Aoris Investment Management took out the International Equities category at the 2025 IMAP Managed Account Awards. Rohan Brotherson (Aoris Investment Management) and Rob da Silva (Foresight Analytics) discuss Aoris’ consistent approach to investing.

In a highly competitive category at the 2025 IMAP Managed Account Awards, for a second consecutive year, Aoris Investment Management has taken out the award in the International Equities category.

Aoris is an independent, global equity specialist, fully owned by staff. It comprises a team of 13, including six investment specialists, and is currently managing about $2.1 billion. 

Aoris only manages one concentrated portfolio of international equities — the Aoris International Fund. In terms of capacity constraints, Aoris understands that the quantity of funds a manager is responsible for can undermine performance.

As such, it views a sensible limit for its capacity, based on current market liquidity, to be $5 billion. By doing so, it believes this will ensure the integrity of its investible universe.

By Jayson Forrest

According to Rohan Brotherson — Senior Business Development Manager at Aoris — part of Aoris’ success is its ability to make unconventional choices to best position the manager to deliver long-term investment success for its clients.

“We own a concentrated portfolio of high quality, wealth-creating businesses run by prudent and capable management, which means we participate in the growth in value of exceptional businesses,” says Rohan.

As part of its approach to investing, Aoris believes the businesses it owns will become progressively more valuable over time, which means as owners, Aoris is also a participant in this wealth-creation process.

“We own proven, leading businesses that we believe have a narrow range of outcomes and where the risk of material disappointment is low. Importantly, our portfolio is highly concentrated. We only own a maximum of 15 companies, which allows our quality criteria to be exacting and permits us to be discerning on the price we pay.”

Rohan says when selecting stocks, Aoris has a strong focus on quality. “We actually refer to our style as ‘quality first, value investing’. We very much focus on quality first and then we look at the valuations. We invest in 15 exceptional businesses worldwide, using a focused, long-term strategy grounded on quality, valuation discipline, and business resilience.”

As part of its stock selection process, Aoris looks for established quality businesses with competitive advantages, strong balance sheets and minimum debt (which allows for reinvestment back into the business), and trading at an attractive value. Aoris also looks for companies providing mission critical products or services to other businesses.

“What’s important to us is: quality, value, and resilience,” says Rohan. “Quality is about investing in highly profitable, market-leading businesses that are growing. They create wealth for shareholders by earning a sustainably high return on invested capital and reinvest capital at attractive incremental rates of return.

“We also believe the price we pay matters. That’s why we look to own high-quality, growing businesses that are at, or below, their intrinsic value today. And it’s also important that the businesses we own are resilient to economic stress and to competitive challenges, and are adaptable to the changing needs of their customers. Time actually makes them stronger.”

Four of the better known stocks Aoris currently owns are Microsoft, Visa, Accenture, and L’Oreal, while some of the less known companies include Compass Group (one of the world’s leading providers of food services), Relx (a global provider of information-based analytics and decision-making tools), Sherwin-Williams (a paints and coatings company), and Halma (a global group of safety equipment companies that makes products for hazard detection and life protection).

Since its inception 7.5 years ago, it’s clear that Aoris’ approach to ‘quality first, value investing’ is working, with the Aoris International Fund recording a performance track record of 16.1 per cent per annum (after fees), beating its benchmark (MSCI ACWI Index ex Aust) by about 3 per cent per annum.

According to Rohan, the Aoris International Fund provides advisers with a means of accessing a high quality, active funds management team in Australia. He believes advisers can use the fund in their portfolios by blending it in with other managers, to provide a portfolio with genuine diversification away from high growth managers.   

In congratulating Aoris on its win, IMAP Awards judge, Rob da Silva — Head of Research at Foresight Analytics — says Aoris did particularly well, considering the number of managers and different investment styles in the international equities space.

When judging this awards category, there were some key aspects the judges carefully considered. These included: quality of people, consistency of outcomes over the long-term, and being ‘true to label’ (consistency of style).

“Being ‘true to label’ was a particularly important consideration,” says Rob. “That’s because a manager’s fortunes naturally ebb and flow with market cycles. Even the best managers have periods of underperformance and when that happens, there is always the temptation to tweak their style.

“Sometimes those tweaks pay off over the short-term, but not over the long-term. When a manager strays from their core competency, they potentially risk falling off a cliff. So, sticking to your style and label, like Aoris has done, is very important.”

Rob adds Aoris definitely ticked off on all the criteria the judges were looking at in the International Equities category.

According to IMAP Chair, Toby Potter, managed accounts have become one of the fastest growing parts of the advice profession, because they provide advisers and licensees with a superior way of delivering better client outcomes that more closely align with client goals.

“We are seeing continued evolution of the technology and portfolio management capability in managed accounts,” he says. “We had more entrants this year in these awards, and a wider variety of portfolios. We are demanding ever higher standards of ourselves as a profession and this is reflected in the standard of portfolio management from the asset consultants, investment teams and the advisers who connect these capabilities to each client’s own circumstances.”

Toby adds the IMAP Managed Account Awards are only possible due to the commitment of the judges who dedicated considerable time and their professional expertise in assessing the many entries in these awards.

This year’s judges’ panel comprised of:

• Deanne Baker — Deputy Chief Investment Strategist at Evidentia;
• Brad Matthews — Founding Director at Brad Matthews Investment Strategies;
• Dominic McCormick — Industry Consultant;
• Nigel Douglas — Principal of Douglas Funds Consulting;
• Rob da Silva — Head of Research at Foresight Analytics;
• Chetan Trehan — Sector Head Real Assets, Alternatives and Multi-Asset Funds at SQM Research; and
• Toby Potter — Chair of IMAP and Executive Director of Philo Capital Advisers.