Last week when I outlined why I had just added ASX Ltd (ASX: ASX) to my watchlist, one driver of future growth which I omitted discussing was the rise in popularity of self-managed super funds (SMSF).
As more Australians take control of their finances with the aim of positioning themselves to retire comfortably via SMSFs, they will be increasing popularity for vehicles such as listed investment companies (LICs) and the new mFunds platform which the ASX recently launched.
mFunds will provide direct access to managed funds by allowing investors to purchase units in a fund directly – as though they were shares. Meanwhile there are some exciting new LICs available (or soon to be) that allow investors to access the skills of some very highly regarded fund managers. One of the advantages of investing in an LIC is that from time-to-time they may trade below their net asset value (NAV) – this creates the opportunity to purchase at a discount.
Here are three new LICs which look particularly interesting.
- Acorn Capital Investment Fund Ltd (ASX: ACQ) listed in May 2014 and has failed to trade above its initial public offer price of $1 per share. With stated net tangible assets before any tax effects of 97.5 cents per share (cps) and with the shares currently trading at 91.5 cps there is an appealing discount on offer.
- QV Equities Limited (ASX: QVE) is set to list later this month. The manager behind QV is the successful Investors Mutual. One particularly pleasing aspect to QV is the fee structure – a management fee of 0.9% if the NAV is below $150 million, with the management fee falling to 0.75% if the NAV surpasses $150 million.
- Future Generation Investment Fund (ASX: FGX) offers a potential win-win for investors as I previously highlighted here. The cost structure is appealing, the access to high quality managers is appealing and the fact that a percentage of the fund goes to charity rather than as fees to the managers is an additional bonus.
