The Fund offers efficient and cost effective exposure to listed property as represented by the FTSE/JSE SA Listed Property Index. Tracking error to the index is minimised in the process.

The Fund is a property index fund where returns are enhanced by taking advantage of low risk arbitrage opportunities in the market. Additional benefits are gained from efficient implementation of cash flows, dividend reinvestments, management of corporate actions and index rebalancing. It aims to remain fully invested in property shares at all times.

The Fund is suitable for investors who require exposure to SA listed property shares and who are comfortable with the volatility and potential short term capital losses that can result from exposure to property shares.

The Fund was launched in April 2004.  The Fund aims to achieve sustainable real returns over time and is benchmarked against inflation.  This is achieved by generating consistent positive returns, while safeguarding the portfolio from downside.

The fund aims to protect capital over a rolling 12 month basis.  It invests in money market instruments, capital market instruments and equities with an active asset allocation overlay.

The equity component of the fund is always protected to reduce the risk of capital loss.  The portfolio is thus structured to optimise returns in positive market cycles and to protect capital in negative periods.  The Fund is Regulation 28 compliant.

The Fund is regulation 28 complaint and invests in money market, shorter- and longer-term, high-quality capital market instruments, preference shares, property and international investments.

A number of techniques are used to generate returns, including taking interest rate views or duration management, yield enhancements via credit instruments and also via the use of derivatives strategies, where these strategies are designed to provide downside protection.

Risk is mitigated by applying credit limits of A and A1/F1 or better for bond and money market instruments respectively.

The Fund has no duration limitation. The offshore component exposes the Fund to exchange rate volatility, the exposure as well as the asset selection is managed to limit this volatility.  The Fund aims to outperform both SteFI Call and the 1 – 3 Year BEASSA Bond Index over time.

The Fund uses quantitative techniques (multi-factor model) to build an active equity portfolio which aims to generate superior performance in a structured manner.

The equity selection is done purely quantitatively on a bottom-up basis. The selection process targets those shares that offer the best economic value according to a predefined income statement, cashflow statement and balance sheet matrices. To enhance equity selection further, behavioural and other quantitative techniques are used.

The quantitative process maintains some positive index type characteristics, such as low turnover and thus lower cost and high liquidity, while generating outperformance versus the benchmark.

The primary performance objective of the Fund is to grow capital in excess of inflation over the long term.  It will also aim to outperform the average South African balanced unit trust fund over a full market cycle by maintaining significant exposure to growth assets like equities.  Capital depreciation is possible

The Fund invests in equities and interest bearing assets domestically and overseas. The allocation to the various asset classes will typically remain fixed at the benchmark weights but can be varied tactically from time to time to aim for outperformance of the benchmark by capitalising on perceived mispricings in the market. The exposure to the various asset classes will typically be managed on a passive basis.

The Fund invests in money market instruments, capital market instruments, equities, listed real estate and derivatives in South Africa and offshore. Asset allocation is managed actively to enhance return, but also to reduce risk when markets are overvalued.

Protection strategies may be included to reduce volatility, but is not a permanent feature in the Fund. In combination, the asset allocation and protection strategies ensure that the portfolio is structured to optimise returns in positive market cycles, while reducing downside in negative markets.

The aim of the portfolio is to grow the investors’ capital in real terms over time and is hence benchmarked against inflation. The Fund is Regulation 28 compliant.