Est. 2015 · Sydney · Wholesale and professional investors only

Cross-asset research, and discretionary portfolios run to your mandate.

Macro, Australian and global equities, managed funds, ETFs, hybrids and listed property, covered in-house and published to a schedule you can plan around. The same work sets the positions in the portfolios we run on your platform. Management-owned, with no broker, no coverage fees and no manufactured product.

AFSL 486279 · ABN 97 611 390 615 · Level 2, 44 Bridge Street, Sydney

What we do

Research you can license. Portfolios we run.

The research we publish is what the portfolios are built on, so the note you read and the position we hold say the same thing. Each service is available on its own.

Investment Research

A complete cross-asset suite, authored in-house

Written from a portfolio manager's seat, because the analysts who write it also run our own mandates and are judged on how the positions performed. Coverage follows the opportunity set rather than index weights or quotas, and no manager pays to be covered.

  • Daily Morning Report before the open, and intraday updates sent unedited as markets move
  • Weekly valuations on ASX hybrids, A-REITs and listed investment companies
  • Monthly Market Wrap, a newsletter written for your clients, and the Investment Series webinar
  • Quarterly macro review, strategy and asset allocation
  • Australian and global equity research, focus lists and the multi-strategy allocation list
  • Managed fund and ETF due diligence, with 60 to 90 funds under deep coverage at any time
  • Company meetings, site visits, international research trips and thematic reports
  • $300 + GST per adviser per month. One tier, the whole suite.
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Managed Accounts

Discretionary portfolios, built and managed to your mandate

We construct and manage the whole portfolio: asset allocation, security selection and rebalancing, inside limits agreed before the first trade. Authority and custody stay with you, and we hold our own capital in the same strategies.

  • Australian equities: Core, Dividend Opportunities and Small Companies
  • Global equities: Core and Sustainable ESG Core
  • Multi-asset across five risk profiles, conventional or ETF-only, plus unconstrained Global Macro
  • Discretionary managed accounts: SMA models across a client book, or an IMA written for a single portfolio
  • Implemented on HUB24, Netwealth, Macquarie Wrap, MLC, Praemium, Powerwrap, Dash and and other suitable platforms
  • Investment universe, risk limits, liquidity floors and rebalancing rules set before the first trade
  • Monthly attribution and risk analysis, quarterly reviews with the forward plan, and correspondence written for your clients
  • 0.25% of funds under management. No performance fee, so the fee grows only as the portfolio does.
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Track record

A decade of live money.

Twelve of our eighteen strategies now carry eight or more years of live data, through the COVID shock, the 2022 rate cycle and the recovery. Client capital throughout. The four shown below are the four where a listed market proxy makes the comparison meaningful, and each beat its proxy while carrying less volatility. More than 100 adviser groups and professional investors across five states hold a mandate with us or license the research.

10.3% p.a.
Australian Core
Since July 2015
Volatility
Strategy14.2%
Market proxy15.2%

+1.4% excess return over the proxy since inception.

16.6% p.a.
Global Core
Since January 2019
Volatility
Strategy15.4%
Market proxy16.1%

+1.2% excess return over the proxy since inception.

9.7% p.a.
Australian Small Companies
Since April 2017
Volatility
Strategy13.7%
Market proxy16.6%

+1.2% excess return, carrying three points less volatility than the proxy in the part of the market where volatility is highest.

9.1% p.a.
Australian Dividend
Since March 2017
Volatility
Strategy12.6%
Market proxy15.2%

+1.5% excess return over the proxy since inception.

Important disclosures The four equity strategies shown are four of eighteen strategies we run across four families. Twelve of the eighteen have a performance history since inception, and the 4.2% to 16.6% per annum range refers to those twelve. The complete table is available on request. Returns and volatility sourced from PORT Bloomberg, total return, as at 31 October 2025, since strategy inception. Volatility is standard deviation since inception. Market proxy is the most relevant ASX-listed ETF, shown for illustrative comparison. Excess return is the difference between the strategy return and the proxy return and is not risk-adjusted alpha. Inception dates differ by strategy, so returns are not directly comparable with each other. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. This information is general in nature and is provided to wholesale and professional investors only.

