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At AlbaCore, we focus on the long-term. As one of Europe’s leading alternative credit specialists, we invest in private capital solutions, opportunistic and dislocated credit, and structured products.
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Our philosophy is very simple. We are constantly searching for high quality businesses and when we acquire them, we will work relentlessly with them to create long-term sustainable value through innovation, ESG-led and proactive asset management.
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Leader in active quantitative equities across Australian equities, global equities, emerging markets and global small companies.
Backed by a unique blend of research, portfolio construction and risk management, focused on uncovering original insights and translating them into investment strategies that are active and systematic, aiming to generate alpha.
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At Stewart Investors, we believe in putting people first. Our investment world-view is of a series of partnerships – with each other, with our clients, with the companies we invest in, the people who buy their goods and services, and with the wider society in which we all live and work.
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The team boasts one of the largest number of dedicated portfolio managers of cash funds in Australia, with a long term and solid track record of outperformance.
Find out more about our short term investment cash funds today. They aim to provide a regular income from investments in money market securities.
Head of Short Term Investments and Global Credit Tony Togher discusses negative interest rates in Australia, the ongoing role of cash in portfolios and gives insight into how the largest cash manager in Australia continues to add value when rates are low.
Shares, bonds, and alternative asset classes tend to dominate media attention and headlines, but there's a forgotten asset class that underpins most investors’ portfolios: cash. Record low interest rates around the world saw cash fall out of favour with investors in recent years, but prospective returns from cash portfolios are now rising again owing to higher official interest rates in key regions. In this paper, Tony Togher, Head of Fixed Income, Short Term Investments and Global Credit, explains some of the different investments that fall under the category of 'cash', some of the risks to be aware of and, finally, outlines the investment case for cash.
We consider ESG risks to be factors that may place business value at risk. Companies at risk are identified using both external providers and our own internally driven research, which is based on a systematic and extensive company meeting program.
Read regular news updates, research papers, investment strategy updates and thought pieces from our leading investment experts.
We believe financial markets, critical to society’s ability to function, are under threat. For too long, it has been widely accepted that short-term performance, growth, risks and financial returns should be maximised at the expense of environmental and social outcomes.
Learn about investing in fixed income today. First Sentier Investors' on-the-ground teams share investment ideas uncovered in developed and emerging markets.
The well-established First Sentier Investors Australian Small and Mid-Caps team has extended its small companies long short strategy to retail investors for the first time
While the wild swings in share, credit, currency, and commodity markets have garnered most of the attention in the months following the COVID-19 outbreak, cash markets in Australia have seen some highly unusual movements that demand further scrutiny.
Political turmoil, currency fluctuations, and poor governance are common themes amongst headlines about emerging markets investing. It is in the context of these hazards that, in our decades of allocating clients’ capital in this universe of companies, we have looked to find high-quality family owners who act as stewards of businesses over generations, protecting and growing sound franchises that thrive despite the uncertainties that surround them.
2020 has been a remarkable year for infrastructure operators and investors, with Covid-19 abruptly changing the way we work, play and travel. Lockdowns have not been seen on this scale since World War Two, impacting short-term earnings for assets like toll roads and airports.
The First Sentier Wholesale Strategic Cash Fund (‘the Fund’) reported a positive return (0.0032 or 0.32%, gross of fees) for the month of October 2022. This result was a welcome development following the low interest rate environment of the last 2 years, which has seen cash as an asset class struggle to produce higher returns and gain interest. With inflation becoming a key focus globally, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has begun tightening monetary policy through hiking interest rates, which has seen increasingly positive prospective returns from cash portfolios. The Fund maintains ample liquidity and is well positioned to capitalise off of the current market conditions. This note will dive into the dominant factors driving performance as well as further detail of the investment team’s longstanding approach to managing the portfolio which remains unchanged.
Office real estate is undergoing a fundamental shift, while COVID-19 has accelerated a number of global real estate investment trends, including the continued growth and adoption of e-commerce and falling home ownership.
