Privacy Policy

Valara Group

The following privacy policy (Privacy Policy) is applicable to all customers, users of our website, or any persons that the Valara Group (as defined below) has collected or collects personal information, in connection with the collection and use of personal information by the Valara Group in Australia.

Who we are

Unless stated otherwise, the ‘Valara Group’ (also referred to as ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’) on this page, means any of:

Valara Funds Management Pty. Ltd. ACN 615 946 908;
Valara Capital Pty. Ltd. ACN 615 943 649; and
any of their related bodies corporate or related companies wherever incorporated.

Our privacy principles

The Valara Group respects people’s privacy. Our staff members are required to read this Privacy Policy and understand their responsibilities when dealing with personal information. The Valara Group understands and appreciates that the privacy of personal information the Valara Group may collect about you is important. The Valara Group is committed to providing you with high quality financial services and products in a secure and confidential manner. The Valara Group complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) as required under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) when handling your personal information. The APPs came into effect on 12 March 2014, when they replaced the National Privacy Principles, which applied previously under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). We have adopted internal policies and procedures to ensure that personal information that we collect, store, use and disclose is dealt with in accordance with the APPs. You can see the full text of the APPs online at: http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-act/australian-privacy-principles.

You may be reading this Privacy Policy because you have provided, or may soon be providing, your personal information to a member of the Valara Group with whom you have established or will establish a relationship with. By providing us with such personal information, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and consent to the collection, handling and disclosure of your information in the manner and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and as may be indicated on the document (including any online forms), through which you provide such information to the Valara Group.

Our Privacy Policy sets out, for your information:

what personal information we may collect about you;
who we may disclose your personal information to;
the purposes for which your personal information may be used and disclosed;
our arrangements for the security of any personal information we hold about you;
how you may access and correct your personal information;
how you may make a complaint in relation to your privacy; and
how you can contact us.

In addition to the provisions of this Privacy Policy, there may also be specific and additional privacy provisions that apply to certain products and services provided by the Valara Group. These specific and additional provisions may also relate to your privacy protection and you should review them carefully. In the event of any inconsistency between the provisions of this Privacy Policy and those other specific and additional provisions, the specific and additional provisions will prevail.

What personal information we collect about you

In this Privacy Policy ‘personal information’ refers to any information or any opinion, whether true or not and whether recorded in a material form or not, from which an individual’s identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained; and

The types of information the Valara Group has collected, or may collect, and hold will include (but are not limited to) information we use to identify you, your financial position and any other information that may be necessary to the services and products you use. Such information may include details such as your name, date of birth, address, contact details, bank account and tax file numbers, employment history and investment profile.

Where possible, we will collect your personal information from you directly. This personal information is needed so we can:

identify who you are;
inform and assist you with any of our products, services, offers or initiatives that may be of assistance to you;
assist our affiliates and service providers to process, your application for investment; and
conduct our business activities in a professional and efficient manner.

Circumstances in which we may collect your personal information from third parties include:

for payment purposes at your direction;
to verify identity and for customer due diligence purposes;
for the prevention and detection of money laundering and terrorism financing;
background checking and verification in connection with recruitment;
where you have consented;
where you have defaulted on payment or delivery of securities;
where we are required or authorised by law to do so; and
for the purposes of providing you with products, services or information in accordance with your requests or reasonable expectations.

Use and disclosure of personal information

The purposes for which the Valara Group uses your information will vary depending on the Valara services and products you have applied for or use, and the relationship which you have with us. By providing your personal information to the Valara Group, you consent to our use of your personal information for any purpose which is related to the purpose for which such information has been provided to the Valara Group, including but not limited to:

identifying individuals and protecting them from unauthorised access to their personal information or account history;
providing products or services that you have requested or reasonably expect;
improving our products or services;
using that personal information in a manner and for a purpose which you would reasonably expect us to use the information; and
for any other purpose which you have consented to its use for that purpose.

Your personal information may be disclosed to third parties for purposes related to the purposes for which your personal information was collected, with your consent or as authorised or required by law.

We may disclose your personal information to the following third parties (as distinct from the member of the Valara Group to whom you have provided your personal information):

your financial adviser, margin lending facility provider, other financial services provider providing services to you, your custodian or investment manager where applicable;
any member of the Valara Group, or any of its affiliates and service providers;
any person acting on your behalf including your solicitor, accountant, executor, administrator, trustee or guardian;
Financial Services Protection Limited and its members;
government agencies, courts of law, tribunals or regulators (examples include in connection with a subpoena or order with which a member of the Valara Group must comply, or a regulatory investigation conducted by an Australian regulator of the Valara Group); and/or
any other third party with your consent or where authorised or required by law.

Depending on the connection which a member or members of the Valara Group has/have with you, we may use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of:

providing you with products, services or information in accordance with your requests or reasonable expectations;
administering any accounts you hold with the Valara Group or any of its affiliates;
enabling the Valara Group or any of its affiliates or service providers to ascertain whether or not they have other services or products which may foreseeably meet your needs or may be of interest to you, and to notify you about these;
the research, planning, product development, risk assessment, risk modelling and marketing conducted by the Valara Group or any of its affiliates;
where you have not requested that any marketing communications sent to you, direct marketing of any products or services which the Valara Group decides may be of interest to you;
identity verification and customer due diligence purposes;
the prevention and detection of money laundering and terrorism financing;
determining whether you have any history of defaulting on payment or delivery of securities;
compliance with laws including but not limited to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism-Financing Act 2006 (Cth), the Proceeds of Crime Act 1987 (Cth) and any associated Acts and Regulations enacted pursuant to those Acts named above;
any other purpose to which you have consented; or
disclosure where required or authorised by law.

