Perennial powerhouse

Perennial Investment Partners displays all the characteristics of a quality boutique operation in terms of culture, ownership, alignment of interests and investment focus, according to Lonsec, which has crowned Perennial the 2008 Fund Manager of the Year in the Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year Awards.

“Perennial is differentiated from many of its peers because it has a strategic ownership stake in a suite of boutique investment managers covering domestic equities, global equities, fixed interest and property,” Lonsec said.

Perennial added that with equity ownership spread among a team that has seen many investment cycles, investors can feel confident that their interests are closely aligned with experienced stock pickers.

Lonsec believes Perennial’s strongest capabilities are across Australian equities (both value and growth teams) and fixed interest and property (both global and domestic), claiming the Australian equity growth business in particular hit a ‘sweet spot’ in 2007 in terms of team development and funds under management.

As such, Lonsec awarded Perennial Growth Management the title of Australian Equities (Broad Cap) Fund Manager of the Year.

Partner at Perennial Growth, Lee Mickelburough, told Money Management that taking into account realistic expectations of sector, industry and product lifecycles was a primary component of the manager’s successful investment process.

Therefore, while admitting Australian equities face challenges in the current market, he remains confident that good opportunities still exist.

“In our view, the market will continue to be volatile, but [is] supported by broad market valuations that are now back to, and in some cases below, historic levels,” he said.

“As a long-term growth investor, we are confident that we will continue to find good opportunities in our market.”

The finalists in the overall category of Fund Manager of the Year are Macquarie Funds Management and ING Investment Management (INGIM).

Macquarie was also named winner in the Fixed Interest (Diversified) category, with Lonsec highlighting the Macquarie Diversified Fixed Interest Fund as a standout.

The manager’s head of product management, Raj Gohil, attributed its success to the way the fund has been designed.

“What we’re telling advisers is that this is really a ‘one-stop-shop’ solution for fixed interest,” he said.

“Why do we say that? Well, if you wanted to, you can go out as a financial planner, or researcher, or retail investor and build the various building blocks of this portfolio yourself. But then how do you know when something is cheap or when it’s expensive? Who is monitoring the market every single day? We have 15 people monitoring the markets every day and making that determination on whether something is cheap or expensive.”

Also appearing in other categories, INGIM was a finalist for both Property Securities (Global) and Australian Equities (Broad Cap).

Commenting on ING’s success, Justin Blaess, the director of listed property at INGIM, highlighted the work of its local property analysts “who are switched on to market noise, property fundamentals and pricing anomalies within their individual local markets”.

From INGIM’s Australian equities team, Paul Cuddy believes the fund manager was chosen because of the investment team’s strong stock picking skills.

“INGIM’s focus on earnings risk and the quality of a company’s management team has been a key part of our success,” he said.

“Clearly, our disciplined and structured process has served us well during this recent market downturn.”

— Sara Rich