The Fund aims to provide investors with long and short exposure to an actively managed, diversified portfolio of listed Australian securities.

The Fund aims outperform the S&P/ASX200 Accumulation Index by taking both long and short positions in selected shares listed on a recognised Australian exchange.

Benefits of investing in the Solaris Australian Equity Long Short Fund

Management expertise

• The investment and management expertise of Solaris, a boutique Australian owned equities fund manager providing access to investment opportunities and markets that individual investors usually cannot achieve on their own.

Diversification

• The Fund's investments will be spread across a carefully researched and actively managed portfolio of up to 70 different company stocks. This diversification of investments can help reduce overall investment risk.

Investment approach

• Solaris selects a diversified portfolio of securities using fundamental analysis to exploit market inefficiencies in forecasts and valuations. Solaris' investment approach involves a detailed analysis of the securities and key financial markets, with an eye on global perspectives.

Investment opportunities

• Access to wholesale investment opportunities that may not generally be available to private investors.

Resources

• Access to full-time research resources, a rigorous investment process, highly developed risk management expertise, and advanced trading systems and technology.

Risk level

High

Investor suitability

The Fund may be suitable for investors with an investment horizon of 3 to 5 years, and seek capital growth and income via exposure to Australian stocks and are willing to accept the short-term fluctuations in price typically associated with such investments.

About the Fund

The Solaris Australian Equity Long Short Fund provides the investor with an opportunity to invest in a fundamental style neutral Australian equity long short product. The Fund will maintain a net exposure of 70% - 100%, with the proceeds from shorting (40% maximum) reinvested in preferred long positions in order to enhance returns. The portfolio will typically consist of 40 - 70 long ideas and 20 - 30 short ideas.   

About Solaris Investment Management Limited

Solaris' investment team believes there are opportunities in both value and growth stocks. Solaris has no consistent bias towards either value or growth stocks. Therefore, their style can be described as style neutral' or style agnostic'.

Stock selection is Solaris' main area of expertise. Using fundamental analysis, Solaris selects stocks to exploit market inefficiencies in forecasts and valuations. Investment decisions are supported by detailed analysis of the securities and key financial markets with an eye on global perspectives. Solaris applies strict risk controls to minimise the downside risk.

Solaris' competitive advantage

The Solaris investment team is a stable, experienced team comprised of 10 experienced investment professionals who have an average investment experience of 20 years and have, on average, been with the team for 15 years. Solaris' analysts are the portfolio managers. In other words, if an analyst decides a stock should go into the portfolio, that analyst becomes responsible for the performance of that investment.

Fundamental analysis is optimised by analysts being empowered and rewarded as portfolio managers. Analyst management of the portfolio is the most efficient way to capture identified market inefficiencies because the Solaris analyst is the person most familiar with the stock.

The investors' interests are aligned with the investment manager's interests. Solaris team members are remunerated according to individual and team performance. The majority of the investment team are investors in Solaris products and owners of Solaris.

Solaris has a strong track record in both rising and falling equities markets.

How we invest your money

The main portfolio construction technique that Solaris uses is based on Excess Return. Simply put, if a company has a high excess return, that company will, prima facie, be included in the portfolio and equally a low or negative excess return will see a company excluded from, or shorted, in the portfolio. As a rule of thumb, a +/-10% excess return indicates that a +/-1% over/under weight position should be taken in the relevant company. Subsequent over/under weight sector positions are purely the result of the over/under weight positions of companies within that sector. The analyst is accountable for both the company and sector performance contribution. Specific risk limits govern active position sizes at both the company and sector levels. Orders are initiated and signed off by the responsible analysts before being presented to the CIO (or his delegate) for authorisation.

Ultimately, this creates an extremely disciplined buy/sell regime, whereby as the excess return of a company begins to dissipate, the analyst will reduce the position and vice versa. This way, Solaris can be assured their analysts don't become attached to the investment and remain objective.

The Fund will maintain a net exposure of 70% - 100%, with the proceeds from shorting (40% maximum) reinvested in preferred long positions in order to enhance returns. The portfolio will typically consist of 40 - 70 long ideas and 20 - 30 short ideas.

The Fund's typical net market exposure is between 70% - 100%. The maximum long exposure if 140% and short exposure is -40%, therefore the Fund's maximum gross exposure is 180%.

Other investment restrictions include:

• Maximum equity position of 7.5% relative to the benchmark weight

• Maximum sector limit of 12.5% relative to the benchmark weight

Portfolio allocation

• Australian equities (including derivatives): 70-100%

• Cash and cash equivalents: 0-5%

• Derivatives: 0-30%

In addition to holding direct assets, the Fund may also make investment indirectly, for example by investing in other managed funds where these are aligned with the Fund's investment strategy.