The SMA, which was previously rated investment grade, invests in a concentrated portfolio of 15-35 global stocks and aims to outperform the MSCI World ex-Australia Index by 2 per cent per annum, over the medium to long term.

It is currently available on the Hub24 and Mason Stevens platforms.

According to Antonio Vaiente, Head of Business Development at AZ Sestante, the group’s large global team, depth of research and scale provided Australian investors and advisers with access to Azimut’s best global ideas.

“The portfolio seeks to exploit market trends, strength of trends, and potential turning points to mark statistically favourable decisions,” he said.

“The strategy is based on identifying stocks with the highest expected risk-adjusted returns in the current market conditions, applying both fundamental and quantitative approaches. This leads the portfolio to exhibit different styles and factors.”

The Azimut Investments High Conviction Global Equities SMA is managed by Stefano Varvello, Head of Equity for the Discretionary Team. Varvello has over ten years’ industry experience.

According to Lonsec, the portfolio has been upgraded to recommended following its more recent review, reflecting Azimut’s well-resourced investment team and research capabilities, and the portfolio’s outperformance over the benchmark since inception.

“The team applies a pragmatic investment process with clear linkage between stock research and the final portfolio,” Lonsec stated.

The Azimut Investments High Conviction Global Equities SMA was launched locally in March 2022 but the underlying strategy has a track record dating back to September 2017.

AZ Sestante has a strategic partnership to distribute the SMA product, managed by the global parent company Azimut. The dedicated portfolio management team at Azimut brings deep global expertise, a disciplined investment philosophy, and rigorous risk management practices to the strategy.

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Andrew Davies

Specialist investment manager, AZ Sestante, has launched a series of socially responsible model portfolios in partnership with investment consulting business, Evergreen Consultants, as retail demand for Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) solutions ramps up.

The five Sestante ESG Focus options are on the HUB24 platform with discussions underway for their inclusion on other major platforms.

According to Andrew Davies, AZ Sestante’s Head of Distribution, the same proven investment approach, philosophy and structure that govern the group’s existing model portfolios also underpin the new ESG-focused range, which leverages the Evergreen Responsible Investment Grading Index (ERIG Index) to shape AZ Sestante’s potential investment universe.

Launched in 2021, the ERIG Index includes over 670 strategies, representing around 2,600 managed funds.

Financial advisory firms, fund managers and institutions that subscribe to the ERIG Index can assess the “greenness” of products and build tailored portfolios that reflect the values and beliefs of their clients.

“Over the past 20 years, many Australians have accumulated a significant amount of superannuation and some, particularly those in their late 40s and early 50s, have a different mindset when it comes to how they want their money invested,” Mr Davies said.

“Advisers have told us they like our solutions but their clients are increasingly asking for quality investments that are also responsible and sustainable.”

“They are passionate about issues like diversity and inclusion, climate change and human rights, and the outcome of the recent Federal Election provides another reminder of shifting community values and priorities.”

Angela Ashton, Founder and Director of Evergreen Consultants, said the group applied a unique top-down approach to assessing a manager’s responsible investment (RI) credentials, enabling it to grade across asset classes including equities, property and fixed interest.

“While other research houses and consultants take a bottom-up approach that focuses on a manager’s underlying portfolio, our framework focuses on a manager’s philosophy, strategy and capabilities,” she said.

“A bottom up approach may be useful for assessing equity managers but it’s not easily applicable to fixed income and multi-asset managers. We’re able to consistently apply our approach across multiple asset classes.”

Evergreen’s RI manager questionnaire – a key input in the group’s assessment framework – also leverages intellectual property from the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) and the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) to eliminate personal biases.

“There are so many differences of opinion when it comes to social responsibility and how organisations should behave so we adopt the values of the UNPRI and RIAA to ensure an objective, standardised approach,” Ms Ashton said.

According to research by McKinsey, businesses with good ESG practices are linked to higher value creation and higher returns. They also carry less risk.

Based on analysis by Bloomberg, global ESG assets are set to exceed US$53 trillion by 2025, up from around US$20 trillion in 2018.

By 2025, ESG assets are forecast to represent more than a third of the US$140.5 trillion in projected total assets under management.

“Investors and advisers are looking for investment opportunities that will not only deliver strong returns but are also good for the environment and people,” Mr Davies said.

“We are excited to partner with Evergreen to build high quality investment solutions that meet the changing needs of our clients.”

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Andrew Davies

As part of its broader asset management strategy AZ Sestante launched the Sestante Global Macro Fund (the Fund) on 1st September 2017. This is the first fund offered by AZ Sestante that utilises the investment management capabilities of its parent Azimut and their Luxembourg based investment management business AZ Funds Management S.A.

The portfolio advisor for the Fund is Massimo Guiati, who has been responsible for the strategy since 2008 when he joined Azimut. Massimo has over 20 years experience in investing with a background in derivatives trading and currently advises assets in excess of EUR1Billion across a number of funds and employs a top-down investment approach focussing on macro-economic themes and fundamental market analysis to identify opportunities within some of the most liquid financial markets globally.

The Fund gains its investment exposure by investing into the Australian dollar (’AUD’) denominated class of units, of the AZ Multi Asset Institutional Macro Dynamic Trading Fund (’Underlying Fund’), a Luxembourg domiciled fund managed by AZ Fund Management S.A. (’AZ Fund Management’). The Fund aims to outperform the RBA Cash Rate +2% p.a. before fees with volatility of less than 4% and low correlation to traditional financial markets over rolling 1 year periods. The Underlying Fund has generated an AUD return of just over 9% per annum with an annualised volatility of approximately 3.6% since its inception in January 2009.

AZ Sestante Head of Distribution, Andrew Davies said “It is exciting to be able to showcase Azimut’s global investment capabilities. We have listened to advisers as to the type of investment product they are looking for and high quality, daily liquid, uncorrelated, defensive type funds are definitely on their wish list.”

Massimo Guiati, Advisor, stated “The Fund operates under a highly flexible mandate leveraging trends in global equity, commodity, fixed income and FX markets. The fund looks to be lowly correlated to traditional financial markets with the ability to profit in both up and down markets. Another key feature of the strategy is that it provides daily liquidity.”

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