Boutiques Milford and Hyperion have claimed the Morningstar fund manager of the year awards in NZ and Australia, respectively.
The digital-only NZ event also saw category wins for Castle Point (domestic shares), Simplicity (KiwiSaver), Russell Investments (fixed interest) and T Rowe Price (global equities).
Aman Ramrakha, Morningstar Australasia director manager research ratings said in a release: “The winners of the Morningstar New Zealand Awards stood out for their commitment to long-term investing and ability to outperform their peers.
“We were pleased to see strong contenders across all award categories, but Milford Asset Management wins our Overall New Zealand Fund Manager of the Year award for continued consistency across a number of categories.”
But while the NZ event was held as a COVID-aware online experience last Thursday, the Australian Morningstar awards reverted to face-to-face time in a gala ceremony held at the glitzy Establishment bar in downtown Sydney on Friday evening.
On the night, Hyperion, now active in NZ too, captured the Morningstar price for top Australian large and small-cap manager in addition to the overall crown.
A contender with Morningstar for the past three years in a row, the manager has already picked up the Money Magazine ‘Best of the Best’ award for 2021. This year’s large-cap Morningstar award was its second in a row. It was runner-up in the Morningstar small-cap category last year.
The research house cited the Brisbane-based boutique, which also has a global equities capability, as having “rigorous fundamental research and a genuine long-term approach” which enabled the firm to shine.
“CIO mark Arnold and deputy CIO Jason Orthman lead a team of well-tenured analysts and portfolio managers,” Morningstar said. It also had an impressive lineup of strategies which consistently outperformed peers and its benchmarks.
Ramrakha said the 2021 winners had proven themselves to be excellent stewards of fund shareholders’ capital. “Australian investors are well served by a solid lineup of quality managers,” he said.
The Morningstar awards methodology uses a mix of qualitative research, risk-adjusted medium to long-term performance and performance in the 2020 calendar year. The other winners are:
. Undiscovered manager: Atlas Infrastructure
. Fixed interest: Legg Mason Western Asset
. Global equities: T. Rowe Price
. Listed property and infrastructure: Ironbark Paladin Property Securities, and
. Multi-sector manager: Vanguard Investments.
Morningstar said Western Asset was impressive in both Australian and global bonds.
“Now under new ownership, Western Asset’s large team of fixed income specialists continue to show remarkable stewardship,” Morningstar said. Franklin Templeton acquired Legg Mason in a global deal last year but pledged to retain the multi-affiliate model which Legg Mason formerly employed.
Atlas Infrastructure has had strong growth in the institutional investor space for its listed infrastructure style, even though the institutional market tends to prefer unlisted infrastructure, because of the greater control they offer investors.
Morningstar said Atlas was “worthy of attention from retail investors”. The manager had an experienced team spread between London and Sydney, which formed the bedrock of “this promising strategy”, Morningstar said.
Greg Bright is publisher of Investor Strategy News (Australia) with extra reporting by David Chaplin