U Access – Long/Short Japan Corporate Governance

Investment Objective

This Fund aims to generate positive returns by investing its net assets in long and short positions on Japanese equity markets, with corporate governance ratings playing a core part of the investment process and company evaluation. The portfolio runs with c. 30 longs (relatively undervalued stocks with good governance) and 60 shorts (richly valued stocks with weak governance), with financial metrics also considered and a strong buy & sell discipline.

Latest Meeting Note

Meeting 08 Dec 2020

A long/short equity market and sector neutral strategy seeking to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns. The fund represents an ESG thematic play addressing Japan’s ongoing and long-lasting corporate governance revolution, supported ... Read more

A long/short equity market and sector neutral strategy seeking to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns. The fund represents an ESG thematic play addressing Japan’s ongoing and long-lasting corporate governance revolution, supported by the recently introduced Stewardship Code and Corporate Governance Code. The ‘Comply or Explain’ nature of the Code’s generate a layer of dispersion across Japanese companies, enabling the PM to identify proactive firms taking a lead in embracing corporate governance whilst also identifying the laggards. Ultimately the PM looks to create a long book from the top governance scoring companies, supported by above average fundamentals (growth rates, operating margin, ROE etc), with the manager also cognisant of valuation and not overpaying. The short book is typically the opposite with low governance scores, weak fundamentals combined with an unattractive valuation. The fund typically runs with 100% on both the long and short side (200% gross exposure), with a net of 0% and rarely deviates far from this. The long book consists of c. 30 positions with around 60 in the short book, which is entirely made up of single names

Performance

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC YTD
2023 1.0 0.9 0.6 0.8 0.9 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.8 0.5 0.9 0.1
2022 0.5 0.9 0.6 0.8 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.0 0.0 1.0 1.0

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Current Site Absolute Hedge is a market leading UCITS research database providing proprietary research on funds, themes and strategies in the UCITS space. Kepler Trust Intelligence is produced by the investment companies team at Kepler Partners and is the UK’s premier source of detailed qualitative research on investment trusts. Kepler Liquid Strategies is a Dublin domiciled UCITS fund platform featuring a number of best-of-breed fund managers. Kepler Partners is a corporate advisory and asset raising boutique specialising in the regulated funds market in Europe and investment trusts in the UK.