Karyn West

Apostle Funds Management (Apostle) has been appointed Australian and New Zealand distribution partner for the opportunistic credit strategies of European investment firm Triton Partners (Triton), expanding its global private markets offering for institutional and wholesale investors.

The partnership delivers Australian and New Zealand institutional and wholesale investors access to Triton’s specialist private markets investment expertise, reinforcing Apostle’s commitment to partnering with a selection of leading global investment managers.

Founded in 1997, Triton is an independent, partner-owned European investment firm managing approximately A$41 billion in assets (AUM)^[1]. Through its integrated private equity and private credit platform, the firm invests in mid-market businesses across Business Services, Industrial Tech and Healthcare.

Apostle Executive Chair Karyn West said, “Private credit is entering a new phase of maturity. As higher interest rates, refinancing activity and tighter bank lending continue to reshape global markets, investors are seeking specialist managers with deep sector expertise, disciplined underwriting and the ability to identify opportunities that emerge during periods of market dislocation.

“That is what attracted us to Triton. The firm has built a highly regarded European investment platform over almost three decades, combining deep sector knowledge with an integrated approach across private equity and private credit.

“This partnership allows us to broaden the range of specialist global investment expertise available to Australian and New Zealand investors through an experienced manager with strong alignment to our clients’ long-term objectives.”

Managing Partner and Head of Triton Debt Opportunities, Amyn Pesnani, said “Australia has a sophisticated institutional market and investors are increasingly seeking specialist private market strategies that can provide differentiated sources of return.

“As we looked to establish our presence in Australia and New Zealand, we wanted a partner with strong institutional relationships, an in-depth understanding of the local market and a long-term approach to client partnerships.

“Apostle’s reputation, experience and track record of representing specialist global investment managers made it the natural choice. We look forward to working together to introduce Triton’s investment capabilities to investors across Australia and New Zealand and to building a long-term partnership in the region.”

This appointment reinforces Apostle’s commitment to providing Australian investors with access to differentiated institutional investment capabilities across public and private markets.

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Notes:
[1] As at 30 June 2026

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Mr James will support Kimon Kouryialas Director, Head of Global Distribution in the delivery of Apostle’s investment solutions. He will facilitate the distribution of strategies, giving investors access to a range of investments in credit, thematic investments, alternative debt and equity, private credit, Venture Capital, timberland and global equities.

With over twenty-five years’ experience in the investment and wealth management industry, Mr James brings expertise across distribution, marketing and client services. He was most recently General Manager, Head of Distribution at Lakehouse Capital where he established the firms wholesale presence in Australia while maintaining the retail business arm. Prior to his role at the boutique firm he dedicated over two decades to Aberdeen Standard Investments, serving across multiply roles with the global investment manager, leaving as Director, Head of Marketing and Business Strategy.

Mr Kouryialas said, “We are pleased to welcome Stuart to the team to help lead the firm’s expansion. He brings a network of strong relationships and has a proven track record of implementing strategies across a range of functions to drive growth.

The market has shifted, and investors are seeking a range of sophisticated strategies to build robust portfolios for wealth preservation and to generate alpha with global exposure. We have partnered with outstanding global fund managers, to provide access to a variety of solutions across asset classes to meet investor’s needs. Stuart’s experience and expertise within the wholesale space will be pivotal as we continue our global distribution strategy.”

Apostle’s Managing Director Karyn West said, “Stuart’s appointment will support our growth as we continue to expand our footprint within the wholesale sector across Australia and New Zealand. We are seeing increasing investor demand for differentiated investment strategies to diversify portfolios within the institutional and wholesale market. Stuart’s experience across both markets will be critical as we continue to deliver bespoke solutions to clients.”

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Karyn West

Apostle Funds Management (Apostle) has announced the launch of its impact report for the People & Planet Diversified Fund.

The Apostle People and Planet Diversified Fund (APPDF) launched in April 2022 and has outperformed both the market index and the median return for balanced superannuation options. The Fund has 67.66% Carbon footprint lower than benchmark^[1] and 14.18% greater female representation compared to the benchmark^[2], whilst achieving returns of 10.56% in FY23.

