Report

Aussie Equities Model Portfolio Update - June 2018

  • Australia is overtaking other markets in the race to the end of the global equities bull market.  We are sticking to the themes and sector positioning outlined in our 2018 outlook – it has worked well thus far so we don’t change course. 
  • Australia has outperformed most major markets – we expect this to continue.  Australia is a relatively defensive market, which will be attractive as late-cycle uncertainties lift volatility in global markets
  • Good outperformance by staying long growth. Our model portfolio is underpinned by a tilt towards Growth over Value and this has underpinned its outperformance vs the ASX 200 since last December.
  • Sticking to the script but doubling down.  We are making no major changes to the stocks in our sector allocation but we are adjusting our portfolio weights to hopefully add more alpha.
  • Booking Losses in the UnderperformersAZJ and BLD have disappointed and we remove these stocks. 
Underlyings
Aristocrat Leisure Limited

Aristocrat Leisure is a provider of gaming solutions. Co. is engaged in the design, development and distribution of gaming content, platforms and systems. Co.'s products and services include electronic gaming machines and casino management systems. Co. also operates within the online social gaming and real money wager markets.

BHP Group Ltd

BHP Billiton is a global resources company. Co. operates under a Dual Listed Company (DLC) structure, which consists of the BHP Billiton Limited Group and the BHP Billiton Plc Group, operating as a single economic entity. As of June 30 2017, Co. operated four reportable segments: Petroleum, which is involved in the exploration, development and production of oil and gas; Copper, which is involved in the mining of copper, silver, lead, zinc, molybdenum, uranium and gold; Iron ore, which is involved in the mining of iron ore; and Coal, which is involved in the mining of metallurgical coal and thermal (energy) coal.

Bluescope Steel Limited

BlueScope is a manufacturing technology company. Co.'s segments are Australian Steel Products, which produces coated and painted flat steel products for building and construction customers and commodity flat steel products; New Zealand & Pacific Steel, which consists of New Zealand Steel, Pacific Steel, New Zealand Minerals, and BlueScope Pacific Islands areas; BlueScope Buildings, which servicing the low-rise non-residential construction; Building Products ASEAN, North America and India, which producing metal coated and painted steel building products; and Hot Rolled Products North America, which includes a single site electric arc furnace producer of hot rolled coil in Ohio, the U.S.

Boral Limited

Boral manufactures and supplies building and construction materials in Australia, the U.S. and Asia. Co.'s segments are: Construction Materials & Cement, consisting of quarries, concrete, asphalt, transport, landfill, property, cement and concrete placing; Building Products, consisting of Australian bricks, roofing and masonry, and timber products; Boral Gypsum Joint Venture, which manufactures and sells plasterboard and associated products; and Boral USA, consisting of bricks, cultured stone, roof tiles, fly ash, concrete and quarries. The primary end use markets for Co.'s products include residential and non-residential construction and the engineering and infrastructure markets.

CIMIC Group Limited

CIMIC Group is a construction company and the contract miner. Co. provides construction, mining, engineering, public-private partnerships (PPP), and operation and maintenance services to the infrastructure, resources and property markets. Co. comprises the following main segments: construction, contract mining, PPP, engineering, Habtoor Leighton Group, and commercial and residential. Co. delivers its services through several companies: CPB Contractors Pty Ltd, Leighton Asia Limited, Thiess Pty Ltd, Pacific Partnerships, and EIC Activities Pty Ltd. Co. operates across the Australia Pacific, Asia, Middle East and Americas regions in the infrastructure, resources and property markets.

Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd.

Cleanaway Waste Management is focused on the following segments: Solids, which comprises the collection, treatment, recycle and disposal of all types of solid waste streams, including general waste, recyclables, construction and demolition waste and medical and washroom services; as well as Liquids and Industrial Services, which comprises the collection, treatment, processing and recycling of liquid and hazardous waste, including industrial waste, grease trap waste, oily waters and used mineral and cooking oils in packaged and bulk forms for resale, disposal and to produce fuel oils and base oils, as well as services including industrial cleaning, vacuum tanker loading, site remediation.

Cochlear Limited

Cochlear is a for-profit entity and operates in the implantable hearing device industry. Co.'s implant systems comprise an implant which is inserted during surgery and an external sound processor. As of June 30 2016, Co. sold in over 100 countries and had a direct presence in approximately 20 countries and used distributors and agents in other areas. Manufacturing for the cochlear implant product range is based in Australia. The bone conduction implant product range is manufactured in Sweden. Co.'s supply chain operates with product being distributed from its manufacturing sites in Australia and Sweden to its regional distribution centres in the U.S., the U.K. and Panama.

CSL Limited

CSL is engaged in the research, development, manufacture, marketing and distribution of biopharmaceutical and allied products. Co.'s operations are divided into three segments: CSL Behring, Seqirus, and CSL Intellectual Property. CSL Behring is engaged in manufacturing, marketing and developing plasma therapies (plasma products and recombinants). Seqirus is engaged in manufacturing and distributing non-plasma biotherapeutic products. CSL Intellectual Property is engaged in the licensing of intellectual property of Co. to unrelated third parties. Co. operates primarily in five specific geographic areas, namely Australia, the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, and the U.K.

