‘As invested as you are.’ This is at the heart of who we are and what we do, and it means that financially, professionally and personally we are all invested in how we perform and the investment outcomes we deliver for all our other clients who entrust their money with us… Clients ranging from the man-on-the-street investing in unit trusts through to company retirement funds, international investors, sovereign wealth funds and development finance institutions.
We are a leading African private investment manager, with a full complement of both listed and unlisted capabilities. Together with Old Mutual, we have operations in SA, Ghana, Nigeria, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya and Botswana.
As an awarding-winning pan-African investor, our customers can benefit from the outstanding investment potential of Africa’s stock exchanges, via both actively managed and index-tracker funds.
We also offer unmatched investment capabilities in non-traditional, unlisted asset classes, including private equity, low-income housing, schools, agriculture infrastructure, development equity and property.
We take our responsibility to our customers very seriously. So much so we even have a unique ‘investment partnership agreement’ with our fund managers – a contract that sets out, in detail, our commitment to delivering market-beating returns for our customers – sustainably, in the long term.
Our vision and beliefs
Our vision is to become Africa’s leading asset manager, trusted by our customers to put their interests first, while investing responsibly – with long-term perspective – to consistently deliver superior customer outcomes. As such, we are committed to delivering market-beating returns in a socially responsible and sustainable manner.
Our investment professionals also invest their money alongside their customers in the funds they manage, which means they are single-mindedly focused on growing wealth – both their customers’ and their own – over time. They are also shareholders in their boutiques and are thus committed to the long-term future success of their investment businesses. We are committed to being responsible investors because, as a long-term investor, we understand how important it is to take environmental, social and gov-ernance (ESG) considerations into account to ensure the delivery of sustainable returns.
As such, we are signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Invest-ment accord and actively consider, and implement, ESG factors when making investment and ownership decisions in both listed and unlisted portfolios.
Our investment model
Our comprehensive range of investment capabilities are managed by 10 boutiques, each of which focuses on its own specialist investment area. We offer funds and financial products across different asset classes from listed equity to infrastructure, fixed income to index trackers, and absolute return products to private equity. Each boutique has its own unique philosophy, proprietary research capability and robust investment process. Our boutiques are run by strong leaders, all of whom are experienced and well-respected professionals in the industry.
The boutiques are well resourced with our investment teams having a good blend of experience and fresh innovative thinkers. Having managed retirement money for an exten-sive period, we are able to demonstrate long-term track records, giving our customers the peace of mind that our investment processes are tried and tested.
Strategies and products
We offer a range of listed and unlisted capabilities:
- Alternative investments – manage investments in private equity, infrastructure and a range of impact funds.
- Customised solutions – leverage off our market-leading skills and experience in portfolio construction, risk management and index tracking to customise solutions that meet clients’ specific needs.
- Futuregrowth Asset Management – create performance-driven portfolios in the fixed income markets. We also manage a range of developmental funds.
- Global emerging markets – invest in quality listed companies across a diverse range of global emerging markets, including SA.
- Liability-driven investments – aim to manage assets relative to their liabilities to ensure a stable, consistent surplus over time.
- MacroSolutions – build local and global multi-asset class portfolios, using active asset allocation that offers optimal portfolio solutions.
- Old Mutual Equities – invest in undervalued shares, while also carefully considering the risk, quality, growth and sentiment of each share.
- Old Mutual Property – build innovative and sustain-able real estate.
- Marriott Income Specialists – invest retired investors’ capital conservatively to ensure that a reliable, predictable income is produced without eroding the capital base.
- Old Mutual Specialised Finance – a proprietary investment business, which offers products that meet specific debt-funding requirements.
Old Mutual Equities
Delivering consistent performance demands a disciplined approach to managing money
Old Mutual Equities offers clients a range of listed equity funds, predominantly within the SA market. It also offers Frontier African equity funds to institutional investors seeking broader exposure to the growth potential of stock markets across the African continent.
Old Mutual Equities invests in companies that are undervalued and clearly demonstrate an ability to create shareholder value over time. Their fundamental, valuation-based investment approach is enhanced by other select themes, which serve to reduce the cyclicality of returns.
While they believe undervalued shares outperform over the long term, they recognise that value is cyclical and that by considering the quality of a company, as well as its earnings growth and market sentiment, their ability to achieve more stable returns through shorter-term market cycles is enhanced.
Old Mutual Equities refers to this as ‘driving with the headlights on’. Built into this research is a deep understanding of the various portfolio and share risks. They believe that skilful risk management, not avoidance, enhances returns within their client portfolios. Their disciplined portfolio construction process manages behavioural bias, drives debate within the team and enables them to invest with conviction.
The team’s incentives are aligned to the performance of their funds and the individual shares they select. This ensures that clients’ interests drive their investment decisions.
As part of the Old Mutual Investment Group, the boutique operates within a stringent corporate governance framework. It leverages off the group’s world-class technology platforms to consolidate and analyse information; ensure competitive trading costs and deliver high standards of governance, security and administration. Thus investors can be assured that their investment is managed according to global best business practices.
Old Mutual Investors’ Fund
Our flagship equity fund, the Old Mutual Investors’ Fund, is the longest-running unit trust fund in SA and turns 50 this year. It has delivered consistent, market-beating long-term performance in excess of CPI +10% a year.
Performance
The performance of our flagship Old Mutual Investors’ Fund shows the success of this investment strategy and the fund currently ranks top quartile in the SA general equity category over all periods from one to seven years (as at 31 May 2016).
