Mark Fordree

The directors of Millinium Capital Managers Limited, the responsible entity of the Millinium Alternatives Fund (ASX Code: MAX), are pleased to announce that the fund has made a significant investment in Australia’s leading digital financial advice provider, Ignition Wealth Pty Limited.

The investment is consistent with the fund’s mandate to invest in high growth opportunities. The digital financial advice sector is set to gain significant traction in the next few years. Demand for a low cost, easy to use consumer experience coupled with the best interest legislation will drive rapid growth.

“The Millinium Alternatives Fund’s key objective is to deliver extraordinary results to our investors. Globally, digital financial advice services are demonstrating rapid growth. We believe that Ignition Wealth delivers the best in class offering for the Australian market and provides the best opportunity for growth.” Tom Wallace, Managing Director, Millinium Capital Managers.

The incumbent traditional advice industry has focused exclusively on the top 15 percent of the market, leaving 85 percent of Australians unadvised. This market gap provides a huge need and opportunity to leverage new technology to bring affordable independent financial advice to a mass market.

Ignition Wealth has built a strong reputation for excellence, providing technology solutions to Australian industry funds since 2010 and now setting the benchmark for digital financial advice in the Australian market.

“We welcome the investment in Ignition Wealth by the Millinium Alternatives Fund. It’s vital to match our capital resources with both our growth profile and market opportunities. We have a number of significant transactions in the pipeline. We are focussed on executing those opportunities and rewarding all of our investors.” Mark Fordree, CEO, Ignition Wealth.

Ignition Wealth has recently announced several business advancements including partnership with global fund administrator Link Digital Solutions and a significant investment from Class and Countplus Chairman Barry Lambert.

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Millinium has been awarded a 5-star rating, the highest possible, for its Fixed Income Mandate.

The Morningstar award means that three of Millinium’s four portfolios have now been awarded a 5-star rating in either their wholesale or retail versions. The Australian Equities Mandate (for wholesale investors) and the MSF Multi-Strategy Income Option (for retail investors) received five-star ratings in March 2013.

The Fixed Income Mandate (for wholesale investors) is ranked first for performance in Morningstar’s institutional sector survey over one, two and three years to July 2014. It was a clear leader over three years, outperforming the next-ranked fund by an annualised 4.84 percentage points over those three years.

The performance shows Millinium’s skill across the asset classes as it comes after the Australian Equities Mandate beat all other Australian equity funds in the Morningstar survey for the year to June 2014. The equities fund returned a bumper 29.7 per cent and was also the top performing fund over three years with a 25.6 per cent total return.

Millinium chief investment officer Mark Phillips said the Fixed Income Mandate focused on providing absolute returns and was not managed against a benchmark, reflecting Millinium’s strong conviction in its investment ideas and determination to provide consistent returns to investors.

“We believe that a manager that is focused on making positive returns and has the freedom and dexterity to seek quality assets wherever they are available can outperform,” Mr Phillips said.  “I think our performance to date bears that out.”

The fixed income portfolio is positioned in a relatively small number of quality bonds, given Millinium’s belief that the US Federal Reserve’s ultra-low interest rate policy is leading to an increasing underpricing of risk and raising the threat of widespread credit defaults.

Head of equities Neill Colledge, who has 35 years of professional investment experience, said Millinium’s funds were positioned conservatively in order to minimise the downside from a likely correction in credit markets, which would also impact equities.

“Global defaults will put upward pressure on local interest rates and downward pressure on local share prices,” Mr Colledge said. “However, the higher quality of Australian credit markets may attract investors who are looking for a safe haven, which will tend to lift the Australian dollar.”

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