Firetrail Investments has announced the launch of a new global equity fund with a focus on companies that have earnings upgrades and valuation re-rating potential.
The Firetrail S3 Global Opportunities Fund was seeded and launched by the firm and its staff in November and will invest in 30 companies with an objective to outperform the MSCI Global Index (AUD) after fees over the medium to long term.
The fund will be led by ex-Macquarie stock pickers Patrick Hodgens, James Miller and Justin Gray, who helped launch Firetrail in 2018 and have run high conviction investment strategies together for more than 15 years.
Mr Hodgens has over 35 years of experience investing in Australian and global equities, and previously served as executive director and head of listed equities at Macquarie during his 35-year tenure.
“The Firetrail S3 Global Opportunities Fund is the result of many years of research into global equities markets. We use proprietary research to uncover global companies benefitting from positive change,” he said.
Firetrail said that the fund had already received its first institutional investor.
Mr Gray, who will act as co-lead portfolio manager alongside Mr Miller, said that sustainability was the biggest investment opportunity currently available in markets.
“We have identified a universe of stocks that are set to benefit from positive change across sectors including health and wellbeing, carbon reduction, innovation and technology,” said Mr Gray.
“The fund targets investors wanting to invest sustainably while not sacrificing outperformance.”
A major problem for traditional approaches to sustainable investing was that they are backwards looking according to Mr Miller, which the firm aims to distinguish itself from with its unique investment approach.
“Companies that have already been identified as high quality, sustainable leaders aren’t attractive investments as valuations can get too high. Overpaying for hyped-up business can lead to capital losses,” said Mr Miller.
“Using forward looking, deep fundamental analysis, Firetrail S3 Global Opportunities Fund uncovers global companies benefitting from positive change that are underappreciated by the market.”
Jon Bragg
Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.