Most investment professionals believe that neither ESG nor long-term factors are efficiently priced by markets. Around 75% believe that investors are over sensitive to short-term factors. A similar number believe that risks and opportunities associated with ESG externalities are not being captured in market values.
An overview of the Asian Equity Plus and Asia Pacific Small-Caps strategies in August 2020.
Given its size and influence, China remains a key investment destination despite ongoing trade disputes and diplomatic tensions with the US and Australia. With a GDP equivalent to around 70% of the United States, many global portfolios continue to feature Chinese equities. Against this background, Martin Lau, Managing Partner at FSSA Investment Managers, provides five insights into the current and future trends shaping the Chinese economy.
"What we do well by being global is recognising trends that are happening in one part of the world, and seeing that as an opportunity in another part." Peter Meany, Head of Global Listed Infrastructure, discusses global trends in infrastructure assets with Graham Hand from FirstLinks.
Consider listing property as part of real asset portfolios for long-term returns, liquidity, and inflationary hedge. This article explores these factors and emphasizes the investment potential of listed property as a complement to real asset portfolios.
The explosion of COVID-19 cases in early 2020 saw economic uncertainty hit the markets. Volatility spiked and equity markets fell sharply – the S&P/ASX200 almost halved in value over the 22 trading days from February 21st.
We are entering a new era. The year 2024 will be unpredictable and clouded by many uncertainties. It will be marked by geopolitical risks, the ongoing taming of the inflation beast, and how the US Presidential election will impact markets.
In our last client update in February 2021, we discussed the reasons we resisted the temptation to switch into pure cyclicals and so-called “value” stocks1 — even though we had anticipated a sector rotation in the market (the TOPIX subsequently peaked in March 2021). When there is a rise in inflation from very depressed levels it usually favours value and cyclicality, as pricing power returns to sectors that had been under pressure, no matter how temporary the effect. As such, since the Covid vaccine breakthrough last November, a number of lagging sectors, such as mining, commodities, shipping and banks, enjoyed a strong rally to which our Japan strategy had virtually no exposure. Given the commoditised nature of these businesses, and their less attractive outlook and long-term growth sustainability compared to the companies in our portfolio, it is hard to call investments in these securities anything more than a macro trade. Nevertheless, not owning them does not mean that the FSSA Japan Equity strategy is not positioned for the global recovery that is being supported by rising vaccination rates and economic re-openings.
People are are at the heart of our success as a leading global asset manager
All of us have been brutally confronted by a new reality in the last few months. It has certainly been crude, with financial markets swinging around on a riptide of greed and fear, as we the participants have vacillated between elation and despair. It is not surprising. Life and the world of markets are seldom so intimately entwined.
As the saying goes, “There are two kinds of forecasters: those who don't know, and those who don't know they don't know.” Recently, we have seen hordes of the latter kind, garbed as analysts, Unicorn founders, freshly-minted CEOs and so-called “experts”, as they engage in modern-day snake oil salesmanship, which is what seems to pass for Fundamental Equity Research these days. The difference between making forecasts and predictions is the difference between a rational investor and a soothsayer. Today, there are a number of companies and analysts who desperately pretend that a different set of rules apply to them. To that end, they have even invented a new jargon-littered language that has been enthusiastically adopted by the investing community. Some of the words and phrases being used (and over-used) these days make us wince. Let’s look at a few.
Characterised by periods of drought, fire and flood, the Australian climate is becoming drier over the long term. A growing population is almost completely reliant on a single, unpredictable source of water – rainfall. Danny Latham, Partner, Unlisted Infrastructure at First Sentier Investors, explores the opportunities for private investment in Australia’s water sector.
Following a long period of underperformance, the value style has finally started to deliver strong returns. The drought has broken; long may it continue. Since November 2020, we have seen a strong and consistent rebound of the value style, while growth and momentum styles have trailed behind.
