Income

  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Altius Sustainable Bond Fund
  • Antares Diversified Fixed Income Fund
  • WINNER: Fortlake Real-Income Fund
  • Perpetual Active Fixed Interest Fund
  • PIMCO Australian Short-Term Bond Fund

Global Fixed Income

  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Dimensional Five-Year Diversified Fixed Interest Trust
  • WINNER: Dimensional Two-Year Sustainability Fixed Interest Trust (AUD)
  • PIMCO Global Bond Fund (Wholesale)
  • PIMCO Global Fixed Interest MPS Fund
  • Wellington Global Bond MPS Fund

Emerging Funds

  • iShares High Growth ESG ETF
  • iShares Balanced ESG ETF
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: JANA Diversified Infrastructure Trust
  • WINNER: Roadnight Capital Diversified Income Fund

Responsible Investments (ESG)

  • Australian Ethical International Shares Wholesale Fund
  • WINNER: AXA IM Sustainable Equity Fund
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Candriam Sustainable Global Equity Fund
  • Warakirri Ethical Australian Equities Fund

Managed Accounts Manager

  • Drummond Capital Partners
  • WINNER: MLC Asset Management
  • Morningstar
  • State Street Global Advisors
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Watershed Funds Management

Private Equities

  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Ellerston JAADE Australian Private Assets Fund (Retail)
  • WINNER: Hamilton Lane Global Private Asset Fund (AUD) Hedged
  • MLC Global Private Equity Fund
  • Neuberger Berman Global Private Equity Access Fund (AUD)
  • Partners Group Global Value Fund

Private Debt/Credit

  • WINNER: MA Credit Opportunities Fund
  • MA Secured Loan Series (Class A)
  • MCP Secured Private Debt Fund II
  • Metrics Direct Income Fund
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: Wentworth Williamson Stable Income Fund

Mortgage Trusts

  • WINNER: Centuria Bass Credit Fund
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: CVS Lane Property Finance Fund
  • La Trobe Australian Credit Fund – Select Investment Account
  • MA Secured Real Estate Income Fund
  • Mulpha Real Estate Debt Fund

2024 Fund Manager of the Year

  • WINNER: Dimensional Fund Advisors
  • HIGHLY COMMENDED: iShares by BlackRock
  • MLC Asset Management
  • Pendal
  • Perpetual

FMOTY METHODOLOGY - SQM RESEARCH

Methodology

For the 2024 Fund Manager of the Year Awards with Financial Newswire, SQM Research has once again collated performance data on well over 10,000 active funds. As SQM Research is a believer in performance over time taking into account the risks, data was initially collated and sorted on an equal weighting combination of three-year annualised net returns and three-year sharpe ratios (risk adjusted returns). A final ten list of ten funds for each category (global equities, domestic fixed income etc) was then derived. Data was collated through to 31 May 2024.

Finalists were then chosen from the top ten in each category based on the best Sharpe ratio. Where performance was close between two or more funds, the total return was considered as well as any relative rating with SQM Research.

Where risk adjusted returns are not easily available, such as some alternative funds, direct property/ETFs, SQM Research has used its current ratings as a guide plus three year total returns where available.

The emerging funds category was based on annualised returns plus the Sharpe ratio for a combination of one year and since inception data. Emerging funds were defined as funds with a greater than one year track record but less than three years track record.

Overall Fund Manager of the Year Award

Finalists for the Fund Manager of the Year was based on the frequency of products that made the initial top ten list of each category.

The overall winner was based on a scoring of how many winners/commended categories plus finalist positions the fund manager held via its funds.

International/Global Equity, Infrastructure and Real estate categories for 2024 include both hedged and unhedged funds and adjust for the difference between the unhedged and hedged benchmark. Where a manager has both hedged and unhedged funds, we will take the average of the two (one adjusted by the benchmark differences) for comparison purposes and only Include the Manager’s fund once.

FILTERING RULES

The entire universe of managed funds is screened using the following filtering rules.

Minimum Fund Size

$30 million

Minimum Investment

Excludes funds with $100,000 minimum or greater

Investment Structure

Open-Ended Managed Funds and ETFs

History

Minimum 3 years track record

Type

No duplicates or white-labelled products

The methodology focuses on growth-oriented funds with good risk-adjusted returns. The filtering process reduces the starting universe of over 10,000 funds down to a subset that will typically be in the range of about 500-600 funds.

SCORING SYSTEM

The following 8 metrics are the constituents of the overall score.

3-Year Returns

Performance

3-Year Volatility

Risk

3-Year Alpha

Skill

3-Year Sharpe Ratio

Risk-adjusted Return

MER

Cost Efficiency

ICR

Cost Efficiency

Downside Capture

Risk

Hit Rate

Consistency

Each metric has a ranking score calculated for each fund. A score of 100 is the best result across the universe for that metric, and a score of 0 is the worst. The 8 ranking scores are aggregated into an overall score for the Fund. These overall scores (for 500 or so funds) are then used to identify the Top 10.

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