A ‘manager of managers’
Advance is a manager of investment managers – and has been for more than two decades.
Since we don’t directly manage money ourselves, we can make an expert, unbiased selection from the best available investment managers in the market. We have been managing managers in this way for more than 20 years and this means we can offer a range of investment solutions from diversified portfolios, single sector multi-manager funds and single manager options that deliver the best risk/return balance for you. We focus on finding quality managers with a demonstrated core skills in a specific asset class or investment style.
Australian equities
| Maple-Brown Abbott |
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| Investment Style: |
Value |
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| Market cap bias: |
None |
| Number of stocks: |
45-60 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Maple-Brown Abbott employs a disciplined bottom-up stock selection process, with an emphasis on strong primary research. They apply a value-based investment style by investing in companies that represent relatively good long-term fundamental value with portfolios exhibiting strong value characteristics relative to market averages. The value characteristics of the portfolios include relatively low price-to-earnings, low price-to-net-tangible-assets and higher-than-average dividend yields.
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| Other key points: |
Maple-Brown Abbott's approach has produced strong outperformance of the benchmark over the medium to longer-term.
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| Appointed: |
1984 |
| Established: |
1984 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Advance Imputation Fund, Advance Sharemarket Fund (closed to new investors), Advance Australian Geared Equity Fund (underlying manager)
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| BT Financial Group |
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| Investment Style: |
Neutral |
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| Market cap bias: |
All cap |
| Number of stocks: |
45-75 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
BT utilises detailed bottom-up processes to produce a portfolio that incorporates the best stock ideas from research on a risk adjusted basis. Detailed company research is a key driver of BT's investment process, which is used to determine the fair valuation of stocks in the investment universe. BT's portfolio is diversified targeting no particular style bias over a full business cycle.
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| Other key points: |
Experienced 10-member team with an average of 13 years experience. Strong performance has been delivered under this team structure. |
| Appointed: |
2006 |
| Established: |
1969 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Australian Shares Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers) |
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| Schroders |
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| Investment Style: |
Growth |
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| Market cap bias: |
None |
| Number of stocks: |
40-60 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Schroders uses an active bottom-up approach to isolate stocks that are able to grow shareholder value in the long term and provide high rates of return. By taking a longer-term view, Schroders avoids attempting to time the market or economic cycles. Risk management is a key focus for Schroders with a prudent approach taken to portfolio construction at the stock, sector, and total portfolio levels. |
| Other key points: |
Delivered strong outperformance over medium and long-term periods |
| Appointed: |
2002 |
| Established: |
1961 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Advance Australian Equity Growth Fund |
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| Contango Asset Management |
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| Investment Style: |
Neutral |
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| Market cap bias: |
Small cap/Micro Cap |
| Number of stocks: |
25-60 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Contango are a thematic manager that is able to add value from top down macro economic themes as well as in depth stock analysis. Contago’s top down approach to selecting favoured sectors is a distinguishing factor of the manager, which enables the manager to more appropriately price stock opportunities based on current conditions. |
| Other key points: |
Contango has a very experience team, complementing the qualitative top-down process. Portfolio construction incorporates qualitative top down risk as well as quantitative risk measures. |
| Appointed: |
2007 |
| Established: |
1998 |
| Location: |
Melbourne |
| Manages: |
Australian Shares Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers), Australian Smaller Companies Multi-Blend (with other managers) |
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| MIR Investment Management |
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| Investment Style: |
Value |
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| Market cap bias: |
Small cap |
| Number of stocks: |
30-40 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
MIR's investment process is a unique combination of quantitative and qualitative processes. The process aims to minimise the tail of negative returns and enhance the tail of positive returns with the addition of momentum screens. MIR has a concentrated portfolio and only invests in a stock if it believes that the company has investment potential, not just because the company has a high index weight. Strong academic research is central to every part of MIR's process. |
| Other key points: |
MIR also utilises its innovative Industry Advisory Council-a group of leading industry specialists who advise on 'coalface' issues, opportunities, and developments across all major industry sectors. |
| Appointed: |
