Schroders soars

The results are in. Schroders Investment Management has been named Fund Manager of the Year in the 2009 Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year Awards.

A finalist in four categories, the Australian arm of the global asset management company was also crowned winner in the Australian Equities (Small Cap) and Fixed Interest (Diversified) categories, only missing out on the Australian Equities (Broad Cap) award.

Independent research firm Lonsec, which judged 13 categories in total for this year’s awards, said against a backdrop of extremely testing market conditions, Schroders managed to deliver consistent outcomes from a number of mainstream sectors in 2008.

“In addition, in a year that saw many fund managers forced to close products and/or deal with extreme negative returns relative to stated objectives, the Schroders products rated by Lonsec managed to steer clear of such issues,” Lonsec said.

Schroders’ local office — one of 28 worldwide — is integrated into a global network, offering investors both local expertise and global insight, Lonsec further noted.

“While globally Schroders advise on investments across both major and specialist asset classes, in Australia Schroders has adopted a disciplined and focused strategy in the retail market, primarily offering products that are ‘core’ investment management capabilities and supporting these products through strong resourcing.” Schroders chief executive Greg Cooper said despite trying market times, it has very much been business as usual for the team.

“We thought, if anything, the tougher times for us were in the lead up to this where … in the case of Australian equities, commodities were running very strongly even though you could already see that the global economy was turning down.”

Lonsec said it was Schroders’ bottom-up growth investment style, and its focus on return on invested capital (ROIC), that protected investors’ capital in 2008, a very difficult year for Australian equities investors.

“Schroders places significant emphasis on identifying and investing in companies which exhibit a ROIC that is in excess of its cost of capital. Lonsec believes that Schroders is differentiated from other growth-style Australian equity managers by the focus on ROIC, rather than earnings per share growth.

“As such, the manager tends to exhibit lower turnover and better ‘downside’ protection relative to other growth managers reviewed by Lonsec.”

Coming in as finalists in the overall Fund Manager of the Year category were BT Investment Management and Perpetual Investment Management.

Meanwhile, in other categories, ING dominated the property securities sector, with ING Investment Management awarded top spot in Property Securities (Australia), while US-based ING Clarion Real Estate Securites won Property Securities (Global).

Relative newcomer to the equities space Integrity Investment Management also triumphed with two awards, named this year’s Rising Star by Lonsec and also crowned manager of the year in the Australian Equities (Broad Cap) category.

Elsewhere in equities, K2 Asset Management won Australian Equities (Long Short), Magellan Asset Management took top place in Global Equities (Broad Cap), while Platinum Asset Management took honours in a new category, Global Equities (Long Short).

Elsewhere, in the Regional/Emerging Market Equities category, first place went to Aberdeen Asset Management.

The award for Alternative Investments (Hedge Funds) went to Winton Capital Management, part of Macquarie’s Professional Series. Finally, this year’s Multi-Manager winner was Advance Asset Management.

Through the judging process, Lonsec sought to recognise managers that not only performed strongly in their category in 2008 but were also well positioned to deliver superior performance in the future.

In order to be considered, the funds needed to be rated by Lonsec. Following this initial screening, Lonsec utilised two equally weighted components to select the winners in each category — the one-year excess return for the funds for the calendar year 2008 and a qualitative analyst ‘momentum’ score, which covers process enhancements, team stability and risk management.

For each category, the winner was the manager with the highest score from the aggregate of these two components.

To determine the overall Fund Manager of the Year and the Rising Star, Lonsec used a voting process involving senior members of its research team.

Schroders shines Schroders Investment Management crowned the 2009 Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year

Property Securities (Australia): No style bias a winner for ING

With no style bias in its investment equation, ING Investment Management has maintained its position in the market, according to its director of real estate securities, Justin Blaess.

Global Equities (Long Short): Platinum shorts when it counts

A minimum exposure to financials and commodities, resource stocks in particular, helped Platinum Asset Management take out the Global Equities (Long Short) category for its International Fund.

Regional/Emerging Market Equities: Aberdeen’s meet and greet strategy

It came down to two worthy finalists in the Regional/Emerging Market Equities category, but highly experienced Aberdeen Asset Management ultimately came out on top with its Aberdeen Emerging Opportunities Fund.

Property Securities (Global): ING positions itself for growth

ING Clarion Real Estate Securities (ING Clarion), manager of the ING Wholesale Global Property Securities Fund, was named winner in the Property Securities (Global) category of the 2009 Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year Awards.

Global Equities (Broad Cap): Cautious approach yields results for Magellan A focus on truly outstanding companies is the reason behind the success of Magellan Asset Management's Global Fund, according to the fund portfolio manager and chairman of Magellan, Hamish Douglass.

Alternative Investments (Hedge Funds): Alpha adds up for Winton Macquarie looked at about 300 managers for its Professional Series of investments and narrowed it down to six, including this year’s winner, Winton Global Alpha Fund.

Rising Star: Integrity takes flight with robust structure While good returns help the survival of a boutique manager, a good capital base and back-office are the keys to long-term survival. These attributes were part of the criteria that Lonsec used to select the winning manager in this category, Integrity Investment Management.

Australian Equities (Small Cap): It’s all or nothing for Schroders Small businesses are often the most vulnerable in an economic downturn, but that doesn’t mean there are no opportunities for investors. The key is being able to identify those stocks with good long-term prospects that will survive the current downturn, as is the case with this year’s winner, Schroders Investment Management.

Fixed Interest (Diversified): Cash is king for Schroders The diversified fixed interest sector was this year characterised by an historically wide divergence in returns across its universe, which in turn drove the investment strategies of the winning fund in the Fixed Interest (Diversified) category of the awards, Schroder Fixed Income Fund W Class, and those of the two finalists.

Australian Equities (Long Short): K2 rises above the competition with an active approach Active management of the fund, choosing the right assets at the right time and focusing on generating positive returns are the reasons behind the success of K2 Asset Management’s Australian Absolute Return Fund, according to the chief investment officer of K2 and senior portfolio manager, Mark Newman.

Finding the Fund Manager of the Year winners for 2009 The process Lonsec implemented to select the winners for each category consisted of three components.