BENCHMARK FUND OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2016 – RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT

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2016 BENCHMARK Fund of the Year Awards Winners Announcement




RESULTSCATEGORIESMETHODOLOGY
TOP MUTUAL FUNDS
The following criteria was used to determine the finalists in the Mutual Fund Retail Class category, and the funds being shortlisted must:

  • Be an open-ended onshore or offshore fund
  • Have a minimum fund size of US$100 million
  • Have a minimum 3 year track record
  • Have a minimum initial investment of less than USD 50,000

The Best-In-Class (BIC) awardees are the highest scoring funds based on (USD) performances between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016, by using the following weighting:

  • 1-year Return: 20%
  • 3-year Return: 30%
  • 5-Year Return: 20%
  • 3-Year Sortino Ratio: 30%

Finalists with total scores of less than a 5% margin are awarded the Outstanding Achiever (OSA) status.

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The following criteria was used to determine the finalists in the Mutual Fund Professional Class Category, and the funds being shortlisted must:

  • Be an open-ended onshore or offshore fund
  • Have a minimum fund size of US$100 million
  • Have a minimum 3 year track record
  • Minimum initial investment between US$1.0 million and US$10.0 million

The Best-In-Class (BIC) awardees are the highest scoring funds based on (USD) performances between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016, by using the following weighting:

  • 1-year Return: 20%
  • 3-year Return: 30%
  • 5-Year Return: 20%
  • Sortino Ratio: 30%

Finalists with total scores of less than a 5% margin are awarded the Outstanding Achiever (OSA) status.

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TOP MPF

The following criteria was used to determine the finalists in the MPF category:

  • Have a minimum 5 year track record
  • Have over US$50 million fund size

The Best-In-Class (BIC) awardees arethe highest scoring funds based on performances between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016, by using the following weighting:

  • Last 12-month Total Return: 20%
  • 5-year savings plan (Annualized IRR): 30%
  • 10 year savings plan (Annualized IRR):40%
  • Fund Expense Ratio (FER): 10%

Finalists with total scores of less than a 5% margin are awarded Outstanding Achiever (OSA) status.

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TOP ETF

The following criteria was used to determine the finalists in the ETF category:

  • Have a minimum 1 year track record
  • Have a single digit Tracking Error (1-year Daily USD)

The Best-In-Class (BIC) awardees are the highest scoring funds using the following weighting:

  • Best Total Return (USD) % based on results between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016

Finalists with total scores of less than a 5% margin are awarded Outstanding Achiever (OSA) status.

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PROVIDER OF THE YEAR

Mutual Fund – Provider of the Year Award – Invesco
MPF – Provider of the Year Award – BCT
ETF – Provider of the Year Award – Vanguard

HOUSE AWARDS

The House Awards have been granted to the companies based on their merits of achievement in five major pillars:-

  • Overall Philosophy And Process
  • Approach to Securities Selection
  • Approach to Portfolio Composition
  • Process for Portfolio Monitoring and Risk Management
  • Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG)
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MANAGER AWARDS
Manager of the Year

The Manager of the Year Awards have been granted to the individuals who have led their team to outstanding performances over the consistency of three-year and five-year performances, against the benchmark and their peers, and how they have managed their mandates with excellent stewardship in safeguarding shareholders’ capital, grew the size of the fund/mandate without compromising safety and returns.

Jurors have evaluated the merits of the individual manager’s creativity, forecasting ability, speed and rigor of decision making, ethics and risk management principles, their conviction decisions and how they pan out, and have a key role to play in stewardship and responsible investing.

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Investment Manager of the Year (MPF)

The Investment Manager of the Year Awards have been granted to the underlying investment managers of the Hong Kong MPF Schemes in the different asset classes and strategies that have delivered sustained consistent total portfolio outperformance on an internal rate-of-return basis with a clear, coherent and sustainable methodology.

The Awards granted to the companies were based on their merits of achievement in five major pillars:-

  • Overall Philosophy and Process
  • Approach to Securities Selection
  • Approach to Portfolio Composition
  • Process for Portfolio Monitoring and Risk Management
  • Environment, Social and Governance (ESG)
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CAPABILITY AWARDS

The Capability Awards are given to companies who demonstrate exceptional commitment to best practices in providing fund management products and services to customers.

