News & Media

Aurora Funds Limited is pleased to announce the following management changes.

Simon Lindsay, currently an Executive Director and Head of Distribution will be appointed Managing Director of the Company, following the decision of Steuart Roe to step down from the role at the next Annual General Meeting, expected to be in held in October. To ensure a smooth transition to the new arrangements Simon and Steuart will work together to fulfil the responsibilities of the role until that time.

Simon has been a Director of Aurora Funds Limited since its inception in 2003, and has extensive experience in the financial services industry in Australia.

Steuart will continue as a Director of Aurora, and the change in role will provide him with more opportunity to focus on investment management, and in particular the continued management of the Aurora Dividend Income Trust.

The Board wishes to thank Steuart for his contribution as Managing Director of Aurora over the last four years and to congratulate Simon on his appointment.

ASX Announcement

Asset allocation is a key investor tool in the good management of large diversified portfolios.  But what benefit can be extracted by asset allocation, particularly amongst traditional asset classes?

Click to read “Does Asset Allocation Work?” written by Thomas Gillespie (Head of Research).

Current market conditions and opportunities inform two main investment themes for the Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund: a) low cost of protection, and b) primary issuance of hybrids is creating opportunities in short end secondary transactions.

These themes highlight the key feature of the multi-strategy management of the Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund. The portfolio managers use a broad range of strategies within the portfolio for investment and to manage risk.

Click to read Market Opportunities and Portfolio Themes written by Thomas Gillespie (Head of Research).

The Aurora Dividend Income Trust (Managed Fund) is an efficient and low risk fund that invests in Australian stocks with a value bias.  The Aurora Dividend Income Trust is an alternative to the Listed Investment Companies.

Aurora’s strategy produces an investment with greater and more stable excess returns compared to both Listed Investment Companies and the conventional common value signal. Aurora’s strategy has effectively similar overall risk characteristics to the other forms of active equities, albeit with a diversification from the alpha signal.

Click to read Aurora Dividend Income Trust vs Listed Investment Companies written by Thomas Gillespie (Head of Research).

Protection of investment assets is generally expensive, with cost escalating depending on the riskiness of the asset or the environment.

We at Aurora see it differently. The Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund uses protection strategies in four core ways: a) better risk adjusted returns, b) balance risk taking in other strategies, c) employ expertise and dynamic strategies to reduce cost, and d) simple measures of risk do not capture true downside risk in markets

Part of Aurora’s unique skill set is managing the protection strategies to deliver better risk adjusted returns to investors.

Click to read Why do we Pay for Protection? written by Thomas Gillespie (Head of Research).

The 2013 Australian Hedge Fund Awards were held on Thursday 12 September in Sydney.

We are pleased to advise that Aurora’s Chief Investment Officer, John Corr, received the “Contribution to the Australian Hedge Fund Industry” award.

This award is in recognition of John’s long term track record in producing low volatility returns and his commitment to industry and investor education regarding the benefits of non-correlated returns.

John established, and was the seed investor, in the Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund in March 2005. The Fund was awarded Hedge Fund of the Year in 2008 and 2009.

Efficient value strategy using the Aurora Dividend Income Trust

The Franking of dividends is a reliable and simple ‘value’ signal. This signal can be used to construct an efficient and stable ‘value’ bias strategy.

Aurora’s Dividend Income Trust (Managed Fund) is an efficient and low risk Fund that invests in Australian stocks with a value bias. Risk management is achieved with both the value signal and the ability to short stocks to control beta risk.

Role of Absolute Return Funds in a Portfolio

A Research Paper written by our Head of Research – Tom Gillespie, entitled “Role of Absolute Return Funds in a Portfolio”

In summary, it discusses the two significant roles of Absolute Return Funds in an investment portfolio;

• Source of genuine diversification
• Yield replacement strategy

The super normal returns from fixed interest over the last decade are unlikely to be repeated and advisers continue to look for other ways to fill this gap in portfolios.

The Aurora Sandringham Dividend Income Trust first listed in November 2005 is now listed under the ASX AQUA Rules. The new name of the listed Unit is the Aurora Dividend Income Trust – Quoted Unit which will continue to trade under ASX Code: AOD.

One of the benefits to investors is that the Net Asset Value of the Trust is available on the home page of our website under the “Live Net Asset Values” table. This “iNAV” is updated every minute during trading hours.