Fund manager of the year – Friendly society bonds
1st: Heine Group
2nd: Home Building Society
3rd: Mutual Friendly Society
Property is not exactly the sexiest of asset classes these days. But Victoria's Heine Group, in taking out the award for friendly societies, has shown that strength and focus, even in unfashionable sectors, can pay off.
Perhaps best known for their innovation in the syndicated property trust market, Heine's clear win in the Friendly Society category was due to the solid one-year and three-year performance of Heine Investment Management's Heine Investment Bond. In a traditionally low-return sector, the $73 million Heine Investment Bond's one-year and three-year returns, as calculated by ASSIRT, were around 50 basis points clear of its nearest rival, the Home Building Society's $21 million Home Owners Friendly Society Shelter Bonds.
The reason for Heine's strong results with this product is simple, according to Carolyn Hampton, funds research manager at ASSIRT. "The investment bond is a mortgage fund, and Heine are very good mortgage managers," she says.
In a prevailing environment of low interest rates such as Australia's at present, the ability to value-add in areas like mortgage management is crucial to gaining above-average returns with low volatility in low-risk sectors like friendly society bonds, Hampton says.
As with several other award categories, none of the three place-getters from last year - Australian Unity, IOOF and Lifeplan - featured in the top three in 1999.
This year's third-placegetter, Mutual Friendly Society, did well with its $362 million Mutual Friendly Investment Bond as well as its smaller Tax Saver Passbook and Commonwealth Securities Fund.
Recommended for you
Having received bids from Bell Financial Group and AxiCorp, trading platform Selfwealth has confirmed it has entered into a scheme implementation deed after both parties were invited to make a higher bid.
Clime Investment Management has faced shareholder backlash around “unsatisfactory” financial results and is enacting cost reductions to return the business to profitability by Q1 2025.
Ausbil has expanded its distribution team with the hire of a manager for investment research and consulting, following the exit of its head of wholesale distribution in July.
Amid a growing appetite for alternatives, investment executives have shared questions advisers should consider when selecting a private markets product compared to their listed counterparts.
