Mercer top 10 funds named with Merlon, Hyperion Australian Growth, Yarra Australian Equities Broadcap

Cashing in on coal miners, Super Retail Group, Origin Energy and Qantas has seen Merlon’s Concentrated Value Strategy achieved an impressive return in the coveted Mercer survey.

Merlon Capital Partners principal Neil Margolis.

Mercer’s coveted investment surveys are out with Merlon’s value fund topping the tables.

For the year to June 30, the Merlon Concentrated Value Strategy achieved an impressive return of 26.5 per cent, coming in ahead of Hyperion Australian Growth, Yarra Australian Equities Broadcap, Smallco Broadcap Fund, and Lazard Select Australian Equities.

With well-timed bets on Qantas, Whitehaven, AGL Energy and New Hope, Merlon beat the S&P/ASX 300 benchmark by 12.1 per cent, extending the turnaround of the fund that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The fund also scored the best three-month return of 6.9 per cent. It was ranked fourth and eighth for the three and five-year time frame, returning 18.9 per cent and 9.8 per cent in those periods.

Merlon cashed in on coal miners Whitehaven and New Hope during the year. It also took profit in Super Retail Group, Origin Energy and Qantas, while cutting positions in Suncorp and IAG.

At the end of financial 2023, its main shareholdings included A2 Milk, Coles, Medibank, QBE Insurance, Santos, Westpac and AGL Energy.

Rounding out the top ten fund managers in terms of the one-year performance are Platypus Australian Equities, Perpetual SHARE PLUS Long-Short, Regal Australian Long Short Equity Fund, Van Eck Equal Weight and First Sentier Australian Equities Concentrated Growth.

Mark Arnold’s Hyperion is also the second-best performing fund over five years with an average return of 11.4 per cent per annum.

Merlon, Smallco and Perpetual are the only other top-10 returning funds over one year that are also members of the top-10 club in terms of their five year performance.

However most active funds returned slightly less than the benchmark.

The median return on-year return wast 14 per cent versus 14.4 per cent for the ASX 300.

The upper quartile was 15.8 per cent and the lower quartile was 0.5 per cent.

In the past five years the median return is 7.5 per cent per annum versus 7.1 per cent for the index.