Multi-manager approach wins Southern Charter top honours at Morningstar Awards

Ursula Maritz, CIO at Southern Charter

Investment Management firm, Southern Charter was named Best Fund House: Small Range for the second consecutive year at the 2013 Morningstar awards. Southern Charter won the award based on the performance of their three funds; The Southern Charter growth F

International ratings agency, Morningstar, says winners are selected using a quantitative methodology developed by Morningstar that considers the one and three year performance history of all eligible funds, and adjusts returns for risk using Morningstar Risk. The Morningstar relative risk-adjusted methodology is regarded as the most stringent and fairest measure of successful fund performance.

This follows the recent Raging Bull awards where Southern Charter Growth Fund was awarded the best domestic Asset Allocation Prudential High-Equity Fund, while the Southern Charter Balanced Fund was named the best Domestic Asset Allocation Prudential Medium Equity Fund.

Ursula Maritz, CIO at Southern Charter, says a focused asset-allocation process has been the key to the consistently strong performance of its funds.
“We actively manage the tactical asset allocation of these funds based on the relative valuation of the major asset classes combined with in-depth analysis of the investment environment. We also add alpha through combining the most appropriate managers for the prevailing investment climate,” she says.

The Southern Charter Growth Fund has an investment objective of CPI+7% and can allocate up to 75% in equities while the Southern Charter Balanced Fund has an investment objective of CPI+5% and can allocate up to 60% in equities. Southern Charter Defensive Fund has an investment objective of CPI+3% and can allocate up to 40% in equities. All three of these funds are Regulation 28 compliant.

Southern Charter’s funds have delivered exceptional performance over the last five years. Southern Charter Defensive fund had a 9.82% annualised return, the Balanced fund 9.22% and the Growth fund 9.33% annualised return over 5 years.

Mark Thompson, CEO and founder of Southern Charter who was key in was key in the setting up and ongoing strategy of the Southern Charter range of risk adjusted funds, says the firm prefers to select underlying fund managers that are owner- managed with highly experienced teams and assets under management that don’t limit their investment opportunities.

“Our multi-manager approach enables us to research, select and monitor independent fund managers who we believe can outperform over the long term, continues to deliver results that help our clients achieve their investment goals. The overall performance of our funds reflects this philosophy; and is in line with our strategy to deliver market-beating risk-adjusted returns to clients across our entire range of funds,” says Maritz.