Bell Asset Management has secured a $500 million global small and mid-cap equity mandate from the industry super fund, Hostplus.
CIO of the global equities boutique manager, Ned Bell, said that the firm was delighted to have been selected following an extensive due diligence process.
“We’re looking forward to working with the Hostplus team to manage funds on their members’ behalf. We understand the importance of this decision and greatly appreciate the opportunity,” he said.
Bell Asset Management noted that its Global Small and Mid-Cap strategy has outperformed the MSCI World SMID Cap index by 5.3 per cent a year, over the past five years.
Additionally, the firm’s Global Core strategy has returned 9.3 per cent annually since its inception in 2003, outperforming the MSCI World index by 2.2 per cent a year.
“We are seeing increasing demand for this segment of the market as investors look for sources of alpha at lower levels of risk versus other growth options,” commented Bell Asset Management managing director, strategy and distribution, Rob Sullivan.
“We look forward to building a strong and long partnership with Hostplus, and delivering the best results we possibly can for its members.”
Hostplus CEO David Elia said that the fund was looking forward to working with Bell Asset Management to manage a global SMID strategy for its developed markets portfolio.
“Bell’s strong long-term performance record, the quality of the team, and a disciplined investment approach, were the key factors in making them part of our growing and diversified portfolio,” he said.
“We expect this strategy to add resilience to Hostplus’ asset class structure in light of the increasing market uncertainty.”
Hostplus delivered a positive return for members in its balanced option in the last financial year, despite the median balanced super fund delivering the lowest return since the GFC.
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.
