SYDNEY, 2 March 2018 – Morningstar Australasia Pty Limited, a subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced the winners of the Australian Morningstar Awards 2018. Platinum Asset Management received the top award as Morningstar's Australian Fund Manager of the Year.

“The winners in the Morningstar Awards have all shown themselves to be first-class stewards of their investors’ capital,” said Chris Douglas, Morningstar Director of Manager Research Ratings, Asia-Pacific. “Markets posted great returns in 2017, and the select list of fund managers nominated all demonstrated an ability to add value over the year and consistently reward over the long-term, too. Australian investors have a rich source of investment options to choose from, with Platinum Asset Management a stand-out for 2017.

The winners of the Australian Morningstar Awards 2018 are:

Australian Fund Manager of the Year 2018 – Platinum Asset Management
Platinum Asset Management thoroughly deserves the overall Australian Fund Manager of the Year Award, having also won the International Equities category. Platinum distinguished itself with its superb results across its range of global and regional-specific equity strategies in 2017, solidifying its outstanding long-term record. The team continues to be led by an impressive line-up of senior investors and displays unwavering conviction in its approach to finding undervalued companies. Platinum has also done this at scale for many years, helping many investors and their advisors to fulfil their investment goals.

Fund Manager of the Year: Multisector Category, Australia 2018 – AustralianSuper
The high calibre team at AustralianSuper has shown over numerous time periods and market environments to be very sound stewards of capital for over 2 million Australians. The team has made some shrewd asset allocation decisions over the years, culminating in first quartile performance over multiple time periods, including 2017. The combination of smart and diligent team with a repeatable and time-tested process makes AustralianSuper highly deserving of the MultiSector category award.

Fund Manager of the Year: Fixed Interest Category, Australia 2018 – Legg Mason Western Asset
Legg Mason Western Asset Australian Bond is a high-quality offering. Fixed-income markets have been tricky to navigate in recent years, but the firm’s high calibre team has a knack for navigating different regimes and post first quartile results across all time periods, which is no easy feat. An impressive team, repeatable process, and the required skills to execute on their ideas make them a worthy winner of the Fixed Interest Award.

Fund Manager of the Year: Domestic Equities-Large Cap Category, Australia 2018 – Greencape Capital
We’re quickly running out of superlatives for this Melbourne-based Australian equity boutique. Greencape’s prescient team and creative approach to stock research has produced an outstanding track record over the last decade, delivering strong outcomes for the end investor. 2017 was a banner year for the firm’s two funds; High Conviction and Broadcap strategies, driven by some shrewd stock picking. There really is excellence across the board here, which makes Greencape Capital a deserving winner of the Domestic Equities Large-Cap Category.

Fund Manager of the Year: Domestic Equities-Small Cap Category, Australia 2018 – Fidelity International
Fidelity Future Leaders is an outstanding Australian equities small Cap strategy and worthy winner of Domestic Equities-Small Cap Fund of the Year due to the talented portfolio manager, well-considered investment process, and focused portfolio construction methodology. Portfolio manager James Abela has skilfully headed the strategy since inception in 2013, setting the investment philosophy, selecting the stocks, and building the portfolio. Fidelity Future Leaders is an excellent fund with many strong characteristics and will continue to reward investors in the future.

Fund Manager of the Year: International Equities Category, Australia 2018 – Platinum Asset Management
Platinum Asset Management is a worthy winner of the International Equities award. The firm rewarded the patience of its investors in 2017, with longstanding holdings in several emerging market countries bearing fruit across its global portfolios. Platinum has delivered excellent results throughout multiple market cycles under the expert leadership of Kerr Neilson and Andrew Clifford and continues to judiciously develop and promote talented investment staff to maintain its sterling long-term record.

Fund Manager of the Year: Property & Infrastructure Category, Australia 2018 – Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure
Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure has rewarded investors time-and-again with outstanding performance, and 2017 was no exception. Lead portfolio manager Warryn Robertson and a five-person team take a research focused effort to build a high-conviction portfolio of infrastructure securities. We hold the disciplined investment process in high regard, and the team’s insightful stock research continues to impress. Lazard has delivered excellent risk-adjusted results since the strategy’s inception and Morningstar analysts have a high degree of confidence that the firm will continue to serve investors very well over the long-term.

Fund Manager of the Year: Undiscovered Manager Category, Australia 2018 – Capital Group New Perspective
Capital Group New Perspective should be on any international equities investor’s radar thanks to its time-tested multi-portfolio-manager process, reasonable fees, and the firm’s exemplary stewardship. Despite only launching locally in late 2015, this strategy has been running for over 40 years overseas and has a track-record few can match. The portfolio is a combination of the six independently-working portfolio managers’ own investment styles and is characterised by some large sector tilts and a focus on multinational blue-chip stocks. Our Morningstar Analyst Rating^TM of Gold for this fund and decision to award it Undiscovered Fund Manager of the Year is a reflection of its excellent pedigree and our confidence in its future outperformance.

The Awards are copyright Morningstar. Fund managers may not publicise the Award(s) without the prior written consent of Morningstar.

Methodology
Only fund managers with managed funds available for sale in Australia qualify for inclusion in the Australian Morningstar Awards.

Morningstar determines the winner based on a combination of qualitative research by its manager research analysts; risk-adjusted returns over medium- to long-term periods; and performance in the 2017 calendar year. Morningstar's manager research analysts assess the track record for a fund based on Morningstar's Risk-Adjusted Return measure over the one-, three-, and five-year periods. The objective is to screen for fund managers that have provided consistently strong returns, and not just reward those with the most impressive one-year return but have otherwise struggled to impress.

Morningstar's manager research analysts then conduct a qualitative assessment of the fund managers under consideration. This incorporates the five pillars of the Morningstar Analyst Rating™ – people, process, parent, price, and performance. The qualitative assessment also captures practical issues that quantitative screens cannot. After assessing the quantitative and qualitative outcomes for each fund manager, Morningstar's analysts then debate and decide on the fund managers they believe are worthy winners and finalists across the various categories. If a verdict cannot be reached by a unanimous decision, then each analyst casts a vote to decide.

Determining the Morningstar Australian Fund Manager of the Year 2018
To receive the overall Morningstar Australian Fund Manager of the Year award, a fund manager must have offered funds in multiple award categories or delivered an outstanding outcome for investors. Fund managers were assessed not only on whether they were a finalist in more than one category, but on products that had peer-beating returns but did not obtain a top three position. Morningstar’s manager research analysts present the Morningstar Australian Fund Manager of the Year 2018 award to the fund manager that had strong returns across multiple categories and was deemed a good steward of investors' capital. The Morningstar Australian Fund Manager of the Year 2018 therefore represents the Australian fund manager that, in Morningstar's opinion, has achieved the highest level of funds management excellence.

For more information about Morningstar’s other global fund awards, visit http://awards.morningstar.com.

About Morningstar Australasia Pty Limited and Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar Australasia is a subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisers, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than US$195 billion in assets under advisement and management at 31 Dec. 2017. The company has operations in 27 countries. 

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