Allan Gray’s record reign continues

Allan Gray was once again crowned as South Africa’s top retail asset manager at the prestigious Raging Bull Awards ceremony held in Cape Town recently.

The December quarter marked the 13^th consecutive quarter that Allan Gray was rated the top domestic investment management company. So says Ryk de Klerk, founder and executive director of PlexCrown Fund Ratings, whose methodology is used as the basis for the annual Raging Bull Awards for the unit trust industry.

The investment house achieved an overall rating of 4.500 out of a maximum of 5.000 PlexCrowns (see Table 1). “The investment house continued to excel in all categories where it competes on the domestic and foreign fronts with its rand-denominated funds,” says De Klerk. Furthermore, the house also received accolades for two of its individual funds for attaining the highest PlexCrown ratings over five years in the respective Association of Savings & Investment South Africa (ASISA) subcategories in which they compete. These are the Allan Gray Bond Fund (Domestic Fixed Interest Bond category) and the Allan Gray-Orbis Global Equity Feeder Fund (Foreign Equity General category).

Nedgroup Investments was runner-up with an overall rating of 3.786 PlexCrowns. The investment house took second position in the overall domestic sector and was joint third in the overall foreign sector. “While Nedgroup Investments, which appoints third-party managers to manage its funds, did not receive any top awards for its individual funds, 11 out of the house’s 13 funds have a PlexCrown rating of 4 or more (out of a maximum of 5),” says De Klerk.

Coronation, which was runner-up in the September quarter, took third place overall with an overall rating of 3.625 PlexCrowns. “This was secured by a strong showing on the domestic front where it was placed fourth just behind Prudential with its total domestic rating of 3.500 PlexCrowns,” says De Klerk. The investment house’s overall rating was enhanced further by a total foreign rating of 4.000 PlexCrowns. Coronation also received a Raging Bull accolade for the Coronation Balanced Plus Fund as best domestic Asset Allocation Prudential Variable Equity Fund for attaining the highest PlexCrown ratings over five years.

The complete list of individual rand-denominated funds that received Raging Bull awards and certificates based on straight performance as well as achieving the highest PlexCrown rating over five years within their various ASISA subcategories are detailed in Table 2.

“As far as the FSB-approved offshore manager ratings are concerned (see Table 3), Investec took top honours at the Raging Bull Awards with an overall offshore rating of 3.722 PlexCrowns,” says De Klerk. Investec was also awarded top honours for its GFS Global Strategic Managed Fund A Acc for the highest PlexCrown rating over five years in the offshore Global Asset Allocation subcategory.

STANLIB was runner-up with an overall offshore rating of 3.472 PlexCrowns. “The STANLIB Global Bond Fund also achieved the highest PlexCrown rating over five years within the Offshore Global Fixed Interest Bond subcategory,” says De Klerk. Ashburton shared third place with Alexander Forbes, with both earning an overall offshore rating of 3.250 PlexCrowns.

Table 1: PlexCrown domestic CIS manager ranking – overall