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Global Absolute Return Fund

INVESTMENT OVERVIEW

Causeway Global Absolute Return (GAR) Fund is designed for investors who want equity-like returns with low volatility and low market correlation. The Fund invests in global developed markets equities, using swap agreements or direct investments to obtain exposures to long and short positions.

Causeway uses its fundamental global value equity strategy to manage the Fund’s long exposures and its quantitative investment strategy to manage the short exposures. Both the long and short portfolios seek to add alpha, which is amplified by leverage up to 4x, with a target of 3x.

The GAR Fund attempts to mitigates risk in a number of ways: on the short side, qualitative risk is captured by a fundamental review of short positions, and short exposures are constrained. Unrealized gains or losses through swap agreements are also constrained, limiting counterparty risk. There are approximately twice as many short exposures as long, mitigating idiosyncratic risk.

The GAR Fund has 85-180 long/short exposures. The dollar amount of the long exposures is generally equivalent to the dollar amount of the short exposures, but the Fund may have sector or regional biases.

FUND FACTS as of 12/31/2011

 
INVESTOR CLASS
INSTITUTIONAL CLASS
Ticker Symbol
CGAVX
CGAIX
CUSIP
14949P505
14949P406
Inception Date
1/24/2011
1/24/2011
Share Class Assets
$2.9m
$11.4m
Minimum Investment
$5,000
$1,000,000
Sales Charge
None
None
Net Expense Ratio
2.25%
2.00%
Gross Expense Ratio
3.48%
3.66%
Dividend Frequency
Annual
Annual
Capital Gain Frequency
Annual
Anuual
 
INVESTOR
INSTITUTIONAL
Daily Price
as of 2/22/2012
$10.94 (-0.05)
$10.96 (-0.05)
YTD:
2.90 %
2.90 %

Please click here for standardized and month-end Fund performance

The performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth less than their original cost and current performance may be lower than the performance quoted.

DAILY PERFORMANCE as of 2/22/2012

Class
Share Price
Change
Year
To Date
Inception
Date
Investor
$10.94
-0.05
2.90 %
1/24/2011
Institutional
$10.96
-0.05
2.90 %
1/24/2011

MONTHLY PERFORMANCE as of 1/31/2012

Class
Year
To Date
1 Year
3 Year
5 Year
Since
Inception
Inception
Date
Investor
1.12 %
11.38 %
N/A
N/A
11.81 %
1/24/2011
Institutional
1.12 %
11.64 %
N/A
N/A
12.07 %
1/24/2011

QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE as of 12/31/2011

Class
Year
To Date
1 Year
3 Year
5 Year
Since
Inception
Inception
Date
Investor
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
10.80 %
1/24/2011
Institutional
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
11.07 %
1/24/2011

POSITION DETAILS as of 12/31/2011

Cash
$14,241,296
Market Value Long
$21,082,631
Market Value Short
-$20,747,828
Net Positional Value
$334,804
Net Exposure
2.31%
Leverage
2.89x
Long Positions
49
Short Positions
109
Total
158

CHARACTERISTICS as of 12/31/2011

Long Portfolio
Short Portfolio
MSCI WORLD
FY2 Price/Earnings
8.9 x
10.8 x
9.7 x
Price/Book Value
1.6 x
1.3 x
1.5 x
Return on Equity
21.3%
10.8%
12.3%
No. of Exposures
49
109
1,632
Wtd Avg Mkt Cap (Mn $US)
38,734
38,116
59,213

SECTOR Exposure as of 12/31/2011

Long Exposure (%)
Short Exposure (%)
Net Exposure (%)
Industrials
36.4
21.0
15.4
Consumer Discretionary
28.8
16.9
11.9
Health Care
19.4
13.8
5.6
Information Technology
16.7
14.8
1.9
Materials
9.0
7.4
1.6
Energy
13.2
14.0
-0.8
Utilities
0.0
6.2
-6.2
Telecommunication Services
0.0
6.7
-6.7
Financials
15.8
26.1
-10.3
Consumer Staples
6.0
16.3
-10.4
Total
145.3
143.3
2.0

COUNTRY Exposure as of 12/31/2011

Long Exposure (%)
Short Exposure (%)
Net Exposure (%)
Netherlands
11.5
0.4
11.1
South Korea
5.9
0.0
5.9
Germany
5.3
2.4
2.9
Switzerland
11.4
8.6
2.8
Spain
2.6
0.2
2.4
France
13.8
15.5
-1.7
Portugal
0.0
2.9
-2.9
United States
55.0
58.0
-3.1
Australia
0.0
5.5
-5.5
Canada
0.0
7.5
-7.5

TOP 10 LONG Positions as of 12/31/2011

Top Ten Long Positions
Company
Ending Weight (%)
YUE YUEN INDUSTRIAL HLDG
4.2
MICROSOFT CORP
4.1
UNITEDHEALTH GROUP INC
4.0
NOVARTIS AG-REG SHS
3.9
ROLLS-ROYCE GROUP PLC
3.9
JGC CORP
3.8
WESTERN UNION CO
3.8
TOYOTA MOTOR CORP
3.8
JOHNSON & JOHNSON
3.7
REED ELSEVIER NV
3.7
Top Ten Short Positions
Company
Ending Weight (%)
TOBU RAILWAY CO LTD
-3.0
ESSAR ENERGY PLC
-3.0
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LTD
-3.0
GLAXOSMITHKLINE PLC
-3.0
SONOVA HOLDING AG-REG
-2.9
ODAKYU ELECTRIC RAILWAY CO
-2.9
PROCTER & GAMBLE CO/THE
-2.9
PEPSICO INC
-2.9
PORTUGAL TELECOM SGPS SA-REG
-2.9
ROYAL BANK OF CANADA
-2.9

PEFORMANCE REVIEW for the quarter ended 09/30/11

The Global Absolute Return Fund underperformed the BofA Merrill Lynch 3-Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index, which posted a return of 0.02% during the quarter. The Fund’s global long portfolio takes long positions in securities under swap agreements, and the Fund’s short portfolio takes short positions in securities under swap agreements. The global long portfolio underperformed the MSCI World Index (“World Index”), which detracted from overall performance, while the global short portfolio benefitted the Fund by underperforming the World Index. The World Index fell 16.5% during the quarter.

