Professional Planner|Zenith Fund Awards 2015 – international equities: alternative strategies (long/short global, long/short regional, income overlay (options))
Winner: PM Capital
Zenith says: PM Capital (PMC) provides investors with a concentrated long/short fund that focuses on providing long-term capital growth from global equities. PMC’s investment team comprises nine investment professionals, led by Paul Moore, founder and chief investment officer. In Zenith’s opinion, Moore is one of a small group of premier fund managers who has demonstrated the ability to generate attractive returns for investors over a career spanning more than 30 years. PMC has consistently produced strong outperformance of the benchmark over multiple periods of assessment.
– Rodney Sebire, senior investment analyst
Zenith sector review: The international equities – alternative strategies sector enjoyed a strong 12 months, underpinned by rising equity markets. Higher levels of returns dispersion across stocks and sectors continue to persist, providing an environment conducive to long/short managers expressing their stock selection skills. Managers who delivered outperformance during 2015 managed their portfolios at close to 100 per cent net equity exposure, and at the same time, correctly navigated the large sector and stock rotations through the year.
Jarod Dawson, director, PM Capital (pictured): The first for us is really the need to stick to your process. We’ve been using the same process since 1998, and that hasn’t changed a dime. It’s actually very much predicated on finding stocks that have fallen out of favour for various reasons. So trying to fish out businesses that really are the low-cost producers of their industry, or businesses that have seen turmoil in share price but where the underlying core business is very strong, is a very attractive option for us. [We look for] companies where we can invest for a long period [of] time, as partnerships, not just picking stocks here and there. So from that perspective, what we really want to achieve is that long-term view on solid companies with great core businesses.
