“In hindsight, it was too ambitious of us to expect that we could be at the top of our game both in the local market and globally.”
The company announced that Hamish Chalmers, a financials analyst, and Nick Cameron, who covered healthcare and technologies, have left the firm to pursue other opportunities in global investing.
Watermark also hired three new analysts late last year. Daniel Broeren was hired to cover consumer, retail and gaining while Harry Dudley joined Watermark from Macquarie Equities to cover the banks while Alex Gurman joined the firm as a dealer from Goldman Sachs.
Watermark says it has commenced the process of liquidating its international exposures and will concentrate on Australian long short equities and market neutral strategies
The announcement follows a decision late last year from Watermark to restructure its two Listed Investment Companies into unit trusts as the securities traded at discounts to net tangible asset value.
The $73.4 million ASX listed Watermark Global Leaders fund delivered a negative 4.9 per cent over the year, and a negative 3.9 per cent return over two years.
Watermark’s largest listed fund, the $280 million Australian Leaders Fund delivered a negative 3.7 per cent return over the year, slightly below that of the broader Australian index. Over three years the fund has under-performed the index by 7.8 per cent net of fees, and over five years the fund has under-performed by 4.1 per cent.
The fund’s shares trade at a 16 per cent discount to the end of year net tangible asset backing
Meanwhile Watermark’s $70 million ASX listed Market Neutral Fund traded at a 10 per cent discount to the neat tangible asset backing at year end.
The market neutral fund fund delivered a negative 5.1 per cent return for the year, 6.6 per cent below its cash rate benchmark. Over thee years, the annualised return was negative 1.8 per cent and over five years, the annualised return was 2.3 per cent.
from A Viral Update http://bit.ly/2Do1dME
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