Standing out from the crowd

To aim to achieve returns that exceed inflation over time, investors need to be invested in growth assets. However, we also understand it’s not easy to remain invested during periods of market volatility. This is where the Allan Gray Australia Balanced Fund can help, as it provides a diversified investment that is professionally managed on investors’ behalf.

Why a Balanced Fund?

A diversified managed fund, such as a balanced fund, enables investors to invest in just one one fund that holds a mix of asset classes, like shares, fixed income, and cash. By offering exposure to different assets, investors benefit from inbuilt risk management as diversification helps spread risk and can reduce the impact of poor performance in any one asset class. This simplicity may be particularly appealing to investors who may not have the time, expertise, or inclination to actively manage multiple investments. Furthermore, investors are likely to benefit from having experienced investment professionals manage the total portfolio – investors effectively outsource their investment decisions to experts who are consumed by investing.

It’s important for investors to carefully assess their financial goals, risk tolerance, and investment time horizon before choosing any investment, including balanced funds. Additionally, the specific objectives and strategies of balanced funds can vary, so investors should review fund documents and disclosures to understand how a particular fund is managed.

What separates the Allan Gray Australia Balanced Fund from the crowd?

As contrarian investors, we don’t follow the herd and our balanced fund is no different. Our wider group has been managing balanced portfolios since 1999, and we brought this experience to the Australian market with the launch of the Allan Gray Australia Balanced Fund in 2017. This Fund combines Allan Gray Australia’s domestic specialisation with Orbis Investment’s global markets expertise, giving investors access to two specialist teams to manage Australian and Global securities.

The features that really set us apart from other balanced funds include:

• Real flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions

Balanced funds usually offer a broad investment mix to reduce risk. We do too – but we’re more focused on performance, as it’s long-term returns that grow an investor’s wealth. That’s why our Fund is not restricted to particular global markets or industries. We can also vary the Fund’s exposure to different asset classes depending on where we find value, the potential for capital growth and income, and risk of loss. It’s this flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions that helps us drive long-term returns while reducing the impact of major market falls.

• Strong returns require a strong foundation

We do not believe balanced funds should begin with the opinions of an economist who attempts to predict the future by taking a broad macroeconomic view of the world. Whilst this often makes for great conversations, attempting to predict the future is fraught with danger. We believe that in order to generate higher long-term returns you must buy the right assets at the right price. Prioritising our long-term view in our fundamental analysis itself gives us a competitive edge that allows us to deliver better outcomes for investors. We focus on trying to understand an asset’s underlying intrinsic value, the drivers that determine this, and the gap between this value and the price you can buy it for. This gap – known as a margin of safety – serves to reduce investor risk and helps generate long-term returns.

To learn more about the Allan Gray Australia Balanced Fund, please visit our Fund page, or speak to our Client Services team.

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