Aviva Investors Melbourne Mile

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:56:24 +1000

This year we are proud to be involved in the inaugural Aviva Investors Melbourne Mile, to be held on Thursday, November 13, 2008.

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Becoming Aviva Investors

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:55:35 +1000

As announced in February, Portfolio Partners will join with eleven other specialist asset management businesses owned by Aviva Group to become one entity called Aviva Investors. This takes place on Monday 29 September. The initiative is designed to leverage the power and capability of a global group of investment management firms, yet retain the agility, innovation and focus of its local operations.

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Important Notice to Unit Holders

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:12:05 +1000

Click here to download the Portfolio Partners Trusts key dates for 2008 financial year end

Sub-prime to Credit squeeze - a new video webcast

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:19:33 +1000

Portfolio Partners recently produced a video webcast for parent company Aviva, describing the evolution of the US sub-prime crisis into the global credit squeeze.

The 17-minute film features our own John Hopper (Senior Manager, Credit) hosting a discussion with his counterparts within the Aviva group of companies, Jay Contis from Morley in Boston and Oliver Judd in London. Each describes developments in their own countries, the global impacts, and assesses the outlook from mid-March. Click here to view the video.

A steady hand at the tiller in Listed Property's stormy seas

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:45:49 +1000

Portfolio Partners' Listed Property Trust was the only fund in the recent Mercer survey not to have lost clients' money over 2007. Portfolio Partners stuck to its stated investment strategy and style and was vindicated, one of the few pleasing stories in the sector last year.

2007 saw the Portfolio Partners Listed Property Trust finish the year with the top ranking in the Mercer listed property surveys over 1, 3 and 5 years – proving an enduring performer in both sunny and stormy markets. *

During a volatile and difficult market, Portfolio Partners stayed true to its stated investment strategy and style, and added significant value for its investors. The Trust performed a gross 8.4%* above benchmark for the 12 months to 31 December 2007. Portfolio Manager Brett McNeill says “the fact that we limited the downside for our investors during what was the sector’s first negative year since 1999 is extremely pleasing.”

The story started well before Centro’s well-documented difficulties. Portfolio Partners had already communicated to its investors that listed property securities have been higher risk investments for a number of years. “We recognised that we needed to pay particular attention to these risks by focusing carefully on bottom-up stock selection and positioned our portfolio accordingly,” says McNeill.

“Typically in equity, markets changes in the underlying fundamentals such as overextended gearing will go unnoticed – or noticed but not cared about – until something or some company blows up causing people to panic and re-assess what they have actually been investing in.”

“This is essentially what happened in the listed property market at the end of 2007. It was not until the collapse of Centro that the market began to re-price risk properly,” says McNeill.

Active Management delivers strong Alpha

Events such as Centro’s collapse are unfortunate but demonstrate the value of fund managers who are prepared to have a clear strategy, do thorough research on their investments and position their portfolio accordingly. In essence, an active management approach to listed property is clearly capable of delivering excess returns to investors.

The Trust’s 2007 performance benefited from owning a well-diversified portfolio including names such as Stockland, Mirvac and Becton Property Group. In addition, back in 2006, when the market was more excited about growth as opposed to being worried about risk, Portfolio Partners began buying stocks that were typically considered ‘boring’ and ‘old fashioned’ but which we

considered to be ‘low risk’, ‘unloved’ and ‘good value’, specifically Commonwealth Property Office Fund and DB RREEF Trust.

The trust’s performance also benefited from having large underweight positions in stocks we had previously identified as high risk and expensive, namely Centro Properties Group and Centro Retail Group.

What lies ahead for Listed Property?

Poor returns for the listed property sector in 2007 and the collapse of Centro’s share price have left many investors understandably panicked and downbeat about prospects for the sector in the year ahead.

“While we don’t have a crystal ball, we continue to believe that listed property is an attractive asset class to invest in for the long-term. We remain of the view that careful stock selection will be crucial this year,” McNeill says. “Current market conditions give us further confidence in our portfolio strategy of backing quality companies and trusts that we judge to be attractively priced on a risk-adjusted basis. We continue to focus on delivering superior long-term returns for our clients in a tax efficient manner.”

Brett McNeill warns that despite not receiving much coverage lately, the possibility of further takeover activity is still a factor in this market. Despite the current tough conditions in the debt market and weak equity prices, he’s not sure we’ve seen the last of takeover activity.

McNeill points out that potential acquirers do not necessarily have to be other listed companies or private equity firms, but may be in the form of ‘sovereign wealth funds’. “Their participation in our market is a growing phenomenon, as we have already seen by the recent move of Nakheel, a Dubai owned property group, disclosing an ownership stake in Australia’s Mirvac Group. While this particular move may not necessarily lead to a takeover, we think it is highly likely that Australia’s share market will be hearing more from sovereign funds in coming years.”

* Mercer Surveys. Australian Listed Property for periods ended December 2007

Rob Camilleri - Insto Magazine Bond Personality of the Year

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:47:20 +1000