2004 |
| Established: |
2003 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Advance Concentrated Australian Shares Fund, Australian Shares Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers), Australian Smaller Companies Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers) |
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| Souls Funds Management |
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| Investment Style: |
Neutral |
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| Market cap bias: |
Small cap |
| Number of stocks: |
20-40 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Souls is an active bottom-up stock picker that focuses on the investment merits of individual stocks rather than market and economic trends. Souls place a strong emphasis on understanding the business models, management, and accounts of the companies it invests in. They avoid evolving companies in favour of selecting quality companies that run quality businesses, thereby minimising downside risk. |
| Other key points: |
Souls is a subsidiary of Washington H. Soul Pattinson group. |
| Appointed: |
2005 |
| Established: |
1997 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Australian Smaller Companies Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers) |
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| Tribeca Investment Management |
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| Investment Style: |
Value |
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| Market cap bias: |
Small cap |
| Number of stocks: |
40-55 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Tribeca believes that value can be added through top-down macro research and bottom-up stock research combined with a comprehensive valuation system to drive portfolio decisions. Top-down analysis is used to identify stocks that will outperform in the prevailing market and economic conditions. Finally, a comprehensive and systematic valuation approach is used to identify undervalued companies in the market. |
| Other key points: |
Tribeca has delivered strong outperformance of its benchmark over the medium and long-term. |
| Appointed: |
2002 |
| Established: |
1998 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Advance Australian Smaller Companies Fund |
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| Alleron |
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| Investment Style: |
Growth |
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| Market cap bias: |
Large |
| Number of stocks: |
25-35 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Alleron offers a high conviction and concentrated portfolio that is driven by factors including short and long-term earnings, management strength, relative valuation, and the competitive structure of a particular industry. Alleron uses a range of valuation methodologies to assess whether the market has mispriced the potential drivers of a stock’s price. Ultimately, Alleron’s aim is to own high quality stocks with a valuation edge. |
| Other key points: |
Alleron is a staff-owned and operated boutique manager, delivering strong out-performance since inception. |
| Appointed: |
2006 |
| Established: |
2004 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Australian Shares Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers), Advance Alleron Australian Equity Growth Fund – wholesale units |
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| Ausbil Dexia |
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| Investment Style: |
Neutral |
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| Market cap bias: |
Large |
| Number of stocks: |
25-35 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Rather than focusing only on growth or value investing, Ausbil Dexia’s investment process allows it to exploit inefficiencies across the entire Australian equities market, at all stages of the cycle and across all market conditions. The basic premise of Ausbil Dexia’s philosophy is that stock prices ultimately follow earnings and earnings revisions. They believe that the market places excessive emphasis on the current situation and does not sufficiently take into account the likelihood of future changes to the earnings profile of individual companies and sectors. Ausbil Dexia’s process incorporates macro and sector analysis, which drives factor tilts in the portfolio. The bottom-up process seeks to identify earnings and earning revisions at an early stage, and therefore pre-empt stock price movements. |
| Other key points: |
Ausbil Dexia is a joint venture between foundation investors, including senior members of the investment team, and Dexia Asset Management, the asset management arm of the Dexia Group, which is a major AA+ rated European bank. |
| Appointed: |
2006 |
| Established: |
1997 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Australian Shares Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers) |
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International equities
| Lion Global Investors Limited |
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| Investment Style: |
Active, fundamental |
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| Market cap bias: |
None |
| Number of stocks: |
40-70 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Lion believe that securities have intrinsic values which are relatively stable and can be measured with reasonable accuracy by a diligent and disciplined investor. Lion Global Investors believe that a strategy of buying only when market prices are significantly below intrinsic values will produce superior returns over the long term. |
| Other key points: |
Lion has one of the most experienced teams dedicated to Asian equities. |
| Appointed: |
2008 |
| Location: |
Singapore |
| Manages: |
Advance Asian Equity Fund and the Diversified Multi-Blend Funds (with other managers)
For further information please download the manager profile. |
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| Mellon Capital Management |
