Fairtree scooped another Raging Bull award, for the third year running in the equity category in a competition that recognises superior performance by unit trust fund managers in selecting investments for their portfolios, taking into account consistency and aversion to risk.
The award ceremony, held in Cape Town yesterday, honoured unit trust companies and funds for top performance over periods to the end of December 2019. Fairtree was nominated in three categories, with the Fairtree Equity Prescient Fund winning the Raging Bull for risk-adjusted performance over five years. It is the third consecutive year that Fairtree has won this Raging Bull.
“We are delighted to have been recognized for another Raging Bull. It is a huge honour as it affirms our commitment to our sound investment philosophy and creating long-term wealth for our clients,” said Bradley Anthony, Fairtree Asset Management.
He acknowledged the long and valuable relationships with clients and their advisers and thanked them for their continued support and trust in what was a difficult investment period.
Raging Bull winners, Stephen Brown and Cor Booysen are co-portfolio managers of the Fairtree Equity Prescient Fund, which returned 197.18% or 14.27% per annum over the period November 2011 to December 2019.
“Our investment philosophy and holistic investment process results in diversified portfolios which we actively manage, consistently making client’s capital work harder,” said Booysen on behalf of the co-managers.
Booysen added that by far the stand out performer in the fund’s 2019 accomplishment was Impala Platinum, delivering a 290% return during the year and as a result has grown to a 10% position in the fund.
“The precious metals sector had a particularly good year in 2019 and our fund’s large exposure to the platinum and gold sectors underpinned our outperformance during the year,” said Booysen.
The fund also benefitted from sizeable positions in Anglo American, Naspers, Capitec, Richemont and Risilient.
“We will remain focussed on the platinum and gold sectors, where we believe an increase in the price of palladium and rhodium will benefit South African platinum mines. Platinum will be substituted for these minerals by end-users which will further increase the profitability of SA platinum mines.” said Booysen.
“The recovering mining sector should boost the local economy and support the fiscus in the year ahead,” he added.
The event was sponsored this year by Investment Fund Africa and the JSE. ProfileData and its subsidiary, PlexCrown Fund Ratings, were the data providers.
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