Walking the walk on gender equality

Apostle prioritises investments with a focus on advancing gender equality through active ownership and as a member of 40:40 Vision. The Fund also excludes investments that are underperforming its gender equality benchmark tilting the strategies towards those that are outperforming.

While there has been a gradual increase in the representation of women in senior management roles globally, women continue to be significantly underrepresented in Executive Leadership Teams (ELTs) across the ASX300.

According to the 2023 Chief Executive Women Census, companies that have set a 40:40 or better target are three times more likely to achieve gender balance within their ELT compared to companies without such targets. Despite this compelling evidence, 36% of ASX companies have not yet set gender composition targets for their ELT, and an additional 24% have set a target that falls short of the 40:40 benchmark.

The latest Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Scorecard for 2023, reported that Australia’s gender pay gap reached a new low of 21.7 per cent. The significant decrease from the 2022 Scorecard means that on average, men earn just over a fifth more than women. This represents the largest single-year reduction in almost a decade, although women still earn considerably less than their male counterparts.

Kylie Parkyn, Apostle’s Portfolio Manager, Sustainable Investment, said, “Our approach to active ownership ensures that our engagement and voting decisions are geared towards addressing pay and leadership inequalities, accelerating the performance objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the WGEA Scorecard results are encouraging. We acknowledge that there is still work to be done in order to promote more women into leadership roles.”

Apostle is an Australian-owned, and female-led fund manager. Apostles’ overall workforce is gender balanced with over 40% female representation in the company, its investment team is 50% female and ensures equal pay for equal work between male and female employees.

Ms Parkyn continued, “At Apostle we are firm believers in advocating for gender equality in our investments and embodying it within our own business. We are proud to be a female led Funds Management business and maintain a gender-balanced workforce, with women making up over 40% of our team. We are committed to ensuring equal pay for equal work among our male and female employees. We expect this same standard of the businesses we invest in with our Fund.”

The power of proxy voting for impact

Apostle demonstrated its commitment to climate-related issues by supporting all shareholder proposals that promoted long-term shareholder value in 2022. The firm also took a firm stance on board diversity, opposing 41% of director elections where the board did not include at least 40% representation from underrepresented gender identities. Opposing 59% of director elections where the board lacked at least 20% representation from racially or ethnically diverse directors.

Apostle’s Managing Director Karyn West said, “Capital markets have an important role to play in scaling business solutions that address the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically relating to the climate and increasing gender diversity.

In our first Impact report, we wanted to share how we think about impactful investment, our approach and highlight some of the work we are proud of, areas where we have achieved impactful ‘performance’ and areas where we would like to move the dial and enhance our efforts.

We are committed to connecting pools of capital with the problems facing the world today. It not only makes ethical sense but also directs investments into real growth opportunities which supports our clients objectives.”

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Karyn West

Apostle Funds Management (Apostle) has announced its partnership with US venture capital Fund Safar Partners (Safar).

Safar invests in early-stage companies developed at leading universities Harvard, MIT and Rochester to address today’s biggest challenges. It invests one third of its capital in early-stage companies, with two thirds reserved to support companies through their successful growth stages.

With US$620 million assets under management^[1] the partnership offers Australian wholesale and institutional investors access to a diversified Fund focusing on healthcare, AI and IT and clean tech.

Fund I was launched in May 2019 with US$287 million in commitments and has since completed 34 deals. Fund I is now closed, Fund II is closing, and Fund III is expected to enter the market later this year. Safar targets a return multiple of over 4x on invested capital and a net IRR of over 20%.

Safar has multidisciplinary expertise on their Scientific and Business Advisory Boards to assist the thirteen-person investment team with strategic advice to help scale and grow portfolio companies.

The board is comprised of scholars and experts from Harvard, MIT, and the University of Rochester who are committed to seeing a more efficient technology transfer and faster scaling of ideas that will change the world.

