Why active management works in Australia

Whether or not active managers add value after fees, over the full economic cycle, has been a widely contested topic in investment circles for many decades. However, as we illustrate in the report below, the fact is that active management works in Australia. The average active manager surveyed outperformed the S&P/ASX 300 Index; more impressively, even the 75th percentile manager surveyed outperformed, before fees. The fact that active management is rewarded in Australia can perhaps be explained by inexperienced domestic and offshore players who have different investment objectives and different benchmarks. Intuitively, most offshore managers would be measured relative to a MSCI Index, not the S&P/ASX 300 Index, and we suspect that having different objectives and benchmarks alters the zero sum argument. In this report, we examine this in more detail and identify the qualities we look for in listed companies to generate consistent outperformance. (VIEW LINK)