It says Tyndall Core offers a low-cost, well-managed New Zealand equities strategy with a tight focus on risk control - "for better or worse," recommending it as having a core role in a portfolio.

The research house describes Tyndall Small Companies as offering investors genuine small-cap trans-Tasman exposure, "but thin resources in a volatile sector mean it should only be used in moderation." It recommends it as a supporting player in a portfolio.

Experienced investors Rickey Ward and James Lindsay have co-managed both of these strategies since 2001 and also manage a number of other portfolios. Morningstar believes a risk to the strategies are that there are fewer team resources than peers.

It believes the addition of another analyst in Tyndall Core would benefit the process.

As for Tyndall Small Companies, it says small-cap investing can be a minefield.

"Although we're comfortable with Tyndall's knowledge of the Kiwi component, the plethora of small companies in the Australian universe and the limited broker research coverage mean that additional resources are essential."

Tyndall Core takes an index conscious approach to portfolio construction, using the benchmark as a starting point before selecting weightings relative to the index.

Tyndall Small Companies invests in smaller sized Australian and New Zealand stocks. Around 70% of the portfolio comprises from the ASX small ordinaries, the remainder sourced from the NZX50 top 10.

Both strategies entail a four stage process that relies largely on broker data rather than proprietary models.

Tyndall Core's returns have not wavered too far from the index, consistent with the risk-constrained set-up. It has outperformed its benchmark over rolling three and five-year periods. When the down market turned Tyndall achieved large outperformance, finishing 2009 5% ahead of benchmark.

Major contributors to performance over the year to June 30 2010 included Nuplex, Equinox and AMP New Zealand Office Trust.

While Tyndall Small Companies has been managed since 2001, the retail version has only been available since September 2009. The numbers have been good and the strategy has outperformed the composite index each year with the exceptions of 2006 and 2007.

The portfolio rallied when the market bounced in 2009 and outperformed by over 11%.

Morningstar says long-held overweight positions have been positive contributors to performance during the past few years among them Nuplex and ARB Corp.

Both Tyndall Small Companies and Tyndall Core have been consistent so far this year.