Chairman of Opus Capital Group, Tony Moody, explains the Opus investment philosophy and its influence on all aspects of this successful boutique property fund manager.

Opus Capital Group chairman AVS (Tony) Moody says:

“In the beginning when Opus was formed it really came about from a desire that we had for us, as directors, personally, to do bigger deals.

"We wanted to have principles which we could refer our actions back to. So rather then be caught up in, I guess in an emotion response to a deal, we wanted to have guiding principles and so the first thing that we devised was the Opus investment philosophy.

“That investment philosophy was that basically the profit lay in the buying, as long as you owned something, you needed to manage it and manage it well. And at the same time that you acquired an asset you needed to work out an exit strategy. So that, as you went along, all of your management decisions were focused on that end.

“The philosophy meant because we had something to constantly refer things back to, it meant that devising the criteria that we would use, turn that experience into methods and processes, where in fact that experience then became, virtually our intellectual policy. So when other people came along and we grew, it made our business very scalable because when you arrived, we could say to you, ‘look this is how we do it, your welcome to add to that but here is a basis from which to start’.

“So, as we grew our business it was very easy for us to remain true to our investment philosophy and true to the value and the cultural of the business.

“We learnt right from the beginning that the smartest thing that we can do was under promise and over deliver. So if we aimed at giving someone back their dollar then we were never going to out perform. So, we always look to situations where we can value add, so that there was an opportunity for capital growth.

“The active management aspect of our business has really started off from this desire to understand the asset physically. We now have a dedicated property management company that learned a lot from our experience and in fact delivers to us what we need as a fund manager.

“We believe that this differentiates Opus because we’re actually able to practically … at the moment there is a big push toward the greening of buildings. The company that we are using has recently signed an agreement with QUT and that strategic alliance means that QUT has taken the Opus portfolio as a case study, to work out the best and most efficient ways of retro fitting buildings to bring them up to a green rating.

“The exit strategy for us is as important as the acquisition, in that sooner or later the asset will need to be sold and to have that sale opportunity in view right from the beginning also brought with it a focus on how to capitialise on opportunities and they have come from simple things like the location of the property, knowing that there is something about that location, whether it be infrastructure or whether it be change of use, those things all present opportunities to add value.

We have taken a five year view and a 10 year view, and we have built our portfolios around those two views, so for us we see the trend going upwards.

“Certainly the market has performed exceptionally well but one of the things that Opus has done is consistently out performed that market, which has produced for us some very, very happy investors. Our track record is unblemished and in fact certainly out performed as we hoped to do with the capital profits that we produced for our investors when we have sold assets.

“That will be a continued focus for us to not only deliver a monthly tax sheltered return but also to deliver some pretty handsome capital profits.”