We had the opportunity to meet the management teams of a dozen Indian banks, insurers and asset managers in the financial capital of Mumbai, India last month. Nearly a year since our last meetings with senior bank executives and notwithstanding the recent slowing of economic growth, management teams were optimistic of India’s medium to long-term GDP growth outlook. The optimism was driven by a structural market…
Insights: Asia/Australia
HFA: Identical Return to the Canadian Banks with Much Lower Volatility (and Lower Correlations)
The Hamilton Australian Financials Yield ETF (HFA) recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. Although the global financials and the Canadian banks experienced significant volatility since its launch in December 2018, HFA has produced consistent monthly returns and dividends as well as identical returns to the Canadian banks, but with much lower volatility (and relatively low correlations). Note to Reader: This Insight includes references to certain Hamilton ETFs…
Australian Financials: History of Strong/Stable Dividend Growth
The Australian financial sector is among the highest quality and strongest in the world (and very similar to that of Canada). Moreover, Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world with GDP/capita nearly 20% higher than that of Canada. It is also forecast to be one of the world’s fastest growing developed economies in 2020 (at 2.4%), providing a supportive backdrop to the financial…
Cdn/Aust’n Financials: Fraternal Twins w/ Low Correlations & Near Identical Risk Rewards
The Australian financial sector is among the highest quality and strongest in the world. It is also very similar to the Canadian financial sector. Arguably, there are no two financial sectors globally that more closely resemble each other than Canada and Australia. A desire to provide Canadians with exposure to this great sector is why we launched the Hamilton Australian Financials Yield ETF (HFA), which has…
Scotia’s Pacific Alliance and Five Takeaways on Global Growth
Last week, Bank of Nova Scotia reported its Q3 results and its International Banking division generated solid double-digit earnings growth, supported by a strong economic backdrop and acquisitions. Within this segment is the Bank’s operations in the Pacific Alliance, the Latin American trade bloc that includes Peru, Chile, Columbia, and Mexico. This very large emerging markets platform has over $100 bln in loans, generates earnings of…
Election, RBA and Regulators Provide Good News for Australian Financials
The Hamilton Capital Australian Financials Yield ETF (HFA) was launched in December 2018, with a targeted yield of 6.5% or higher, paid monthly (aided by covered calls). The Australian financials have a history of long-term outperformance versus the Canadian financials with lower volatility (including during the global financial crisis). Note to Reader: This Insight includes references to certain Hamilton ETFs that were active at the time of writing.…
Cdn/Aust’n Banks: Why the Big Housing Short is So Difficult (and the Risk of a “Direct Hit” Remains Low)
In Q4 2018, we expanded our ETF offering to include two ETFs with monthly distributions and exposure to two world-class – and very similar – financial sectors with excellent performance histories. In October, we launched the Hamilton Capital Canadian Bank Variable-Weight ETF (HCB), a rules-based strategy that seeks to capitalize on the historical mean reversion tendencies of the Canadian banking sector[1]. In December, we launched the…
Indian Banks Overview: Large Diverse Sector, Operating in a High Growth Market
In this insight, we provide a review of the Indian economy and banking system, highlighting the most important issues facing the sector. India is a large emerging market with a fast-growing banking sector comprised of over 35 publicly traded banks divided into two main categories: state-owned (over 20) and private banks (over 15). For many years, India has been – and is forecast to remain –…
Notes from India: Financials Poised to Benefit from World’s Fastest Growing Economy
We met the management teams of over a dozen Indian banks, insurers and asset managers in the financial capital of Mumbai, India in December. With real GDP growth of over 7% over the past decade, India is one of the largest emerging markets and forecast to be the fastest growing major economy in 2019. Not surprisingly, the management teams we met were very upbeat. Exposure to…
Australian Financials: Regulatory Clarity Arrives
The Hamilton Capital Australian Financials Yield ETF (HFA) was launched in December 2018, with a targeted yield of 6.5% or higher paid monthly (aided by covered calls). The Australian financials have a history of long-term outperformance versus the Canadian financials with lower volatility. In fact, the Australian banks outperformed the Canadian banks during the global financial crisis. One main reason Australian financials have consistently outperformed their…
Pref ETFs Falter (Again): Why HFA/HCB are Logical Switch Candidates for Monthly Income
Following our October launch of the Hamilton Capital Canadian Bank Variable-Weight ETF (HCB), today we launched the Hamilton Capital Australian Financials Yield ETF (HFA). Both of these ETFs pay monthly dividends. HFA seeks to generate a yield of 6.5% or higher from a portfolio of higher dividend-paying Australian financials operating in arguably the world’s strongest and safest financial sector (aided by covered calls). Of note, the…
Australian Banks Outperformed the Canadian Banks During the Global Financial Crisis
It is well known that the Canadian banks performed very well during the financial crisis relative to their global peers, and the U.S. banks in particular. However, what is less well known is that the Australian banks did even better than the Canadian banks, generating higher returns from 2007 through 2009, the years encompassing the financial crisis (see chart below). As we explain in “Dividend-Heavy Australian…