Platinum Asset Management wins Global Equities (Long Short) category

A unique and proven investment process was one of the key features of Platinum Asset Management’s Asia Fund, this year’s winner of the Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year Global Equities (Long/Short) category.

Platinum Asset Management was praised for the “high quality investment professionals” spearheading the fund, with chief investment officer (CIO) Kerr Neilson praised for having “significant input at all stages of the investment process and [being] ultimately the driver of the process”.

Deputy CIO and founding member, Andrew Clifford, was also attributed with having “played a key role in the firm’s wide investment and research effort”.

Lonsec noted that the fund itself, Platinum Asia Fund, is a regionally focused long-biased long short equity fund. It is not managed relative to a MSCI Index, and currency is managed as a separate asset class, with the objective of protection and generating additional return.

The research house said: “Platinum’s research and portfolio construction process is primarily based on leveraging the investment knowledge, intuition and skills of the CIO and key portfolio managers.

Thus, investors are strongly reliant on the skills of the team.

That said, Lonsec considers Platinum’s investment process to be both unique and well proven.”

Joseph Lai, fund manager for Greater China at Platinum, said the lack of a cash limit on the fund was a contributing factor to its success.

“The Platinum Asia Fund has no cash limit and this means we can short sell and invest as we see fit, and that is one of the key factors behind its performance,” he said.

“In addition, we have a well established team dedicated to the Asian region, but we also draw on the professionals across the entire company and use the sector ties we have internally to get the best returns for clients.”

The performance of the fund in Asia was also noted by Lonsec: “Long-term performance has been very strong, with the fund delivering 21.9 per cent per annum over the five year period ending July 2009.

"Over the same period, the fund outperformed the MSCI World AC Far East Free ex Japan Index by 10.6 per cent per annum. Performance over the shorter term has also been strong, with the fund returning 20.1 per cent for the 12 months ending July 2009, outperforming the Index by 14.3 per cent.”

K2 Asset Management has also fared well in this category, being named a finalist in an increasingly competitive space. Its K2 Asian Absolute Return Fund has been operating for 10 years and has successfully generated strong returns for clients through the full range of investment cycles.

“The fund’s focus on both return and capital preservation is a compelling characteristic given the historical volatility of Asian markets over 10 years,” said Andrew Hall, head of distribution at K2 Asset Management.

“Our investment process was instrumental in positioning the fund for the recovery in Asia’s equity markets. We actively adjust the fund’s net exposure around a neutral position of 65 per cent net long, depending on the environment and outlook.”

Hall adds that the most testing challenge was raising exposure aggressively in the early stages of the recovery, given the large uncertainties still facing the markets. Shifting exposure among the various markets has also proved challenging, he said, but it was an area where K2 has faired well.