State Super awards large Australian equity income mandate to Omega

From

John Moore

Omega Global Investors is pleased to announce the signing of a core, defensive Australian equity mandate with highly regarded State Super (SAS Trustee Corporation).

State Super has allocated a large investment mandate to Omega’s Smart Beta Plus based strategy, utilising a proprietary, factor-based investment methodology.

Omega welcomes the opportunity to partner with State Super, helping to solve a dual need of delivering a commercially attractive core equity portfolio along with enhanced income and downside protection.

Andrew Huang, Senior Investment Manager State Super NSW said: “We have worked closely with Omega to better meet the needs of our fund, which has a large base of members approaching retirement age. This is somewhat unusual in our industry and needs a well-crafted solution.

“Omega worked with us to design a well-integrated strategy that combines factor investing and an option overlay in a transparent way,” he said.

Omega portfolio managers John Moore and Andrew Gruskin have come together to deliver a well-researched portfolio.  Portfolio Manager John Moore said key aspects of the approach include:

  • 100% stock equity exposure but with a lower Beta via the options overlay strategy.  Capture ratios are asymmetric with a relatively low downside while not compromising the upside.
  • A high yield derived from dividend income (including franking credits) and option income. These two sources of yield provides for more stability over time through different market conditions.
  • The strategy doesn’t rely on rotation of the portfolio for dividend run-up purposes in order to increase its income yield, and there is far fewer concentration risks present in the underlying portfolio.

Mr Gruskin, an Omega founder said: “This is further vindication for Omega with respect to our motto: begin with the end in mind.  Our strategy development required not only taking a holistic view of investable markets, but carefully interrogating the underlying factors that drive the stated investment outcomes for the benefit of investors.”