InvestorWeb gives six stars to Advance

The Advance Imputation Fund has been given a six star rating by InvestorWeb Research (IWL), with the research house rating the fund as an “exceptional buy”.

According toAdvance Funds Management, the rating launches the fund into the “best of the best” league within the funds management industry, as only 2.5 per cent of all ratings from IWL achieve the rating of “exceptional buy”.

The Advance Imputation Fund is Advance’s flagship Australian equities fund, and has had independent fund manager,Maple-Brown Abbott, as its underlying manager since inception.

Advance Funds Management managing director Stephen Lam puts the rating down to the success of the boutique manager and its relationship with Advance over 16 years.

“This outstanding rating is a resounding endorsement of Maple-Brown Abbott, and of course the fund itself,” he says.

Lam attributes the continuing success of the fund to its ability to remain “true to label” as a value fund.

“During the height of the tech boom we were critical of some company valuations and took the sometimes lonely position of keeping value based investment an important part of our total investment offerings,” Lam says.

“The fund’s defensive characteristics such as value based stock selection, concentration on larger companies and use of cash to manage volatility distinguishes this fund from its peers,” he says.

The imputation fund has benefited from investments in stocks paying high levels of franked dividends, with a franking level of 127.58 per cent of income in the five year period to the end of June 2002.

Lam notes that the defensive style of the fund is well suited to superannuation investments.

“The fund has performed well both over the long term and in volatile markets, and imputation credits can be used to offset tax payable by superannuants and super funds, including self-managed super funds and pension funds,” Lam says.