Speaking on the partnership Apostle’s Managing Director Karyn West said, “We are excited to be working with a group that partners with the best universities in the world, to solve the most urgent problems facing the world. We have had a long-standing relationship with Safar’s Managing Partner Nader Motamedy beginning over 20 years ago, and we believe in its ethos and investment strategy.

For example, Safar invests in one of the leading companies in fusion in the world. Commonwealth Fusion Systems is an energy company aiming to commercialise fusion energy production to take advantage of the extraordinary market opportunity for carbon free power. This is a tangible, quality, impactful investment opportunity which we can now offer Australian investors.

At Apostle, we are committed to connecting pools of capital with the problems that face our economy and partnering with aligned managers like Safar who have deep sector expertise to deliver is critical to our mission.”

Safar’s Managing Partner, Arunas Chesonis said, “Our flexible strategy allows us to take technologies from inception to global scale. With access to the most promising technologies developed by the brightest minds, we are often one of the first investors in our portfolio companies, helping them grow and achieve technological and financial success. We are excited to partner with Apostle to bring our offering to Australian investors.”

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Karyn West

Apostle Funds Management (Apostle) has announced the launch of its Global Carbon Credit Fund (the Fund).

The Fund offers exposure to global carbon markets for sophisticated and institutional investors and will seek to outperform a global carbon benchmark by at least 2% p.a. net of fees over rolling 5-year periods.

Apostle’s Partner, Global Carbon Markets Luke Donovan explained, “Apostle’s Global Carbon Credit Fund offers sophisticated investors the opportunity to take an active role in the global decarbonisation, now. We are pleased to bring this solution to the market amid extensive investor demand.”

“Compliance Carbon markets have a strong outlook and are an essential component of a low-emission economy. These markets are regulated and mandated by governments worldwide, with oversight and control mechanisms in place to ensure integrity and scalability. Our fund provides a robust return outlook and diversification with other asset classes while also serving as a hedge against climate risk and inflation,” said Mr Donovan.

Taking an institutional approach to carbon markets

The wholesale unregistered Fund is actively managed with diversification across major markets – California, Europe, UK, New Zealand and Australia. This approach offers investors holistic exposure to the carbon price and helps reduce volatility through jurisdictional diversification.

The Apostle Carbon Credit Fund benchmark provides investors with beta carbon price exposure to both established and emerging carbon markets. This is combined with an active management component that delivers greater opportunity for alpha and provides superior returns at a lower risk. The Fund is constructed using a mixture of physical credits and futures.

“We believe a ton of carbon is a ton of carbon – regardless of the country it is from. This is why we’ve chosen the breadth of markets and why the benchmark is constructed with even distribution across each market.

It’s clear that in order to incentivise the type of transition needed in our economy the price of carbon needs to be higher. Institutional investors have an important role to play in this process, by participating in compliance carbon markets they increase liquidity and sophistication which ultimately drives greater price discovery. High functioning compliance carbon markets are a key pillar to the efficient and timely allocation of capital in the race to reduce emissions in our economy. This is what we are offering.”

Mr Donovan has over 15 years of deep expertise within the energy finance sector and carbon trading. He was most recently Executive Director of Carbon and Power Markets at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) where he was responsible for CBA’s Carbon Emissions trading globally and pivotal to establishing its presence in the Australian Carbon Market. Prior to his time with the bank he experienced a decade tenure at Origin Energy, building Australia’s largest industrial customer portfolio in energy and carbon trading.

Not all credits are created equal

Voluntary carbon offsets are unregulated which means transparency and scale is likely to take much longer to develop, unlike compliance markets which are regulated by governments.

Regulators use control mechanisms to increase this price over time, which disincentivises emissions in line with their climate goals. Each country operates its own mechanism, but it is expected that carbon prices will converge over time to create a global cost of carbon.

Developing an agreed infrastructure and pricing in Australia will set the investment guidelines for the highest emitters and deliver confidence to investors. By establishing markets and setting a price on carbon like a commodity it will incentivise large polluters to make the changes to their business.