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| Investment Style: |
Index, full replication |
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| Market cap bias: |
None |
| Number of stocks: |
1600 (approx) |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Mellon Capital uses a disciplined and structured process to fully replicate the index's allocation to securities and sector weights, thereby minimising risk. Mellon Capital's global equity index strategy is fully hedged back into Australian dollars. This is achieved through the use of highly liquid currency forward contracts, and ensures that the strategy's returns are not influenced by movements in overseas currency exchange rates. The currency hedge is then reset at regular intervals to adjust for market movements or cashflows, and ensures a fully-hedged position at all times. |
| Appointed: |
2004 |
| Established: |
1983 |
| Location: |
San Francisco |
| Manages: |
International Shares Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers) |
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| OVERLAY Asset Management (OAM) |
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| Investment Style: |
Specialist currency manager |
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| Investment philosophy/process: |
OAM believes that a clear and systematic investment approach combined with a rigorous risk/control framework can best deliver attractive and consistent risk adjusted returns to clients. All currency management decisions that they take are based on a sound and rational quantitative framework (of objective data-based currency management strategies) with only a minimum of human interpretation and emotion, which we believe are themselves drivers of market inefficiencies. |
| Other key points: |
OAM is a 100% focused currency management specialist, fully dedicated to identifying market anomalies and to systematically extracting value from the currency market using mathematical and statistical methods. |
| Appointed: |
March 2008 |
| Established: |
1998 |
| Location: |
France |
| Manages: |
The active currency strategy for the International Shares Multi-Blend Fund (with other manager's) |
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| Tradewinds NWQ Global Investors |
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| Investment Style: |
Value |
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| Market cap bias: |
None |
| Number of stocks: |
40-75 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Tradewinds is a concentrated, benchmark-unconstrained manager that focuses on undervalued stocks with strong or impressive franchise quality. Their bottom-up stock selection process is built on robust quantitative screening supported by fundamental analysis. The Tradewinds process relies heavily on the judgement of their investment professionals, utilising different forms of valuation and cash flow analysis. The team has a strong focus on understanding the drivers of sectors and industries, and the portfolio can have substantial sector and country exposures. Tradewinds views risk management in an absolute rather than benchmark focused way, although sector and country exposures are monitored to ensure diversification. |
| Other key points: |
Tradewinds is an independently-managed subsidiary of US investment firm Nuveen Investments, which was established 1898. Nuveen is wholly owned by US private equity investment firm Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC, established in 1992. |
| Appointed: |
2006 |
| Established: |
2006 |
| Location: |
Los Angeles |
| Manages: |
International Shares Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers) |
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| AllianceBernstein |
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| Investment Style: |
Growth |
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| Market cap bias: |
None |
| Number of stocks: |
100-150 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
AllianceBerstein seeks to invest in companies with superior, sustainable earnings growth and reasonable valuations using detailed and in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of stocks. They avoid investing solely on the basis of stock price momentum. AllianceBerstein's investment process emphasises bottom-up stock selection with the investment strategy managed by a team of equity researchers rather than a single portfolio manager. The portfolio comprises six industry-specific sub-portfolios, with regionally-based equity research teams selecting companies in their identified areas of expertise. |
| Other key points: |
AllianceBerstein is one of the world's largest investment management firms, with offices in 38 cities and 20 countries. |
| Appointed: |
2005 |
| Established: |
1971 |
| Location: |
New York |
| Manages: |
International Shares Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers) |
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| The Boston Company Asset Management, LLC |
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| Investment Style: |
Quantitative and fundamental |
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| Market cap bias: |
none |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Utilize quantitative modeling and fundamental research to identify US and developed market companies with a compelling combination of attractive valuation and improving business momentum. Minimize uncompensated risk by tightly constraining relative country and sector weights. |
| Other key points: |
The Boston Company Asset Management, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. |
| Appointed: |
2004 |
| Established: |
1970 |
| Location: |
Boston |
| Manages: |
Advance International Sharemarket Fund, Advance International Share Core Fund and the International Shares Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers) |
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Mortgages
| MacarthurCook |
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| Approach: |
Conservative, first mortgages |
