Introducing Watershed Funds Management to the North Platform

This month, we’ve added Watershed Funds Management and their Managed Portfolios to our investment menu.

About the manager

Watershed Funds Management is a boutique Australian investment manager that delivers client- focused investment solutions to institutions, intermediaries, financial planners and high net worth investors. Watershed’s fundamental goal is to protect and create capital for their clients by delivering on their investment philosophy of taking strategic positions in and out of all asset classes throughout the investment cycle, whilst identifying and holding high quality companies for the medium to long term within each asset class.

Watershed Funds Management's investment philosophy

Watershed believe that macroeconomic and specific sector cycles drive the majority of asset class performance, both short and long term. As such every investment committee meeting begins with an analysis of Australian and Global economic conditions. The team looks at asset class and sector valuations, fundamentals, and sentiment to form a view  on expected absolute and relative performance.

What differentiates their approach is their strongly held belief that multi-asset managers fail to add value by remaining aligned with the consensus view. Rather, they seek to position their portfolios for where the consensus ends up, and therefore constantly test their economic and market outlook with current market pricing and consensus expectations. There are times throughout the cycle when these diverge considerably, which is an opportunity to add asset allocation alpha.

When it comes to putting their views into action, Watershed believe the ability to control the investment process at the direct equity level as well as the overall asset allocation level gives a distinct advantage over the traditional ‘fund of funds’ approach where stock selection is heavily or entirely outsourced. In their experience, no single investment style has a permanent edge in delivering superior returns across all asset classes, time horizons and market conditions, and therefore seek to be generally style-neutral through the market cycle.

Watershed's philosophy, while regularly refined in its implementation, has been consistent in its underlying principles since inception, providing a clear framework for managing their multi-asset portfolios through markedly different market environments over the last decade.

Find out more about Watershed Funds Management’s Managed Portfolios.

Like to know more?

Contact your North Business Development Manager to find out more or view our complete range of diversified managed portfolios.