Commenting on Australia’s fledgling carbon market Mr Donovan explained, “The safeguard mechanism offers a clear signal to market to deploy capital to smooth the transition. Most corporates understand a carbon tax is coming, the most efficient way forward is to establish a robust price for carbon to enable investors to make informed decisions to deploy capital.

Climate change is a global problem and over time it would make sense for fungibility between carbon markets to increase which will ultimately lead to price convergence and the lowest cost of abatement occurring.”

“We are not putting money into increasing the profitability of these high emitters, we are participating in the mechanism that permits these businesses to change how they operate to decarbonise. But we must start deploying capital now to create integrity in the market, liquidity, price transparency, and price discovery.”

Apostle’s Managing Director Karyn West commented on the launch, “This fund has been a long time in the making and complements our other ethical investment strategies. Connecting pools of capital with the problems that face our economy is critical to progress and is core to our business, which is why we are pleased to bring this Fund to market.”

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The new addition bolsters Apostle’s leadership in the impact, ethical and net zero space ahead of the launch of its Global Carbon Credit fund.

AFM’s Managing Director Karyn West said, “We are thrilled to welcome Luke and his strong leadership to the Apostle team. Luke’s rare technical skill set and deep sector expertise with global carbon markets is critical to our strategic positioning in providing solutions to our clients.”

Mr Donovan joins Apostle with over 15 years’ experience in the energy finance sector. His extensive experience began with his decade tenure at Origin Energy, building Australia’s largest industrial customer portfolio in energy and carbon trading.

Mr Donovan was most recently Executive Director of Carbon and Power Markets at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). Where he was responsible for CBA’s Carbon Emissions trading globally and pivotal to establishing its presence in the Australian Carbon Market.

Speaking on his appointment Mr Donovan said, “I was seeking to partner with a fund distribution and product management group that could support the creation of products relevant to this market amid shifting demand. Apostle is a great natural fit, I welcome a collaborative partnership in delivering sophisticated products and services to the institutional market in global carbon markets.

I look forward to working together with Apostle and believe we can provide uniquely positioned alpha oriented products to meet the demands of institutional markets.”

Building on the appointments of its first Chief Operations Officer Eric Chu and ESG advisor Kylie Parkyn this year, the announcement reinforces Apostle’s growing investment product suite following the launch of its People and Planet fund and Ethical High Yield Credit Fund.

Ms West continues, “We have the right expertise and the right products to deliver institutional grade ethical and impact strategies for our clients. We have seen an enormous shift in demand from clients and we felt there was a limited selection in the market to meet new sustainable requirements.

This is why we have curated a team of specialists to support our holistic investment strategy. We are focused on the future of investing and believe you can create positive real-world outcomes without sacrificing financial returns.”

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Karyn West

Apostle Funds Management (AFM) has announced the launch of its ethically screened high yield credit Fund (the Fund).

The Fund is accessible to wholesale investors and adds to the boutique manager’s stable of ethical and impact strategies, following the launch of its Apostle People and Planet Diversified Fund in April.

AFM have designed the portfolio the be an all-weather Fund that allows it to adjust to the current interest rate and inflationary environment. The Fund focuses on generating a stable income along with capital preservation.

AFM’s Managing Director Karyn West says, “This Fund is designed for investors who are seeking a good total return of 5-7% with characteristics that lessen the impact of rising rates and assist in higher inflationary periods. With our ethical screening it will be suitable for many investors, including those who have environmental concerns, for charities, endowments and religious organisations.”

The Fund provides exposure to US alternative fixed income assets for wholesale investors by investing in experienced managers that have exemplary track records in niche areas such as liquid infrastructure credit and private real estate debt.

AFM’s Portfolio Manager Steven Spearing explains, “Fixed income as an asset class is well positioned to provide stability and capital preservation. There are good quality sub-investment grade bonds trading at historically cheap levels, and we see this as a fantastic opportunity to be entering the market with a new credit Fund.

