Why Platinum International has outperformed
The Platinum International Fund, one of Australia’s most highly regarded international equities strategies, has outperformed its benchmark over the past year.
And given Australian self-managed super fund (SMSF) portfolios’ widely acknowledged under-allocation to international equities, the outperformance warrants closer examination.
As the chart below illustrates, the fund boasted a total return of nearly 21 per cent over the year compared to its benchmark MSCI All Country World Index’s gain of just over 13 per cent.
Comparing the largest underlying holdings of the strategy to its benchmark’s major constituents can go some way to explaining the outperformance.
As 31 March, 2018, the only large holding the Platinum strategy shared in common with its benchmark index was Google parent company Alphabet, with a 2.6 per cent weighting.
When comparing the top 10 holdings, it’s clear Platinum has made decent sized bets on Asian equities, with Samsung Electronics the number one holding with a 3 per cent weighting, followed closely by Pin An Insurance of China with 2.8 per cent of the portfolio.
Both stocks have gained 15.5 per cent and 13.4 per cent respectively over the past year.
The strategy carries a four-crown FE Crown Fund Rating and is available as a quoted managed fund on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker PIXX.
It pays distributions annually and its management costs are 1.10 per cent per annum of net asset value, plus 15 per cent of outperformance over the benchmark.
Recommended for you
Some 42 per cent of CEOs say they are actively reinventing their business to stay relevant in the next decade, with consumer services the most common choice for asset and wealth managers.
Former Ophir Asset Management chief executive, George Chirakis, has joined private equity manager Scarcity Partners, while the asset manager has appointed a replacement from Macquarie.
Australian Unity has appointed a fund manager for its Healthcare Property Trust, joining from Centuria Healthcare, as it restructures the product with a series of senior appointments.
Financial advisers nervous about the liquidity of private markets funds for their retail clients are the target of fund managers launching semi-liquid products which offer greater flexibility and redemptions.
