Arculus – Our Philosophy

Investment Management

Arculus (GCI Australia AFSL 34257) has been operating since 2013 as a fund manager. Arculus Funds Management manages over $1.2bn (AUD) in a range of fixed interest portfolios. Capital preservation, liquidity and income consistency underpins our investment strategy.

We have extensive experience in investing, from fixed income, public and private equity, derivatives, and hybrids. Our team has amassed more than a century’s worth of knowledge through several significant market cycles, crashes and rallies.   

In addition to two public unit funds, we manage money through private mandates from family offices, charities and wealth advisory groups.

Our philosophy

• We make a commitment to our clients. We are highly cognisant of the changing needs of our investors, and we consider their perspective to provide a professional, swift, clear, value-added response. We continuously strive to find innovative solutions applicable to our clients, providing an excellent service emphasising simplicity, accessibility, and transparency.

• We do not take a performance fee, so we are capital preservation focused.  Many of our peers take performance fees that reward them for taking risk.  
• We are an absolute return manager. What this means is that we are benchmark unaware and will vary duration at different points in the economic cycle. In times of rising rates (and we believe the inflation story is just getting going) we are very low fixed duration and due to the systemic economic risk of the rate rises also currently low credit spread duration. When rates peak, we will increase duration and benefit from the capital gains in a falling rate environment.
• We don’t own the funds or administer them like some other fund managers. The funds are monitored for mandate compliance by the external responsible entity, trustee or investor.  The administrator daily values the portfolios and calculates the performance outcomes independently of us. There are 4 eyes on every transaction: Custody – Administration – Investment Management and the Responsible Entity. 
• The investment universe for all our funds is Australian issues only in AUD. What this means is that there is no currency risk, and regulatory risk changes are limited to Australia and bonds that are issued under Australian law. This means reduced risk. We do not employ leverage either directly or through the use of derivatives.
• We have a strong and simple ESG approach that will deliver an ESG outcome that is easily explained.
• We have no mandated exposure to the MBS, RMBS,CMBS or ABS securities and no property loans or property developer exposures.
• We support advisers and investors with ongoing resources. The team produces a Weekly Market Commentary and Monthly Fund reports that can be used by wealth advisors, as well as conducting large client seminars for them on specific topics.

Arculus is proud to provide a consistently high standard of service to its clients and to have done so since its inception, while constantly ensuring that ethical rules are adhered to. As a financial institution, our ethical standards should be, and are, of the highest level in order to gain and maintain the trust of our investors and fulfil our obligations.

We help investors preserve capital in a sustainable and compliant manner.

• We are a trusted partner providing high quality investment services
• We help our clients and the sector to stay compliant
• We act as a guardian and facilitate our client’s investments
• Our people invest the time to get to know our clients, so that we know how to best service them.

Our values reinforce all our activities and outline how we act and behave together on a day-to-day basis. They bring us together and help us achieve our overall objective of building a professional investment framework focused on delivering superior long-term returns and exceptional service to our clients.

Our core values are:

• Commitment to our Clients
• Acting Responsibly
• Striving for Excellence
• Collaborating for Success