Investment philosophy

Six principles.

A connected set of commitments. Each principle reinforces the others. Each constrains the firm's behaviour. Together they describe how we think.

Compounding first

The base that compounds is whatever survives the drawdown, so the depth of a loss matters more than the speed of the recovery. A portfolio that is never a forced seller can buy from the ones that are, and a fair share of long-run return is made in exactly those windows.

So we don'tSize a position for the case where everything goes right.

Non-binary portfolios

A view can be right and still deserve a small position. Size reflects what we can establish, what it costs us if we are wrong, and the liquidity available if we change our minds. No single forecast sets the shape of the portfolio.

So we don'tLet strength of feeling stand in for strength of evidence.

Barbell construction

A core of businesses we expect to hold for years, and a smaller set of less-covered ideas sized to move the outcome. Between the two sits the crowded middle, where positions are big enough to carry fees and generic enough to leave the return where it was.

So we don'tFill the book with exposure that adds activity without changing the result.

Unconstrained

Within the mandate, a view can be expressed through equities, listed credit, managed funds, ETFs or hybrids. The instrument follows the work, and each candidate is tested against the next best way of holding the same exposure.

So we don'tOwn something because the category expects it.

Benchmark-unaware

Index weights are information. Most active managers stay close to them because being wrong on your own costs a manager more than being wrong alongside everybody else, and we carry that cost instead. It shows up as tracking error, and occasionally as a year that takes explaining.

So we don'tHold a name because it is large in the index.

Downside awareness

Markets correct three to five times a decade and nobody calls the timing. Liquidity, concentration and days-to-exit are settled before the position size is set, so a redemption or a rebalance never forces a sale in the week it hurts most.

So we don'tBuild a portfolio that only stays investable in benign markets.

Across the equity and unconstrained strategies we target 8 to 12% a year through the cycle, on a five to seven year horizon. The multi-asset strategies carry explicit return targets set by risk profile.

The team

Three investment managers, together since 2015.

Chhai Ung, Zach Riaz and Gaurav Singla founded Banyantree in 2015 and still make every research and portfolio decision themselves. Decisions are taken together and written down, so a question about a position gets answered on the call rather than after one.

45+ years

Between them, with more than fifteen each. Previous firms include Morgan Stanley, Aberdeen Asset Management, RBC Capital Markets and Insignia Financial. The directors were managing money through the financial crisis and again in 2020.

Chhai Ung
Investment Manager and Director

Portfolio management, global equities and mandate governance. Previously an investment analyst and fund manager at Aberdeen Asset Management, where he ran the Australian small-cap portfolio, covered global equities and headed the Australian trading desk. Earlier, REIT investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Admitted solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, which is where the mandate documentation gets read as closely as the model.

Zach Riaz
Investment Manager and Director

Investment research, Australian equities and hybrid securities. Previously lead analyst for Australian equities and strategy at Insignia Financial across a A$2.5bn book, and lead analyst on ASX-listed hybrids including the internal process for new issues. Earlier, equity research at RBC Capital Markets, and adviser to the Hon. Nick Greiner on financial performance, strategy and M&A.

Gaurav Singla
Investment Manager

Equity research, financial modelling and manager due diligence. Previously a financial accountant inside an operating company, preparing the statements and presenting quarterly to senior management. That is an uncommon route into institutional investment, and it shows in where he looks first in a set of accounts. Earlier, financial modelling and derivative hedging at a stockbroking firm. CFA Charterholder.

Getting started

Tell us what you're looking for.

Cross-asset research, discretionary portfolio management, or both. Tell us enough about what you're trying to do to make the first conversation useful, and we'll tell you whether Banyantree is the right firm for it. If we're not, you'll hear it on the first call rather than the third.