Perpetual boosts portfolio approach
01 Aug 2002
Perpetual Investments, the funds management arm of Perpetual Trustees Australia, has extended the portfolio management approach of its flagship Industrial Share Fund (ISF).
Mr Matt Williams, portfolio manager of Perpetual's Smaller Companies funds, has been given additional responsibility for a portion of the ISF. His deputy, Mr Sean Cunningham, has in turn been given 50% of the smaller companies portfolio to manage.
Mr Matt Williams and Mr Sean Cunningham have been with Perpetual for over 9 years and 7 years respectively.
The new responsibilities take effect from 6 August and follow the particularly strong performance of Perpetual's Smaller Companies Fund for the year ending 30 June 2002. It was one of the best performing equities fund for the year in Australia with a 24.5% return. The ISF also performed well in a difficult year for Australian shares with a positive 5.3% annual return, out-performing its benchmark return of -5.6%.
Mr Emilio Gonzalez, chief investment officer for Perpetual Investments, said that the move is a logical extension of the management approach already used for the ISF.
"Four years ago we split the ISF equally between two portfolio managers, Mr John Sevior and Mr Peter Morgan," he said.
"This has proven successful with good performance and in building depth in our portfolio management skills."
Mr Gonzalez added that Perpetual has also further enhanced this management approach by giving a small portion of the Industrial Share Fund to each equity analyst to manage.
"However, each analyst is restricted to the management of stocks within the universe of stocks they cover," he said.
"We believe that the new approach will sharpen the focus of analysts' recommendations and ensure that the best stock selections get included in our portfolios.
"It is a natural development making even better use of our resources, further encouraging our investment team, and utilising the natural advantages of the Perpetual investment philosophy and process more fully.
"Our approach must be to continually look at ways to improve the way we do things within the discipline of our overall investment process.
"While we have been successful, we know that we have to keep improving and developing our team in order to deliver solid consistent performance for our investors over the long term," Mr Gonzalez said.