Stand out performances from the active managers in the quarter came from microcap vehicles managed by OC Funds Management, Wilson Asset Management and Acorn Capital. With Acorn’s LIC The Acorn Capital Investment Fund (ACQ:ASX) taking the blue ribbon registering a return of 19.4% for the quarter.

Prior to 2016 the Manager had a solid track-record of generating alpha. However, 2016 was a poor year for the Fund, materially under-performing the benchmark.

The Fund’s level of historic beta and correlation to the index has been surprisingly high but, by the Manager’s own statement, we expect the high conviction nature of the portfolio to only increase over time and performance to be largely driven at the stock level. The approach to risk is capital preservation, rather than a concern over shorter term price volatility.

The Australian Property Opportunities Fund I (the Fund or APOF I) is an unlisted property fund that provides exposure to small-to-mid-value ($15-$50M) commercial property in east coast Australia. Since raising $160.7M in July 2013, the Fund has acquired six properties, five being neighbourhood shopping centres, the other an office building, for a current value of $286M.

The Fund is managed by Fort Street Real Estate Capital (the Manager), a JV between Dixon Advisory (of which Walsh & Company is a wholly owned subsidiary) and Fort Street Advisers.