In 2020, one group of companies has done particularly well – the popular digital technology companies focused on e-commerce, delivery and entertainment, to name a few industries. In emerging markets, they dominate the Chinese market; but they can also be found in Korea, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. We do not own many of these in the strategy; and as such, we are often asked: What holds us back? After all, they have performed well and – at least on paper – should have the prerequisite to generate strong returns and free cash flow, given their often high gross margins, negative working capital profiles and asset light nature. While we are not disputing the potential for this in the future, we would argue for cautiousness on most of these projections.
APRA market communication on capital call expectations – 1 November, 2022
While the pandemic is still far from over, a number of key leading indicators point to a healthy and broad-based recovery in China. Industrial production, trade activity and retail sales have been strong; and in stark contrast to the lockdowns and travel restrictions in early 2020, domestic travel, tourism and the leisure sectors in China have sprung back to life.
As bottom-up investors, the FSSA team carry out well over 1,500 meetings each year to assess company managements’ capabilities and the underlying strength of the franchises they run. These Monthly Manager Views are based on the team’s discussions with company management and the in-depth analysis that follows.
There are four distinct ways to approach ESG investing in systematic investment strategies. Understanding the pros and cons of each can help to align client preferences. How investment managers and asset owners apply and implement their Environmental, Social and Governance thinking really matters to client outcomes.
Since our last update, global markets have not been short of action and the manic behaviour characterising today’s markets has taken investors on another rollercoaster ride. While not quite comparable to the market movements seen during the dark days of March 2020, the recent correction — especially in China-related companies — has been notable. Yet, from a market perspective, a sense of normality is finally starting to emerge after the more speculative phases over the past 12-18 months. Companies related to the Work- or Consumed-From-Home environment are starting to discount a more realistic outlook and, equally, franchises with good long-term prospects that were experiencing temporary uncertainties caused by the pandemic have, for the most part, regained some of the lost ground as their underlying business fundamentals continue to improve.
Japan has been overlooked by global investors, due to macro headwinds such as an ageing population and anaemic GDP growth. Japan is also only considered as part of a global asset allocation strategy; or sometimes as a macro trade due to the misperception of its high cyclicality. However, in our view, Japan offers a deep investment universe of high quality companies that generate sustainable growth. Find out more in this interview with Sophia Li, the portfolio manager who launched FSSA IM’s dedicated Japan strategy in 2015.
This paper outlines the responsible investing approach adopted by various First Sentier Investors investment teams across the globe. It involves a holistic way of thinking that addresses multiple impacts across multiple environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures. We believe it can lead to better long‑term financial and sustainability outcomes, across more measures, than more traditional frameworks.
Strategists often argue that Japan is perhaps the most cyclical market amongst the major global economies, with profits highly correlated to global trade. We disagree. It is true that many of the large index constituents are companies with high overseas exposure or are highly sensitive to forex fluctuations. However, in our view, Japan’s economy is actually very defensive and mainly driven by domestic demand. Japan’s exports account for less than 20% of GDP — far lower than that of Germany or South Korea where more than 40% of GDP is derived from exports. Another misconception about Japan is that the ageing population and prolonged deflationary environment means that there are few quality companies that can deliver high growth and returns. We disagree with that notion too. Especially from a bottom-up perspective, our view is that Japan has a deep investment universe with many high-quality companies that are focused on delivering sustainable growth and returns and are uncorrelated to the global macro environment.
Despite the extraordinary events since its launch in June 2007 – including the Global Financial Crisis, volatile commodity prices, and political upheaval in many parts of the world – the strategy has delivered strong, consistent returns through a focus on valuation, quality and active management.
