Management Company Switched - Official Announcement02 Dec 2011
The fund switched Management Company from MI-PLAN (Pty) Ltd to Flagship Private Asset Management (Pty) Limited on 02 Dec 2011
Fund Name Changed - Official Announcement15 Nov 2011
The Hermes Osborne Flexible Fund will change it's name to Flagship IP Flexible Value Fund, effective from 15 November 2011
Manco Switch - Official Announcement15 Nov 2011
The Flagship IP Flexible Value Fund switched management companies, from Hermes Asset Management to MI-PLAN with effect from 15 November 2011.
Hermes Osborne Flex comment - Jun 11 - Fund Manager Comment19 Aug 2011
During June the fund's performance was marginally better than the 2% negative return achieved by the JSE overall index, but was again weighed down by sharp falls in the prices of our two main gold holdings, Anglogold and Gold Fields.
Anglogold's share price has underperformed the rand price of gold by no less than 71% since Dec 2005. The fact that this has occurred over a period during which the rand price of gold has more that trebled is extraordinary. Whatever happened to the positive gearing effect of a sharply rising gold price on the gold mines profits?
The problems of declining grades, rising wages and electricity prices etc, etc are well known. Nonetheless, the mine's profit performance should have been better and investors are understandably cynical - ultimately some decent earnings and dividends are required to allay this scepticism - and then gold shares which are very underrepresented in portfolios, may stage a powerful rally.
During the month, several of the fund's mid and small cap holdings, such as Mix Telematics, Invicta and Sentula reported improved results and generally positive share price reactions. We remain confident that our exposure to this area of the market will continue to add value.