In the lead up to this week’s The Insider: Meet the Fund Manager, Emanuel Datt from Datt Capital sat down with Reach Markets to provide a bit of information about his investment strategy, industries of interest and view on the market.

Founded in 2016, the Melbourne-based long-only fund manager takes a medium to long term approach to financial markets that are often burdened by the short term nature of the broader investment community.

Emanuel believes that strong and sustainable returns can be delivered over the medium term, especially when coupled with original research and diverse revenue streams. The results speak for themselves, with Datt Capital’s flagship wholesale Absolute Return Fund delivering 15.43% p.a. up until June 2023 (net of fees) to clients since its inception in August 2018.

The Absolute Return Fund targets double digit returns over a rolling two year period throughout all stages of the economic cycle, with a focus on minimising the risk of permanent loss of capital. The fund is sector agnostic with the ability to invest in fixed income, which gives it the ability to stay nimble and adjust its portfolio weightings according to economic outlook. 

Datt uses a combination of both top down and bottom up strategies, while strictly investing on the ASX. The fund conducts all of its research in house, rather than relying on broker reports or external parties. They have analysed over 1,600 companies since inception, with just a small fraction of the deals making it through to the portfolio.

Emanuel has a long history of being involved in private businesses in the medical, real estate and hospitality fields. Emanuel’s Master’s in Applied Finance formalised his theoretical knowledge, which he combines with his practical experience in business to select growing stocks at a low valuation. When this occurs successfully, he describes it as a feeling like no other. Emanuel strongly believes that investing in companies with strategic assets that are unappreciated by the market, with a number of ways to realise the value; is the best way to generate alpha throughout market cycles and has been the basis of Datt Capital’s success to date.

One company Datt has recently invested in is WA1 Resources Ltd (ASX: WA1), which has garnered significant attention since their major niobium discovery in October 2022 – an event that  catapulted their market cap from $7 million to over $300 million. It currently trades around $6/share, and Datt took their position in WA1’s $2/share capital raise – after the discovery was significantly de-risked. 

Another portfolio company is Global Lithium Resources Ltd (ASX: GL1), a West Australian lithium developer with two projects that make up a combined mineral resource inventory of 50.7Mt @ 1% Li2O. Emanuel notes that Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN) is on the register with a 9.7% holding in the company, as well as the proximity to well known lithium mines.A good portion of the Absolute Return Fund’s performance has come from small caps on the ASX, so it made sense for Emanuel to launch a fund focusing on this area. The Datt Small Companies Fund will launch in September, and will seek to identify the ‘blue chip companies of tomorrow’ while beating the XSO index by 5% p.a. over a rolling 5 year timeframe. The Fund’s mandate will be ex-ASX100 equities and replicate the portfolio management approach that has resulted in the strong returns experienced by the Absolute Return Fund. The Small Companies Fund is accessible to wholesale investors, advisors and institutions.

Join Emanuel Datt this Friday, 4th of August at 12pm (AEST) on our The Insider: Meet the Fund Manager webcast to hear about his favourite stocks of the moment, investment strategy, market outlook and more. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions during the session. To book yourself in, click here.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.