Bravata Worldwide Flexible comment - Sep 07 - Fund Manager Comment24 Oct 2007
Although the fund held up well during the turmoil of the last three months since Mr. Bernanke decided to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and reduce rates, the fund has lagged most markets. Furthermore, a strong rand relative to the dollar did not help our cause. Many of our Japanese counters, for some reason, showed a high correlation to developed markets despite having little exposure to the sub-prime issues and liquidity constraints experienced in the UK. Fortunately,at the time of writing, this has started to reverse.
The turmoil did allow us to increase our exposure to some quality South African counters at reasonable prices. South African equity now makes up more than 25% of our exposure. Foreign purchases such as Tesco (UK version of Pick 'n Pay) and Yamada Denki (an electronics retailer in Japan) were purchased at reasonable prices.
The aggressive injection of financial liquidity into the markets by the various monetary authorities confirms our cautious stance of the last 12months. The medicine that should have been taken has been delayed and the consequences are unknown. What I do know is that it is not for the good of financial markets over the long term.
Investors must remind themselves that market excesses can continue for a lot longer, in terms of duration and magnitude, than one would expect. Over the next year our conviction in the fund and our investment philosophy will be tested.
Walter Aylett
Aylett & Co
Nedbank Bravata Worldwide Flexible comment - Dec06 - Fund Manager Comment27 Mar 2007
One of our communication vehicles to investors is an annual letter,which describe how investor’s capital has been allocated and to whatextent risk (in our case losing money) has been taken over a longerperiod. The period end date is not significant, but coincides with the annualaudit of the fund. As you know, your start and end datescan influenceyour perception of how good or bad a period has been.
As our investment horizons stretch over much longer periods,andinvestorswill have a much better understanding of how we haveperformed as they follow our progress, our communication attempts to achieve the following goals:
- To give the reader enough information to make an informeddecision on the fund managers capital allocation;
- To be able to judge the performance against the facts; and
- To ensure that the investors thinking is in sync with ours.