Season's Greetings
What a year! With Christmas around
the corner, we take this opportunity
to look back on an eventful 2014.
It has been fantastic to see investor
confidence strengthen on the back
of continued low interest rates
and ongoing thirst for yield; an
improving housing market; and
weakening Australian Dollar.
While
2014 has been a volatile year in
terms of market performance, the
ASX 200 is likely to finish the year
relatively flat. However, to put 2014
into context, the market has risen
more than 30% over the last three
years.
Against the market backdrop,
we are proud of our Morgans Model
Portfolios across Growth, Balance
and Income all outperforming their
relative benchmarks.
Despite the volatility from falling
commodity prices and the
downturn of mining investment,
the market has had a very healthy
appetite for new companies coming
to market and secondary market
capital raisings to fund growth.
The Healthcare sector benefited
from a number of new companies
joining the ranks with Healthscope,
Japara, Regis Healthcare and fertility providers all joining the
index.
To end the year we had
the Government sell-down of
Medibank which we were proud
to be a Co-Lead Manager of and
enabled us to provide our clients
with this opportunity.
During 2014,
Morgans has raised over $7 billion
and provided clients with the
opportunity to participate in 26 of
the 58 Initial Public Offerings that
listed in 2014. We will continue
to deliver great investment
opportunities to our clients and
believe 2015 will provide just as
many new opportunities to add to
your portfolios.
In the year ahead, we expect
the Australian market to
rally as further evidence of a
progressive recovery in earnings
is seen. Michael Knox, our Chief
Economist is forecasting the
ASX 200 index to finish 2015 at
around 6,100 points, which is
15% higher than current levels.
Our expectation is that the market
will move higher overall and,
as always, some sectors will
outperform others. That is why
in this Investment Watch Holiday Edition we include our key themes
for 2015 on page 3 and our high
conviction stocks are outlined
in the closing pages. As always,
speak to your adviser in relation to
which stocks suit your investment
goals.
For the Morgans team it has
been an exciting year, with our
Branch network expanding with
the addition of two new branches,
being Tynan Partners (Brisbane)
and Bowral. This increases our
total branches around Australia
to over 60.
Our Chairman, Tim
Crommelin was awarded the 2014
Northern Regional Champion
of Entrepreneurship at the EY
Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
The award is given in recognition
of sustained, outstanding
entrepreneurial achievement and is
a strong endorsement of Morgans
and the dedication and energy Tim
has devoted over many years in
helping build our business from a
small operation to the significant
business it is today.
In 2014, we
also launched our new media
campaign 'hellomorgans' to build
our brand awareness around
Australia. You will see more of
this initiative in 2015.
We would like to thank you for
your ongoing support of the
Morgans Foundation. In 2014,
we had the great pleasure of
supporting a number of charities
including RSPCA, Cancer
Research and Spinal Injuries.
Please keep in mind, our small
holdings initiative when reviewing
portfolios which allows clients
to dispose of unwanted shares
for no brokerage with all money
raised donated to our foundation.
From all the staff and
management at Morgans we
appreciate your ongoing support
as a valued client of our business.
Wishing you and your family a
safe and happy festive season,
and we look forward to sharing
with you what we believe will be a
prosperous 2015.
Yours sincerely,
Brian Sheahan
Managing Director