GPT Group

GPT Group owns and manages a portfolio of Australian retail, office and logistics assets. Co. operating segments include: Retail, which owns, develops and manages regional and sub-regional shopping centers and its equity investment in GPT Wholesale Shopping Centre Fund; Office, which owns, develops and manages CBD office properties with some related retail space, and its equity investment in GPT Wholesale Office Fund; Logistics, which owns, develops and manages logistics and business park assets; and Funds Management, which manages two Australian wholesale property funds in the retail and office sectors. At Dec 31 2016, Co. had 13 shopping centers, 23 office assets and 24 logistics assets.

Lendlease Group

LendLease operates a regional management structure in Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Co.'s segments include: Development, which is involved in the development of communities, inner-city mixed-use developments, apartments, retirement, retail, commercial assets and social and economic infrastructure; Construction, which provides project management, design, and construction services, predominantly in the infrastructure, defence, mixed-use, commercial, and residential sectors; and Investments, which includes a wholesale investment management platform and also includes Co.'s ownership interests in property and infrastructure Co-Investments, Retirement Living and U.S. Military Housing.

Mineral Resources Limited

Mineral Resources is a provider of mining infrastructure services. These services consist of: site services, including remote mine-site accommodation services, remote power services, and aerodrome management or personnel transport; mining services, including mine scheduling and grade control, mining operations and mine site haulage, dewatering and equipment hire; plant or processing services, including crushing and mineral processing, mobile processing services, and pipeline and water solutions; transport services, including road and rail logistics, ownership of locomotives and wagons, and road transport solutions; port services, including port logistics; and commodity sales and marketing.

oOh!media

oOh!media Limited is engaged in providing a range of Out Of Home advertising solution for customers in Australia and New Zealand. Co. operates in four segments namely road, which provides large format roadside billboards; retail, which provides signs in shopping centers; fly, which provides coverage across all domestic airport terminals in Australia, and also provides media to Qantas Lounge, and integrated Wi-Fi site network; and place, which operates in cafes, bars, universities and indoor social sports centers, and also operates Websites. Co. also provides complementary services, such as campaign production, campaign management, creative and digital services, and experiential advertising.

Rio Tinto plc

Rio Tinto is engaged in finding, mining and processing mineral resources. Co. has four product groups: iron ore, which supplies the global seaborne iron ore trade; aluminium, which includes bauxite mines, alumina refineries, and aluminium smelters; Copper and Diamonds, which has managed operations in Australia, Canada, Mongolia and the U.S., and non-managed operations in Chile and Indonesia, with by-product including gold, silver, molybdenum and others such as sulphuric acid, rhenium, and lead carbonate; and Energy and Minerals, which comprises mining, refining and marketing operations across borates, coal, iron ore concentrate and pellets, salt, titanium dioxide and uranium sectors.

Seek Limited

Seek is engaged in the online matching of hirers and candidates with career opportunities and related services; investing in early stage businesses and technologies which are in or adjacent to the main online employment marketplace; and distribution and provision of vocational training and higher education courses. Co.'s ANZ Employment, Zhaopin, SEEK Asia, Brasil Online and OCC segments provides online employment and marketplace services. Co.'s Education segment includes the marketing, sale and distribution of education courses. Co. also has an Early Stage Ventures segment consisting of a portfolio of Australian and international investments.

Treasury Wine Estates Limited

Treasury Wine Estates is engaged in viticulture and winemaking, and the marketing, sale and distribution of wine. Co.'s wine portfolio includes wine brands such as Penfolds, Beringer, Lindeman's, Wolf Blass, Stags' Leap, Chateau St Jean, Beaulieu Vineyard and Sterling Vineyards. Co. also distributes beer and cider under license in New Zealand and provides contract bottling services to third parties. Co. maintains its operations in four regions: Australia and New Zealand, Asia, Europe, and Americas.

Provider
Macro Strategy Advisors Pty Ltd
Macro Strategy Advisors Pty Ltd

About  us:

  • The business is a Proprietary Limited Australian company that is owned and fully operated by Shane Lee from a small office in Sydney’s CBD.
  • Shane worked for 17 years in Sydney-based senior research roles (economist, equity strategist and bond strategist) in global and regional investment banks and a domestic commercial bank prior to starting Macro Strategy Advisors. These roles straddled the asset classes making him uniquely positioned to advise multi-asset investors. He worked for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) for 3 years as a housing, commercial property and equity market analyst and a liquidity forecasting specialist.  He worked as a structural engineer in Queensland for 10 years prior to his career at the RBA. 

Aim of our business:

  • To partner with our clients in their aim to maximise returns. We provide timely, independent and thought-provoking research on thematic macro issues that are impacting or could impact financial markets. We aim to produce research that prompts our clients to question their assumptions.

Services:

  • A fortnightly research note.
  • Regular presentations and data support delivered by understanding our clients interests and investment process.
  • We also in work in confidence to investigate, analyse and report on issues at our clients direction. This work is done on a project-by-project basis.
  • As an Australian based business, the main focus is analysing how domestic and global issues impact Australian investors. However, our global and domestic insights are also valued by our offshore clients.

Our Edge:

  • Our low cost base relative to our competitors allows us to provide a quality product at a reasonable cost.
  • We are fully independent and don’t support a banking function or any third party. We have no interests other than providing our clients with the best possible research.
  • Our focus is not point forecasting, but providing rigorous analysis and insight. We don’t routinely focus on the top or bottom 10% of likely outcomes to create a headline.
  • Shane’s background in engineering has provided clients with unique insights into global infrastructure and domestic housing issues.

 

Analysts
Shane Lee

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