Lazard Asset Management Pacific Co. announces the lowering of its minimum investment for four funds to A$20,000, down from A$100,000.
The four funds concerned are:
– Lazard Australian Equity Fund
– Lazard Select Australian Equity Fund
– Lazard Australian Diversified Income Fund
– Lazard Global Small Cap Fund
Lazard Asset Management Pacific Co CEO Susan Roberts said the move was in response to increasing demand and enquiry from the ever growing Self-Directed and Self-Managed Super Fund markets within Australia.
“As awareness of both the performance of our funds and understanding of our active management – value investing approach has increased; we have seen heightened interest from private investors. “
“This is a sign of the understanding of the benefits and rewards of a disciplined and intensive research based approach to stock picking.”
“Our approach to investing is based on bottom-up research focused on identifying under-valued companies and investing in them with a long-term time horizon. “
“It’s an approach that is resonating with investors and it’s something the firm has been doing successfully for many years.” Ms. Roberts said.
Background on Funds
Australian Equity
The Lazard Australian Equity strategies have delivered strong, top quartile returns with lower-than market risk over the past decade. With high conviction and a proven process, the Lazard Australian Equity Team offers three differentiated long-only Australian Equity Portfolios. Both the Lazard Australian Equity Fund and its more concentrated version, the Lazard Select Australian Equity Fund, are fundamental value strategies with a long history of outperforming their benchmarks. The Lazard Australian Diversified Income Fund invests in a diversified portfolio of dividend paying shares currently yielding more than the RBA cash rate, which trade at a discount to our estimate of fair value, and are expected to either maintain or increase their dividend payments over the next three years. Our strategies are designed to perform in a predictable pattern and have done so over the long term with the Lazard Select Australian Equity Fund’s total return before fees being 15.0%pa for the five years to 31 March 2015, exceeding the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index by 6.4%pa.
Global Small Cap Fund
The Lazard Global Small Cap Fund was launched in 1997 and allows investors access to the team’s unique experiences and regional knowledge within the international and emerging markets small cap universes, whilst having over twenty Global Sector Analysts contributing to the breadth and knowledge of Lazard’s coverage. The Lazard Global Small Cap Fund is an actively managed portfolio that invests in global small companies which generally have a market capitalisation of between US$300m and US$5bn. The team’s focus is on companies that they believe are currently (or will soon be) financially productive; are inexpensively priced on a relative basis; and are poised to unlock shareholder value in the future. The number of holdings will generally range between 60 and 90, which, compared to a universe of over 7,000 global small companies, makes the Fund highly concentrated. The return of the Fund, before fees was 20.4%pa for the five years to to 31 March 2015, exceeding the MSCI World Small Cap Index by 4.2%pa.
Recent Australian awards
2014 Winner – Fund Manager of the Year by Money Management/ Lonsec
2014 Winner – Australian Equities the broad cap category by Money Management/ Lonsec
Source: Lazard Asset Management