In almost every meeting that we have with management teams, we will ask about incentivisation. In our view, it is an important question and the answer can be highly revealing about an organisation’s culture and behaviour. While it can be easy to be deceived by articulate CEOs talking up a big game with lots of investor-friendly buzzwords, in our experience what ultimately drives outcomes (at least the ones that management teams can influence) are the incentives. As with most things, striking the right balance is key. If there are no incentives to good performance (and no disincentive for poor performance), companies often end up with capital being systematically mis-allocated without any accountability. This tends to be the case with most State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), which is one of the reasons we are generally cautious on them. On the other hand, too much of a good thing can also have adverse consequences, which we often see in turbo-charged incentive schemes concentrated among just a few senior executives. While they might lead to exponential growth for a short period of time, the growth is usually not sustainable. After a rapid period of expansion, imbalances are typically built up and when growth inevitably slows it is usually not just one skeleton that falls out of the closet.
What will 2021 look like for China? 2021 will be a year of recovery. This is not surprising given last year’s economic downturn. If vaccines are being rolled out gradually during the year, we believe the economy will recover, especially those sectors that have been hit hard like travel. Hong Kong’s travel sector declined by 99.9% last year so there really isn’t much room left to decline.
With the support of MUFG Bank, Ltd., (MUFG Bank), First Sentier Investors has launched a private debt capability focused initially on loans to the renewable energy sector.
Benefits of the rapid recovery of airport and toll road volumes far outweigh the operational issues they now face as a result. We expect higher load factors to compensate for airline capacity cuts, meaning traffic will continue to edge towards 2019 levels. European toll roads have a positive role to play in the decarbonisation of the transport sector, providing both societal benefits and investment return upside.
The ASX100 is a ripe hunting ground for investors looking to gain access to Australia’s largest and most influential companies across a diverse range of sectors.
With strong long term growth prospects and a track record of resilience through economic downturns, this increasingly institutionalised property sector is a defensive play for investors.
Looking back over 2020, a challenging year for many reasons, there were two key investment decisions that helped the performance of the FSSA Japan Equity strategy. Firstly, in the early days of the pandemic we started to identify companies that might benefit from the acceleration of secular investment trends. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake taught us that significant external events can change consumer behaviour– even against the backdrop of Japan’s conservative society norms. The longer such catastrophes continue, the more structurally embedded the new behaviour becomes.
The outlook for the global economy and financial markets looks more uncertain today than it has for a long time. Both interest rates and inflation have risen sharply. There is a growing consensus that much of the world will shortly be experiencing slowing economic growth.
Global listed infrastructure companies outperformed both global equities and bonds in 2022. We believe the financial and economic factors contributing to this outperformance may remain in play in 2023.
Rather than being polar opposites, we argue that both value and growth dimensions compliment each other in the valuation process. Growth considerations can be incorporated into traditional value investing. In particular, this paper focuses on a novel method of incorporating growth considerations into a common value workhorse - the dividend yield factor. We show detailed derivations from first principles, and as far as we are aware, this is the first time this methodology has been applied for dividend yield. Our new signal, growth adjusted dividend yield, outperforms ordinary dividend yield across most sectors globally.
The energy crisis in Europe has boosted global demand for LNG. Global listed infrastructure companies pioneered the US LNG industry, investing US$50 billion since 2010. The energy crisis is providing an opportunity for LNG to secure its role as a transition fuel. With reliability and security of supply increasingly front of mind, US LNG exporters stand to gain market share, underpinning a further US$50 billion of investment over the next decade. An increased need for natural gas infrastructure will also benefit the broader North American midstream sector.
Benchmark Relative. Absolute Return. Total Return? Global unconstrained? Here our global fixed income team demystify some of the common language used to describe approaches to fixed income investing – explaining the differences – and how they can be applied to various objective-based strategies within a broader portfolio.
A company’s reputation and its ‘social license to operate’ (SLO) are two critical intangible assets. Our fifth Climate Change Whitepaper discusses how the increased sophistication of environmental NGOs, public concern and the reach of social media can result in potential challenges for some businesses. It analyses the various costs of reputational risk including the impacts on share price and provides investors with strategies to manage these risks.
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