Where you do not consent or do not provide the relevant member(s) of the Valara Group with some or all of your personal information, depending on your relationship with such member(s) and the products or services for which you are applying, the Valara Group may not be able to process your application or provide you with any of the requested products or services. Where such failure to provide personal information constitutes suspicious activity under relevant law, the Valara Group may be required to report such failure to the relevant authorities.

Use of the Valara website

To ensure we are meeting the needs and requirements of our website users, we may collect data through the use of a data analytic program. We may use this program to track use of our website, and to compile statistics on visits to the site in an aggregated form and log anonymous information such as the postcode of a user’s server.

By using a Valara web site with your browser settings adjusted to accept cookies, you consent to our use of cookies and other tools to provide or improve the products and services available on those sites.

Security of your personal information

The protection of personal information is a priority for us. The Valara Group takes reasonable steps to preserve the security of personal information it collects. Personal information of clients, applicants and any other individuals are held in a secure environment in writing, electronically, or both. Any hard copy documents and inquiry forms are stored securely and access is limited to staff. We have implemented security procedures, controls and protocols across all of our physical premises and electronic environments to ensure that personal information is protected from interference, loss, misuse, unauthorized access, modification, or disclosure. All stored client information is protected from unauthorised access through the use of secure passwords and user log ons or other security procedures. We are committed to maintaining:

safeguards to protect personal information against unauthorised use, disclosure, access, interference, modification, destruction and accidental loss. All personal information we hold is dealt with in accordance with the APPs;
industry standards for the security and protection of information. Personal information is stored securely and access is restricted to authorised personnel only. Our computer systems require access passwords and these are kept secure by our personnel; and
internal policies on management of personal information and staff training to ensure compliance with these policies. All our staff members are required to read this Privacy Policy and understand their responsibilities regarding personal information.

We will destroy any personal information that we hold which is no longer needed after a 5 year period unless we are required by law to retain such personal information.

Access and updating of information

The Valara Group takes reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information which we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

We ask that you tell us of any changes to the personal information we hold about you. You are able to make a request to access and update the personal information that we hold about you. Please provide us with as much detail as possible to assist us to retrieve the personal information which you have requested. An individual will not incur charges for lodging a request to access personal information. However, we may levy a reasonable charge for providing access to that information. We will provide an estimate of any charge on request, or if it appears to us that the work will be onerous or otherwise warrants a charge. To access or amend personal information that the Valara Group holds you should write to:

You may notify our Privacy Officer (whose contact details appear at the end of this Privacy Policy) at any time to request that your personal information is amended or updated. We will then take reasonable steps to correct the information in the manner requested.

If we consider that the personal information we retain does not require amendment, we will annotate the request on our files.

Privacy Officer

Valara Funds Management Pty. Ltd.
Level 6, 111 Cecil Street South Melbourne, VIC 3205
privacy@valaracapital.com.au

The Privacy Officer will respond to your request within a reasonable period after your request is made and, if it is reasonable and practicable to do so, provide you with access to your personal information in the manner you requested.

Please be aware, in certain circumstances, the Valara Group may not be required to provide you with access to, or the ability to correct, your personal information. We are entitled to restrict access to personal information in accordance with the APPs. You may not be allowed access to personal information we hold where access would reveal evaluative information generated by us in connection with a commercially sensitive decision-making process. Other instances where it may not be appropriate to provide you with access to the personal information we hold, include where:

providing access would pose a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of any individual;
providing access would have an unreasonable impact upon the privacy of others;
the request for access is frivolous or vexatious; or
the information relates to an anticipated or existing legal dispute and disclosure would compromise our position or the position of others.

If such a decision is made, we will provide you with a written notice setting out our reasons and other available options for you.

If we have given you such an explanation and you believe that direct access to the evaluative information is necessary to provide a reasonable explanation of the reasons for the decision, we will, at your request, review the decision. Personnel other than the original decision-maker will conduct the review.

Wherever direct access by you is impractical or inappropriate, we should consider together whether the use of a mutually agreed intermediary would allow sufficient access to meet both our needs and concerns.

How you can contact us

If you have any questions or feedback about this statement or any complaints about our collection, storage or handling of your personal information, please contact the Privacy Officer in writing at any time by using the contact details set out above. Our Privacy Officer will manage the complaint process for us by:

listening to your concerns and grievances regarding our handling of personal information;
discussing with you the ways in which we can remedy the situation; and
putting in place an action plan to resolve your complaint and improve our information handling procedures (if appropriate).

If you have made a privacy-related complaint, we will respond to your complaint by no later than 45 days after receipt. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint or your concerns are not satisfactorily resolved, you may contact the Financial Ombudsman Service:

Financial Ombudsman Service

GPO Box 3
Melbourne VIC 3001
Tel: 1300 780 808
Fax: +61 3 9613 6399
Website: www.fos.org.au
Email: info@fos.org.au

Should your dispute with the Financial Ombudsman Service fail to reach a satisfactory outcome, you may wish to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on 1300 363 992 or by email at enquiries@oaic.gov.au.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last updated in March 2014. The Valara Group may, at our discretion and without any prior or subsequent notice to you, amend or remove any part of this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do so, we will publish the current Privacy Policy on our website. Please check our website to review this Privacy Policy regularly.

If you have any suggestions or concerns that are not addressed in this Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy Officer. The contact details of the Privacy Officer are listed above.