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What are small companies?

The definition of what constitutes a “small company” differs within the industry, but in general terms, they are companies with a market value between $300 million and $2 billion.

Why invest in small companies?

Small caps offer an interesting opportunity in the market due to the lack of analyst coverage, subsequent potential for mispricing and long-term growth prospects.

What is the InvestSMART Australian Small Companies Fund?

Using Intelligent Investor’s value-based investing philosophy, the Australian Small Companies Fund is a managed fund that seeks to deliver moderate to high total portfolio returns over the long term across 10-25 listed small companies, often overlooked by the broader market. These are companies smaller than the largest in the Small Ordinaries Index (curr A2 Milk, worth $3.2B).

The ‘Small Ords’ are the smallest 300 companies in the All Ords index (e.g. company 201-500).

The fund is managed by our equities team at Intelligent Investor, and will use the same long-term, value investing philosophy that has provided the team's track performance to date.

The main benefits of the InvestSMART Australian Small Companies Fund include:

• Good potential for generating capital growth
• Lower fee structure than most fund managers
• Benefit from a unique opportunity - less liquidity means larger funds struggle to invest in small companies.
• Good potential for above average returns from active management by the experience team at Intelligent Investor
• Limited contributions to ensure that performance is not impacted by the size of the fund, and to maximise the possibility of delivering a better return.

More information on investing in small companies:

• Our Australian Small Companies Fund page
• Highlights from our webinar, 'investing in small companies'
• 'The rewards of small cap investing' article
• 'Top 5 small caps for 2017' article

The Risk Ratings that InvestSMART Group assigns to our investment products is based on an industry standard, The Standard Risk Measure (SRM). The SRM is a guide developed by the Financial Services Council (FSC) and The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) that outlines the likely number of negative annual returns expected over any 20 year period.

The purpose of the SRM is to provide a standardised labelling system to assist investors in comparing investment options across providers, as shown below in Figure 1, FSC/ASFA Standard Risk Measure Classifications.

Source: FSC/ASFA Standard Risk Measure Guidance Paper for Trustees, July 2011

We have adopted these risk rating guidelines and applied them to our products, as highlighted in Figure 2: InvestSMART Group Investment Products' SRM:

It should be noted, however, that the SRM is not a complete assessment of all forms of investment risk. For instance, it does not detail what the size of a negative return could be or the potential for a positive return to be less than a member may require to meet their objectives. As such, it should be used as a guide and as with any investment, investors should ensure they are comfortable with the risks and potential losses associated with their chosen investment option(s). Any information should be considered general in nature and before making any investment decisions, please ensure that you read all relevant disclosure documents related to that product.