Winners of the prestigious Brand of the Year Award will be announced at the Gala Dinner on January 18, 2016

Mutual Funds
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MPF
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ETF
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HOUSE AWARDS

These awards recognize players of the different asset classes and strategies that have delivered sustained consistent outperformance on a risk-adjusted basis with a clear, coherent and sustainable methodology. The categories are:

EQUITY
EQUITY:

  • Asia Equity
  • Asia ex-Japan Equity
  • China Equity
  • Emerging Markets Equity
  • Equity Income
  • Europe Equity
  • Global Equity
  • Greater China Equity
  • Hong Kong Equity
  • India Equity
  • Japan Equity
  • US Large-Cap Equity
  • US Small/Mid-Cap Equity
SECTOR EQUITY
SECTOR EQUITY:

  • Healthcare Sector
  • Property Sector
  • Technology Sector
FIXED INCOME
FIXED INCOME:

  • Asia Fixed Income
  • Emerging Markets Fixed Income
  • Europe Fixed Income
  • Global Fixed Income
  • High Yield Fixed Income
  • RMB Fixed Income
  • US Fixed Income
MULTI-ASSESTS
MULTI-ASSETS:

  • Aggressive Allocation
  • Asia Allocation
  • Multi-Asset Allocation
  • Multi-Asset Income
ALTERNATIVES
ALTERNATIVES:

  • Single Strategy
  • Multi-Strategies
SPECIALS
RQFII:

  • Asia Fixed Income
  • Greater China Equity

CIES:

  • Asia Fixed Income
  • Greater China Equity

ETHICAL FOCUS:

  • Environmental Strategy
  • Ethical Strategy

Jurors will evaluate the merits of each manager based on information provided by the Manager and supplemented by BENCHMARK and data sourced from Morningstar. Managers are required to make written submissions ONLINE of approximately 250 words for each of the following criteria:

OVERALL PHILOSOPHY AND PROCESS

Judges will consider factors such as investment approach and methodology, business model, quantitative and qualitative screening, implementation of discipline, number of holdings, min/max position size, capacity issues, tracking errors, turnover, use of cash, hedging policy, pricing power, benchmark being used, etc…

APPROACH TO STOCK SELECTION

Judges will consider factors such as investment approach, attention paid on economic cycles, trends, industry-specific cycles, country or industry bets, stock selections and structural themes, convictions, etc…

APPROACH TO PORTFOLIO COMPOSITION

Judges will consider characteristics such as strategies adopted on country and sector weightings, number of holdings, dividend yield, P/E of underlying holdings, ROE, historic turnover, the firm’s category asset growth, earnings, debt/capital ratio, efficiency ratio (ROE/ROA) historical growth of underlying shares , etc…

PROCESS FOR PORTFOLIO MONITORING AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Judges will consider factors such as returns, quartile/quintile ranking, volatility and risk-adjusted returns, standard deviation, mean, Sharpe ratio, Sortino ratio, rationale for performance shortfall, and strategy adopted will weather difficult macroeconomic environment, etc…

JUDGES' DISCRETIONARY POINTS

Judges will offer discretionary bonus points based on the merits of each manager such as people, team experience, team turnover, tenure, ownership, pricing, parent company, and other credits the house deserves awarded that are not listed on this score sheet, such as an SRI/ESG discipline being implemented.

All Submissions must be accompanied by minimum 1, but not more than 2, flagship fund(s) that best represent(s) the capability of the category you are entering into, with the following details as follows:-Larger Fonts and All Caps for these pillars:

  • Fund/Strategy submitted must have minimum of 3 years track record
  • The fund fact sheet(s) authorized by the HKSFC or locally in respective jurisdiction
  • The fund prospectus
  • The fund prospectus
  • ISIN or SecID

Please note, the flagship fund(s) do not need to be a Hong Kong authorized fund

ENTRY CLOSES - JULY 29, 2016

SUBMISSION CLOSES - SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Separate juries will be devoted to evaluating each product type and selecting the award recipients. Therefore, DO NOT send all your entries under one submission.

Any provider who beats their peers in their respective category will win the Best-in-Class award. Up to two Outstanding Achiever awards will be given to providers who are within a 5% margin of difference from the Best-in-Class winner.

 

MANAGER OF THE YEAR

This new award aims to recognize an individual who has led his/her team to outstanding performances over the consistency of three-year and five-year performances against the benchmark and their peers, and how they have managed their mandates with excellent stewardship in safeguarding shareholders’ capital, grew the size of the fund/mandate without compromising safety and returns.

Jurors will evaluate the merits of the individual manager’s creativity, forecasting ability, speed and rigor of decision making, ethics and risk management principles, their conviction decisions and how they pan out, and have a key role to play in stewardship and responsible investing.

Companies are required to make a written submission ONLINE of up to 1000 words to describe why the selected manager is suitable to receive the award for their respective category, in line with the above criteria. Supplementary documentation can be provided with entry, and there is no limit to the number of supporting documents which can be included.

Below are the categories available for these awards:

  • Manager of the Year – Asian Equity
  • Manager of the Year – European Equity
  • Manager of the Year – Global Equity
  • Manager of the Year – Asia Fixed Income
  • Manager of the Year – Global Fixed Income
  • Manager of the Year – High Yield Fixed Income
  • Manager of the Year – Multi Assets Strategies

 

CAPABILITY AWARDS

The Capability Awards are given to companies who demonstrate exceptional commitment to best practices in providing fund management products and services to customers.

