Coronation’s win is a record-breaker

Coronation maintained its winning streak for the third year in a row, but some relatively unknown asset managers beat the major companies and walked off with Raging Bull Awards. Laura du Preez reports WISE WORDS

Coronation Fund Managers claimed the title of South African Management Company of the Year for a record-breaking sixth time at this year’s prestigious Raging Bull Awards ceremony held in Sandton on Wednesday night.

The event is hosted by Personal Finance in association with ProfileData and PlexCrown Fund Ratings.

Coronation has been the leading company for three years in a row and also claimed the title in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Coronation has been among the top three management companies 11 times during the 19year history of the awards.

PSG was the runner-up, ahead of Nedgroup Investments (see for the full rankings).

Allan Gray fell back to being ranked fifth among the managers of South African funds.

For the past three years, Coronation, Allan Gray and Nedgroup have dominated the top three positions in the management company rankings as determined by PlexCrown Fund Ratings. Allan Gray has been in the top three since 2009, including four years as the winner of Raging Bull Award for the management company of the year.

Local asset manager Oasis claimed the Raging Bull Award for the Offshore Management company of the year for the management of its foreign-currency denominated funds domiciled in Ireland.

The management company awards are based on consistent, good performance on a risk-adjusted basis across all of the managers’ qualifying funds, as measured by PlexCrown Fund Ratings.

Only offshore funds that are registered with the Financial Services Board as suitable for South African investors qualify for a PlexCrown rating.

Coronation’s strength showed through in the number of certificates it collected – nine in total – while Nedgroup Investments and PSG each collected one certificate.

However, the awards went to a variety of managers, including private-client wealth managers and boutique asset managers, some of which were first-time winners at the Raging Bull Awards.

Among the managers of privateclient portfolios that also run unit trust funds was Harvard House, which claimed the coveted Raging Bull Award for the Best South African Equity Fund over three years to the end of December 2014.

Harvard House claimed for its Flexible Income Fund the Raging Bull Award for the Best South African Interest-bearing Fund over three years and the certificate for the Best South African Multi-asset Income Fund over three years.

The Sasfin MET Equity Fund, managed by stockbroker David Shapiro, claimed the Raging Bull Moderate your return expectations, leading asset manager Coronation Fund Managers cautions.

Portfolio managers Karl Leinberger and Duane Cable say that, over the past decade, almost all asset classes have generated significant returns.

They say the investment waters look choppy, with many uncertainties and unknowns.

Many financial experts have predicted what may happen in 2015, but Leinberger and Cable say that history has taught us that our ability to forecast the immediate future is limited.

“If you waste much of your time worrying about questions that can’t be answered, you lose focus on the few things that can be answered,” Leinberger and Cable say. They quote painter Vincent van Gogh, who once remarked: “Fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason to remain onshore.”

Leinberger and Cable say that, when looking after your money, they try to ignore the “noise” about financial markets and focus only on share valuations – the price of a share relative to its expected future earnings. Award for the Best South African General Equity Fund on a riskadjusted basis over five years.

Another private- client wealth manager, ClucasGray, received the Raging Bull Award for the Best South African Multi-asset Flexible Fund on a risk-adjusted basis over five years for its Future Titans Prescient Fund.

Jersey- based Contrarius, the boutique fund management company started by former Allan Gray chief investment officer Stephen Mildenhall, collected the Raging Bull Award for the Best Offshore Global Equity Fund over three years for the second time in a row.

27four, an up-and-coming multimanager that invests in the funds of other managers, won the Raging Bull Award for the Best South African Multi-asset Equity Fund on a risk-adjusted basis. The manager also received two certificates for the management of its South African multi-asset funds.

The Raging Bull Award for the Best Rand- denominated Global Equity Fund over three years to the end of December went to the Old Mutual Global Equity Fund, which is managed by Old Mutual Global Investors in London.

The award for the Best Offshore Global Asset Allocation Fund went to the Lloyds Multi Strategy Fund Limited (Growth Strategy), a multimanaged fund overseen by Lloyds Investment Fund Managers.

Some 40 certificates were awarded at the ceremony, with established managers such as Stanlib, Absa and Old Mutual collecting four certificates each. Other certificate recipients were: Investec, Community Growth, Sanlam Investment Management, Catalyst, Imalivest and three private-client managers, Autus, Stringfellow and S Bro, and boutique manager Rootstock. Offshore companies that received certificates were Templeton, Franklin and Sarasin & Partners.