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| Number of loans: |
152 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
MacarthurCook has a singular focus on investing in property securities and mortgage assets. They apply a disciplined acquisition approach, coupled with strong risk management processes, to property investment and credit approval policies for mortgages. Their asset strategy is to have a mix of mortgages and short-dated assets and to be diversified geographically and by sector as a source of risk abatement. |
| Appointed: |
2005 |
| Established: |
2003 |
| Location: |
Melbourne |
| Manages: |
Advance Mortgage Fund and Advance Property Securities Fund |
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Property
| Perennial Investment Partners |
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| Approach: |
Active; top-down and bottom-up |
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| Number of trusts: |
10-20 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Perennial believes that better investment outcomes are achieved by focusing on assets with good cashflow growth and consistent income characteristics. Perennial is a bottom-up stock selection manager with top-down macro input also playing an important part in their investment process. The main focus of the stock selection process is to identify those trusts where total return is expected to grow faster than the listed property sector average. Top-down views influence the forecast prospects for these trusts and also influence stock selection and weightings to favour those sectors with stronger outlooks.
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| Appointed: |
2006 |
| Established: |
2006 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Australian Property Securities Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers) |
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| European Investors Incorporated (EII) |
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| Approach: |
Active, Benchmark unaware, which utilises a top down bottom up approach |
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| Market segment: |
Property securities |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Ell’s investment philosophy centres around the belief that superior, risk adjusted returns can best be achieved by investing in a portfolio of high quality real estate companies capable of sustainable and predictable long-term cash flow growth. In assessing the merits of potential investments, they place a high priority on the quality of management, depth of the team and their vision for the company, quality of the real estate assets and competitive advantages.
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| Appointed: |
2007 |
| Established: |
1983 |
| Location: |
USA |
| Manages: |
Advance Property Securities Fund (with other managers) |
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| CBRE Global Real Estate Securities LLC (CBRE GRES) |
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| Approach: |
Active, core, value orientated |
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| Market segment: |
Property securities |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
CBRE GRES’s strategy utilises both top-down global asset management in the various regions, sub-regions, and countries, as well as bottom-up stock selection. Their strategy benefits from regional specialist with on-the ground knowledge of local property markets. The process is regimented with a value-based discipline that identifies securities that offer secure income and the potential for superior returns.
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| Appointed: |
2007 |
| Established: |
1998 |
| Location: |
Australia |
| Manages: |
Advance Property Securities Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers)
For further information please download the manager profile. |
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| MacarthurCook |
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| Approach: |
Active, bottom up |
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| Number of trusts: |
15-35 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
MacarthurCook's stock selection process aims to identify stocks that are expected to generate superior growth and are trading at attractive valuation within the investable universe. A bottom-up approach is applied with a top down overlay that takes account of trend divergence within sub-sectors of the property market. The investment risk characteristics of the portfolio will be derived from GARP investment approach, which has a bias towards higher gearing levels to maximise on the positive funding spread. This tilts the portfolio to be less defensive versus the market in return for a greater alpha generation.
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| Appointed: |
2004 |
| Established: |
2003 |
| Location: |
Melbourne |
| Manages: |
Advance Property Securities Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers) |
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Australian fixed interest
| AllianceBernstein |
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| Approach: |
Active, balanced mix of duration, yield curve, sector allocation and issue selection |
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| Market segment: |
Sovereign and corporate bonds |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
AllianceBernstein’s approach to fixed interest combines elements of both top down and bottom up. The investment process is clearly defined and disciplined, based on high quality proprietary bond research. Portfolios are constructed on a team-based approach with managers and analysts entering into detailed debate on investment decisions.
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| Appointed: |
2008 |
| Established: |
2000 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Australian Fixed Interest Multi-Blend Fund (with other managers)
For further information please download the manager profile.
