- February proved to be a very eventful month initially dominated by Australian corporate earnings, which were much better than expected and revealed that corporate Australia is recovering from Covid-19 must faster than expected. In the second half of the month, the main focus was on rising bond yields and what this means for stocks rather than corporate earnings.
- The Atlas High Income Property Fund gained by +0.74% in February, a pleasing result ahead of both the benchmark and the wider Listed Property sector that declined almost -3%. The February reporting season held few surprises for the companies we own, as rent-collecting trusts offer greater earnings visibility, whereas trusts with development earnings can be volatile.
- Overall, we were pleased with the companies’ financial results that we own in the Fund. The common themes were profits recovering, rents being collected, and the outlook for 2022 looking much clearer. Unlike going into the GFC, the listed property sector faced no debt issues in 2020 as the industry had low gearing, faces low interest costs and most importantly, a spread of debt maturities.
Go to Monthly Newsletters for a more detailed discussion of the listed property market and the fund’s strategy going into 2021.