To view the full Affluence Investment Fund Update – December 2016 in pdf format, click here.
Australian and global markets continued to climb in December, with the ASX 200 increasing by 4.4% for the month, and 11.8% for the calendar year.
This was a strong finish to the year, with the index delivering annual returns of 2.6% and 5.6% for the two previous years. The Affluence Investment Fund increased by 1.1% in December resulting in a 10.7% return for the calendar year.
It was a mixed month again for our underlying managers. It was the large cap shares that continued rising and a number of small and mid cap companies had difficulties. Our best performing investments were the Bronte Amalthea Fund (up 6.1%), Phoenix Opportunities Fund (up 5.6%), Cromwell Riverpark Trust (up 7.4%) and Auscap Australia Long Short Fund (up 4.0%). Our only significant detractor was one of our long short funds (down 9.7%). The remainder of investments were relatively stable.
In December we increased our position in the Alexander Credit Opportunities Fund. We also made one new investment – the India Avenue Equity Fund. We have been looking for some additional emerging market exposure and like the growth potential and demographics of India. India Avenue is effectively a fund of funds, with the manager appointing 3 investment management firms in India to run the portfolio. We are optimistic that this investment will produce good long term returns, however we expect a few bumps along the way, and it will only have a small allocation in the Fund.
At the end of December, the Affluence Investment Fund held investments in 24 unlisted funds representing 57% of the total portfolio. The Affluence LIC Fund accounted for 21% of the total portfolio, and provided exposure to 20 LIC’s. We held investments in 6 other listed entities which represented 7% of the total portfolio, with the remaining 15% held in cash.
We have changed the way we present our performance this month. A lot of investors ask what portion of our total return is made up of income distributions versus capital growth, and going forward we will show this apportionment.
If you would like further details of the Affluence Fund portfolio, please contact us at any time.
If you would like to invest with us and get access to over 30 of Australia’s best fund managers, we encourage you to utilise our online application facility. Just follow the link on our website. If you’d like to add to your existing investment, you can either complete the one-page form available on our website, or use the online facility. A reminder, the cut-off for this month’s investment intake is 25th January.
We are continuing to work on converting the Fund to retail so it will be available to all investors. We are hopeful this will be available in the next couple of months.
If you know anyone that may be interested in the Fund, feel free to let them know.
