1. Why is the Samuel Terry Absolute Return Fund only available to wholesale investors?

The simple answer is that our Australian Financial Services License only allows us to offer our product to wholesale investors.

There were several reasons why we chose to apply for a wholesale license rather than a retail license, but the main one was that it would have doubled our operating expenses if we had organised the firm to be able to apply for a retail license.

2. What does the Latin on your logo mean?

We buy old junk. We sell antiques.

3. What are the identification requirements for new clients?

Click here.

4. When do you release your monthly Net Asset Value (“NAV”) number?

Link Fund Solutions, the fund’s administrator, calculates the formal month-end NAV around the 8th business day of the following month. Once this is done, Link Fund Solutions e-mail a statement to all unitholders advising them of their value of the units at month end. Link Fund Solutions also issue new units to those who have subscribed for new units and pay those who have chosen to redeem units soon after the 8th business day of the new month. Fred Woollard has access to the real-time NAV for the Fund and can provide an informal estimate of month-end NAV from the 1st of the following month to those unitholders who request it. This estimate is usually within 0.2% of the formal NAV number.

5. Who was Samuel Terry?

Sam was Australia’s first home-grown millionaire. As a proportion of GDP he is the richest-ever Australian. He came to Australia from Yorkshire as a penniless convict in 1800. Soon after he was freed in 1807 he started his business career as a publican, then moved into land speculation, lending and investing. By the 1820’s he had become the richest man in the colony of New South Wales, and remained that way until his death in 1838. Sam was a co-founder of the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac) and the State Library of New South Wales. Sam’s success was such that he became known in England as “The Botany Bay Rothschild”. There were reports that his success encouraged some people in Britain to take up crime, in the hope that they might be transported to Australia, the land where a man could rise from nothing to enormous wealth. Sam’s success can be seen as an inspiring story of a humble ex-con achieving great success through hard work and entrepreneurship. An alternative view is to note the contrast between the fame Sam enjoyed in his lifetime and his present obscurity. This should serve as a reminder to all of us, that no matter what material success we may achieve, it will all too soon be forgotten. To learn more about Sam, click here.

6. Why do you have 2 stapled funds?

During the course of the year ended 30 June 2019, STAR was successful in acquiring, at an attractive price, a controlling interest in Yellow Pages NZ.

A consequence of acquiring this interest was that STAR was deemed to be an “active” business for tax purposes, with liability to pay tax in a similar way as a company, rather than as a “flow-through” vehicle for tax purposes (as had been the case until the acquisition). This would have continued while STAR continued to control an active business.

STAM believed it would be preferable (from an investor viewpoint) to separate any active business to be carried on in the future from STAR’s other passive investments.

Therefore a new “active” trust was established to acquire STAR’s Yellow Pages NZ holding, and to staple the new “active” trust to the existing trust. Units in the two trusts trade together with the active trust being taxed as a company and the original trust being taxed on a “flow-through” basis (assuming it distributes all of its taxable income in any year). Stapling in this way is quite common in the market.

As a result of the stapling:
• unitholders have an interest in each of the individual securities (i.e STAR units and STAR Active units of the same class) and are entitled to receive distributions in respect of those securities when made;
• units in STAR and in STAR Active must be traded together; and
• for future tax years, STAR Active will be taxed as a company, and STAR will remain as a “flow-through” vehicle for tax purposes (assuming it distributes all of its taxable income in any year) as it had been prior to the year ended 30 June 2019.

The trustee of STAR is also the trustee of STAR Active. The Constitutions of STAR and STAR Active are substantially the same. STAM receives management and performance fees based on the aggregate net assets of both trusts.

7. Does the Fund have an APIR code?

Yes – The STAR Group’s APIR codes are STP9526AU for the Founder units, STP9437AU for the A class units and STP4816AU for the B class units. (The STAR Group comprises the STAR Fund and the STAR Active Fund.)

The STAR Fund’s APIR codes are STP0001AU for the Founder units, STP0003AU for the A class units and STP0002AU for the B class units.

The STAR Active Fund’s APIR codes are STP6796AU for the Founder units, STP3052AU for the A class units and STP0143AU for the B class units.

The APIR code for Samuel Terry Asset Management is STPX100AU

8. Does the Fund have an ISIN?

Yes – the The STAR Group’s ISIN is AU60STP95262 for the Founder units, AU60STP94372 for the Class A units and AU60STP48162 for the Class B units. (The STAR Group comprises the STAR Fund and the STAR Active Fund.)

The STAR Fund’s ISIN is AU60STP00015 for the Founder units, AU60STP00031 for the Class A units and AU60STP00023 for the Class B units.

The STAR Active Fund’s ISIN is AU60STP67964 for the Founder units, AU60STP30525 for the Class A units and AU60STP01435 for the Class B units.

9. Do you take social, environmental and governance factors into account when investing?

We consider these factors as part of our investment process. We are very aware that a high quality board and management team is much better than the alternative, and have sometimes taken action to improve corporate governance at companies in which we invest. We do not invest in companies which have significant exposure to gambling, payday lending, thermal coal or tobacco.