The Fund can navigate a variety of market conditions using a mix of fixed and floating rate instruments, and a mix of high yield fixed income assets (loans, bonds, private credit). Expected returns are in line with the high yield credit market but it is inherently more ‘defensive’ through its allocation to senior loans, infrastructure debt and private credit.”

Steven continues, “As an actively managed Fund we are able to adjust the portfolio to suit the economic environment. The underlying Fund managers that the Fund invests in are also well positioned to navigate the economic challenges that lie ahead and take advantage of the recent sell off in bond markets.

The Fund has been constructed to have lower volatility and better defensive characteristics than the broader high yield market, leading to better risk adjusted returns over the medium-to-long-term. This leaves us well positioned as we face a likely global recession.”

The Fund is ethically screened, diversified and alternative high yield credit with a target yield of 5-7% net of fees p. a. over rolling 5-year periods. The Fund is daily priced, liquid and hedged into AUD.

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Eric Chu

Apostle Funds Management (AFM) continues growth trajectory by appointing its first Chief Operating Officer, Eric Chu.

This is a newly created role for the independent, female led fund manager following the launch of its People and Planet fund earlier in the year.

AFM’s Managing Director Karyn West explains, “We are focused on the future of investing and believe you can create positive real-world outcomes without sacrificing financial returns. This newly created role in the organisation helps us realise this vision as we look to manage our future growth. We have a strong pipeline of products that offer tailored solutions for our clients as we continue to expand our offering.”

“Once we met with Eric, his experience, deep industry expertise and dynamic style suited the values of our organisation making him an excellent fit.”

“Eric will be working with the whole team covering all aspects of compliance and operations. His knowledge and experience will be catalytic for the growth of our organisation. We look forward to Eric’s contribution to help grow the team and the organisation,” said Ms West.

Mr Chu joins Apostle with over a decade of experience in financial services. Beginning his career in funds accounting at leading independent hedge fund administration specialist Custom House Global Fund Services, before moving to middle and back-office functions with Link Fund Solutions. Mr Chu’s most recent role was as Chief Operating Officer of Fundhost Ltd.

His breadth of experience spans multi class unit trusts, investment operations, compliance, and unit registry. He also has expertise in statutory reporting, tax distributions, client transactions, AFSL requirements and year end operations.

Speaking of his appointment Eric commented, “I am pleased to be working with an organisation that is future focused and aligns to my values. Apostle Funds Management are pioneers within the impact investing space and are primed for exponential growth. It’s an exciting time to become part of the AFM journey.”

 Mr Chu holds a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Accounting, and qualifications in SQL and RG146. He is also a member of CPA Australia.

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Karyn West

Independent investment research house, Lonsec, has awarded a ‘Recommended’ rating to the Apostle Dundas Global Equity Fund (the Fund).

The Fund is focused on sustainable dividends from long-term investment in global equities across developed and emerging markets.

Investment manager Dundas Global Investors (Dundas) aims to build a diversified portfolio of between 60-80 stocks with sustained business and dividend growth to achieve long-term capital growth. Strong qualitative and financial research and analysis underpins the Dundas investment criteria. The Fund has typically outperformed in weaker markets and underperformed in strongly rising markets.

The firm’s Senior Partner, Alan McFarlane, explains, “We pick stocks capable of sustained dividend growth and avoid the majority that aren’t. Our companies provide products and services bought by more customers year after year. Rising sales produce increased profit and cash flow which is applied first in reinvestment for future growth and second to pay each year’s dividends. Good companies run by excellent boards and management make repeated good capital allocation decisions, avoiding unnecessary financial risk to reduce the risk of dividend cuts. Consistent reinvestment by growing companies is the foundation for future dividend growth and our strategy’s success.

“In 2020 global dividends suffered a 13% reduction – just under $175 billion – with the cuts concentrated in industries most affected by lockdown and others that struggled because of changing demand patterns and / or poor capital allocation decisions. Avoiding those industries and companies was key to our recent results. COVID-19 exposed the difference between sustainable businesses and the rest.” Mr McFarlane said.