1. BRAND OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Brand of the Year Award recognizes a fund house whose brand strategy best demonstrates the ability to connect with the public and increase their perceived brand trustworthiness and admiration. The brand and its campaign must succeed in proving to the jurors its achievements in the following criteria:

  • Creativity: whether the brand demonstrates creativity and innovation in its marketing communications
  • Measurable Impact: Whether the brand or the product campaign demonstrates positive impact on awareness and purchase intention
  • Impact on Sales and ROI: Whether the campaign demonstrates a positive impact on sales and business and has a strong ROI (value of sales against spending of campaign), and the strategies used. Clear financial analysis will greatly enhance the jurors’ results.

 

2. INVESTOR EDUCATION AWARD

The Investor Education Award recognizes a fund house that distributes its products primarily through third-party channels and has succeeded in proving to the jurors its achievements in the following criteria:

  • Key Initiatives: What are the programs/initiatives used to educate and inform Distributors? Do they provide high quality education to distributors on how products are integrated as part of clients’ holistic wealth management, such as financial planning, investment planning and asset allocation, risk management and portfolio construction, etc.?
  • Tools: Whether the educational initiatives utilize mediums such as print, web and social media for advisors and are they presented in interesting and engaging manners that are relevant to advisors?
  • Impartiality: Whether the information offered is objective and balanced and whether it displays a fair amount of discussion on potential risks and is not merely designed to push and promote the company’s products?

 

3. SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT AWARD

The Socially Responsible Investment Award recognizes a sustainability leader in the fund management industry who has succeeded in proving to the jurors its achievements in the following criteria.

  • Commitment: What are the living principles of the company when applying ESG to the funds being managed across the board, and what are the resources committed to Socially Responsible Investment research capabilities?
  • ESG Policies: Are there clear policies designed towards ethical investing, safeguarding social justice, and environmental protection, economic and corporate governance within the supply chain?
  • Metrics:Whether the ESG metrics are incorporated in areas of asset allocation, company selections, and governance for risk reduction, promote transparency and disclosure?
  • Returns: Whether the policies and metrics actually prove to maximize financial return and social good while safeguarding investors’ integrity?
  • Stewardship: What is the firm’s corporate culture and board quality? What are the objectives to protect shareholders’ capital, and whether fund managers’ incentives are aligned with the interests of shareholders?

 

ENTRY CLOSES – JULY 29, 2016

SUBMISSION CLOSES – SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Submission should be made ONLINE via the links provided. Entrants may submit supplementary information for jurors’ deliberation. Such documents must be labeled for clear referencing to specific points that the entrant wishes to draw to the jurors’ attention. Any unlabeled submissions will be disregarded. All supplementary documentation should be submitted online in PDF format.

UNDERSTANDING THE AWARDS

The methodology for the HOUSE AWARDS has been refined over the past 11 years combining both quantitative and qualitative factors. Not only do our veteran jurors on the judging panel bring a greater degree of rigor to the process, this year we are also bringing on MSCI as our research partner to provide analytics for the funds that have been shortlisted for Provider of the Year. This thorough process is very powerful in determining the Best-in-Class for each category in 2016.

JUDGING PROCESS:

  1. Managers wishing to compete for the House Awards are required to answer the questions listed in the judging criteria via submissions ONLINE.
  2. Answers are collated with hard data relevant to the judging criteria that is sourced from Morningstar, and are passed on to a panel of industry experts for review. All JURORS are noted individuals, both practitioners and academics, who are experienced and well regarded in the industry as gatekeepers and skilled in conducting fund due diligence.
  3. The Jurors will independently score the managers and their scores are aggregated to determine the Best-in-Class winners for the respective categories.
  4. Where the information is unclear or not available, candidates may be requested to submit supplementary information, and/or be requested to meet face-to-face in order to ensure information supplied is correctly understood and interpreted.
  5. The top 5 companies which receive the most awards, combining both Fund Awards, House Awards and Capability Awards, will be shortlisted to compete for the PROVIDER OF THE YEAR title. A Special Independent Judging Committee that is comprised of 5 independent jurors, plus a representative from BENCHMARK and one from MSCI will deliberate set criteria to assess award qualification, using research materials supported by MSCI to derive a decision for this year’s most prestigious award winner. This category is NOT open for nominations or submissions.

BEST-IN-CLASS:

Jurors will examine all finalists to pick a single Best-in-Class winner. In the event that the margin of difference between the winner and the runner up is within 5 percent, an Outstanding Achiever Award will be made to the second placed contestant.