Article in the AFR this morning

Microequities Asset Management captured $200k in JobKeeper

It's likely behind the paywall so ...

Of course, you don’t waste $40 billion without spreading that cash far and wide.

And ASIC’s recent requirement for listed companies to strip out and disclose their JobKeeper claims to the market has drawn all sorts of new beneficiaries to our notice.

Take boutique fund manager Microequities Asset Management, whose tagline is “capturing value, delivering returns”. A promise it wholly fulfilled through its engagement with the JobKeeper program, the details of which it posted on Monday.

The Carlos Gil-headed fund manager claimed $208,500 in JobKeeper across FY20 and FY21 for 11 of its staff. Meaning it must have forecast a 30 per cent revenue decline in both years. Funny: we wouldn’t have figured fund managers unduly hampered by lockdowns.

We also thought fund managers were paid to bet on the future, but thankfully for MAM’s shareholders, its dire fears never came to pass. During the first half of 2021 (when JobKeeper was still being paid), it reported a “surge in operating profit” off “strong investment performance”. While the previous financial year (incorporating JobKeeper’s first iteration), showed net profit surged by 32 per cent.

MAM did not repay a single cent of JobKeeper. Which is what it says on the tin: you don’t “capture value” by giving it back.