Scott Bradley. Photo: Matt Fatches
Category: Australian REITS
Winner: Cromwell Funds Management
Analyst: Sophie Gibbons
Sector overview:
The Australian REIT sector has continued to demonstrate strong performance over the past 12 months, which is in contrast to broader Australian equities that have produced a more subdued outcome. Notwithstanding the level of absolute returns generated across the sector, many active managers have suggested that it is becoming more challenging to generate the level of outperformance seen in prior years.
Zenith says…
Zenith continues to retain a high level of conviction in Cromwell Phoenix’s portfolio manager, Stuart Cartledge, who is strongly supported by research analyst, Richard Farkhry. Cromwell Phoenix employs an active, value-style investment approach, with a focus on bottom-up analysis. Zenith believes that owing to the firm’s well-established investment process, Cromwell Phoenix has demonstrated consistent outperformance relative to the benchmark and median manager over a range of time periods.
Interview
Scott Bradley
State manager – NSW
Cromwell Property Group
The award – winning it four years in a row – highlights Stuart Cartledge’s team and its consistency and performance. And the sector itself has done very well, in light of the uncertainty that’s in the markets. What we’re very happy with is Stuart’s ability to see value. Stuart has a very robust model in terms of looking at future earnings and within that he looks at a pool of securities and picks where he believes the value comes from. The main issue going forward will be keeping up with the returns the sector has done. People are looking for yield and they are looking for consistent returns. Property has been that year-in, year-out. It’s more important to focus on good-quality managers now than it ever has been before. Stuart’s done very well in terms of his ability to generate outperformance – S&P Dow Jones was quoted saying that nine out of 10 managers did not outperform the index, and both of Stuart’s funds have continued to do that, to outperform. We’re very humbled to have won the award four years in a row.
