The Australian Growth Fund rose +3.4% in July, ahead of the benchmark index which rose +2.7%.   

The Australian share market continued rising in July as tariff and trade war concerns abated further (albeit significant uncertainty on global trade remains). The share market rally was broad based with 10 out of 11 sectors ending the month in positive territory. 

Private equity firm PEP entered an agreement to acquire Johns Lyng (+23%) for $4 per share. This was one of our best performing companies in the month. The Board has unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the deal. The transaction has been structured to enable management, including CEO Scott Didier, to retain their shares post deal. This will ensure that management remains strongly incentivised to drive further value for PEP should they be successful in closing the deal. 

Domino's (-5.2%) was one of our worst performing companies. The share price fell following the announcement that CEO Mark van Dyck (who only started in his role in late 2024) is stepping down. The Board seems happy with his strategy of rationalising the store base in poor performing jurisdictions such as Japan and France. He is also seeking to lift operating efficiency and cut costs across the business. However, the scale and pace of these improvements seem to be less than what the Board would like. Consequently, they have made the call to replace Mark and speed up the operational improvement of the company.