“Dividend growth investing is often confused with investing for high-yield but they are chalk and cheese. 2020 exposed the difference between on the one hand companies capable of sustained dividend growth because of the industries they operate in and the way they are managed and, on the other, over-distributing companies whose high yields signal their lack of opportunity to reinvest for future growth. Sustained dividend growth coupled with sound corporate financial governance are the keys to why dividend growth portfolios play defence well.” Mr McFarlane added.

The Fund’s Recommended rating can be attributed to the highly experienced professionals from both Dundas and Apostle Funds Management.

Karyn West, Managing Director, Apostle Funds Management (AFM) said, “During 2020, the best dividend policy for most companies was to hold cash to fund their business during the tough times experienced in a pandemic environment. Ordinarily Dundas likes to primarily see Boards allocating profits to help grow the business and then subsequently reward shareholders with a sustainable dividend year-on-year.

“Finding businesses that have good return on equity, good margins and pricing power are important as global economies find their feet within the challenges of the pandemic,” Ms West said.

Ms. West welcomed Lonsec’s Recommended rating as positive affirmation for the Fund, AFM and its global equity partners Dundas. “Our key focus at AFM is to provide investment strategies that meet a genuine client need. Advocating for clients’ interests and finding best-of-breed investments from around the world is at our core.”

Ms. West concluded: “We are pleased to be building strong momentum in providing targeted, hand-picked investment opportunities for our clients. Partnerships with quality asset managers like Dundas enable us to support client objectives via access to bespoke product solutions.”

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Karyn West

Apostle Funds Management is pleased to announce the launch of a new Exchange Traded Quoted Managed Fund on the 24th February, 2021, to sit alongside its current Managed Investment Trust. The Fund will be named the Apostle Dundas Global Equity Fund with ASX code ADEF.

Dundas Partners LLP, an Edinburgh based global equity manager founded in 2012, is well known in the institutional market with assets under management of approximately US$1.5 billion. Their investment strategy has delivered a long and successful track record and the launch of this exchanged traded offering will allow all participants within Australian and New Zealand financial services to access this high-quality manager on an intra-day basis with full liquidity.

The investment strategy has delivered gross returns of 14.97% over 3 years and 13.20% over 5 years as of 31 December 2020, placing it as one of the top performing Global Equity Funds over the long term.

About the Fund

Dundas focus on the factors that drive long-term total returns – dividend growth plus dividend yield. These factors result in a portfolio exhibiting total compound annual growth of around 10%. They employ fundamental bottom up research with a portfolio that has delivered capital preservation and good downside protection.

The Fund will have a management fee of 0.90%, well below the category median of 1.35% 2 . Further, there will be no performance fee included.

The Fund may be suitable for investors who are seeking long term risk adjusted returns within the global equity part of their portfolio either as an alternative for a current global growth strategy or to increase diversification in a portfolio overweight in Australian equities.

K2 Asset Management (K2AM) has been selected as our partner who have a strong track record in operating actively traded quoted managed Funds with both domestic and global equity mandates.

Alan McFarlane, Senior Partner of Dundas Partners commented; “Dundas Partners are very pleased that our global equity portfolio will now be readily available to SMSF, IFAs, and the wealth management groups in Australia through the easy access of an Exchange Traded Vehicle.”

Karyn West MD of Apostle Funds Management; “We are pleased to bring a high-quality manager with a market leading product in an ETF format. It is a fully active portfolio of high-quality companies with sustainable dividends and is well priced for our market. In addition, this portfolio has been highly rated on its ESG merits”

Campbell Neal, Chairman and CEO of K2AM commented; “This is a natural partnership with both Apostle Funds Management and Dundas Partners to operate and monitor the new global equity actively traded ETF. We feel privileged to partner with a world class investor like Dundas Partners and pleased to offer our expertise with the listed market for the ETF.”

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