Global equities performed poorly in the third quarter of calendar 2011. Every industry group and every developed stock market was in the red. The lack of resolution to the euro sovereign debt crisis and the increasing prospect of a double-dip recession weighed on investor confidence. The global long side of the Fund underperformed the World Index this quarter, primarily due to unfavorable stock selection and the resulting industry allocation, leading us to overweight the capital goods industry group. Furthermore, for US-based investors, international returns were negatively impacted by foreign currencies depreciating versus the US dollar. The World Index, measured in US dollars, underperformed the World Index in local currency by 2% in the quarter. A “risk-off” mentality permeated markets globally: correlations rose dramatically, as evidenced by the Chicago Board Options Exchange Market Volatility Index (VIX), climbing into the mid-40s; emerging markets substantially underperformed developed markets; high-yield bond spreads widened; and commodity prices plunged. The flight-to-safety trade was on, sending yields on 10-year US Treasury bonds to the lowest level ever recorded. In this environment, economically defensive sectors (consumer staples, health care, and telecommunication services) significantly outperformed the most economically cyclical sectors (materials, financials, and industrials). Global long positions in the transportation, capital goods, consumer services, commercial & professional services, and banks industry groups detracted the most from relative performance versus the World Index, while long exposures in the food beverage & tobacco, consumer services, and health care equipment & services industry groups as well as an underweight to the diversified financials and materials industry groups contributed to relative performance. The largest single detractor to return in the global long portfolio this quarter was parcel delivery company, PostNL (the Netherlands). Other notable top detractors to return included shipbuilder, Sembcorp Marine (Singapore), insurer, AXA (France), Unicredit (Italy’s largest bank - which was sold during the period) and global financial services company, UBS (Switzerland). One of the largest single positive contributors to return in the long portfolio this quarter was pharmacy benefit manager, Medco Health Solutions (US). Other notable top contributors to return included digital security firm, Gemalto (France), tobacco manufacturer, Altria Group (US), managed healthcare organization, Centene Corp (US), and airline, Singapore Airlines.

*Weights as of 9/30/11: PostNL (1.5%), Sembcorp Marine (1.3%), AXA (0.0%), Unicredit (0.0%), UBS (1.8%), Medco Health Solutions (0.0%), Gemalto (2.3%), Altria Group (2.0%), Centene Corp (0.0%), and Singapore Airlines (1.4%). Exposures are subject to change; additionally current and future exposures are subject to risk. Weights are notional long positions divided by Fund net assets.

We use a quantitative approach for security selection for the global short portfolio of the Fund. Our quantitative framework seeks to take short positions in stocks which we believe are overvalued and have deteriorating earnings growth dynamics, poor technical price movements, and insolvency risk and/or inferior quality of earnings. During the quarter, three of these four categories of characteristics succeeded in identifying poor performers. The strongest predictive power came from our price-sensitive technical factors, followed by our earnings growth metrics and insolvency/earnings quality metrics. Only our valuation metrics negatively impacted performance, meaning expensive stocks outperformed cheap stocks during the quarter (we tend to short expensive stocks). The global short portfolio’s relative added-value for the quarter can be attributed to successful stock selection across many industry groups. From a regional perspective, added value was concentrated in favorable stock selection in the US and Europe. Short-side allocation decisions to Euro zone holdings also benefited the Fund, as the Euro zone underperformed the broad market. From a stock perspective, short positions in Essar Energy PLC (UK), Citigroup (US), Alstom (France), Deutsche Bank (Germany) and EOG Resources (US) were particularly effective, as all of these stocks fell over 30% during the quarter. Detractors from short-side performance were concentrated in Japan and the transportation industry group. Odakyu Electric Railway, Tobu Railway, and Keikyu Corp (formerly Keihin Electric Express Railway) all appreciated substantially during the quarter as they continued to recover from the March earthquake, negatively impacting portfolio performance. US-listed short exposures Amazon.com and Apple Inc. also rose during the quarter, similarly impeding performance.

*Weights as of 9/30/11: Essar Energy Plc (-3.0%), Citigroup (-2.8%), Alstom (-1.4%), Deutsche Bank (-2.0%), EOG Resources (-2.7%), Odakyu Electric Railway (-2.9%), Tobu Railway (-3.0%), Keikyu Corp (-2.0%), Amazon.com (-2.4%), and Apple Inc (-1.8%). Exposures are subject to change; additionally current and future exposures are subject to risk. Weights are notional short positions divided by Fund net assets.

DIVIDENDS

INVESTOR CLASS (CGAVX)
2011
$0.0948
2010
$0.0000
INSTITUTIONAL CLASS (CGAIX)
2011
$0.1015
2010
$0.0000

CAPITAL GAINS

SHORT-TERM CAPITAL GAINS
2011
$0.3053
2010
$0.0000
LONG-TERM CAPITAL GAINS
2011
$0.0000
2010
$0.0000

© Causeway Capital Management LLC 2011