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| Colonial First State |
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| Approach: |
Active, balanced mix of duration, yield curve, sector allocation, and issue selection |
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| Market segment: |
Sovereign and corporate bonds |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Colonial First State uses derivatives to manage the duration exposure of the portfolio. This allows Colonial First State to focus on security selection separate to duration decisions that take advantage of the interest rate cycle. Colonial First State's disciplined approach to corporate debt investment, controls risk through careful selection and monitoring combined with broad diversification. The increased credit risk of corporate debt means that these investments have the potential to deliver higher returns over the medium term compared to government bonds. |
| Appointed: |
2005 |
| Established: |
1988 |
| Location: |
Sydney |
| Manages: |
Australian Fixed Interest Multi-Blend (with other managers) |
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International fixed interest
| Franklin Templeton |
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| Investment Style: |
active; top down andbottom up |
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| Market cap bias: |
global bonds |
| Number of stocks: |
40-60 |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Franklin Templeton’s investment style combines the qualitative top-down macroeconomic analysis and bottom-up security and sector specific research, with quantitative tools to determine the most attractive investment opportunities. The portfolio is typically diverse by combining lowly correlated positions thereby minimising the risk of poor performance from any singleactive position.
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| Appointed: |
2008 |
| Established: |
1971 |
| Location: |
London |
| Manages: |
International Fixed Interest Multi-Blend (with other managers)
For further information, please download the manager profile. |
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| Standish Mellon |
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| Approach: |
Active, bottom up |
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| Market segment: |
Global credit (ex sovereign) |
| Investment philosophy/process: |
Standish Mellon's process is disciplined with a strong emphasis on risk control. Their approach is team-based with an emphasis on bottom-up, fundamental research and analysis conducted by the sector strategists. The sectors are: US investment grade credit, non-US investment grade credit, structured finance, global high yield, and emerging market debt. The primary source of value added comes from active sector allocation and credit migration strategies. The manager does not seek to add value through duration strategies. They combine both qualitative insight and quantitative inputs for each source of added value.
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| Appointed: |
2005 |
| Established: |
1978 |
| Location: |
Boston |
| Manages: |
International Fixed Interest Multi-Blend (with other managers) |
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Other
| Mellon Capital Management |
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| Investment Style: |
Active, systematic quantitative |
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| Investment philosophy/process: |
Mellon Capital pursues an active management approach through long/short trades in global equities, global bonds and global currencies.
They focus on country, asset and currency level allocation and do not make active decisions at the individual security or industry
sector level. Strategies are implemented through exchange-trade futures and options along with over-the-counter forward currency contracts.
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| Appointed: |
2005 |
| Established: |
1983 |
| Location: |
San Francisco |
| Manages: |
Advance Global Alpha Fund and Diversified Multi-Blend Funds (with other managers) |
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Cash
| IMS Funds Management |
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Style: |
Top down, research driven approach with short-term and economic focus |
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| Investment philosophy/process: |
IMS aims to anticipate the interest rate cycle and adds value by either investing in longer-term securities, if it is believed that interest rates will fall, or switching into shorter-term investments when increases in interest rates are anticipated. |
| Appointed: |
2004 |
| Established: |
1991 |
| Location: |
Melbourne |
| Manages: |
Advance Cash Management Fund |
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Advance is the issuer of interests in the
Advance Managed Funds and
Asgard is the issuer of the interests in the
Advance Super Products (the "
Advance Products"). The information displayed or given on this webpage is of a general nature and does not take into account any person's objectives, financial situation or needs and, because of that, you should, before acting on the information, consider whether the information is appropriate for you, having regard to these factors. You should also consider obtaining independent legal, financial and/or other professional advice before making a decision in relation to any investment. Before deciding whether to acquire, or continue to hold, an investment in an
Advance Product, you obtain and should consider the relevant Product Disclosure Document for that product. You can obtain a copy from your financial adviser, by
downloading it from this website or by calling
Advance on 1800 819 935, 8.30am - 7.00pm (AEST).
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