New investment fund looks after the interests of South African women

The Presidential Working Group for Women (PWGW) and Old Mutual today announced the launch of a fund that aims to create wealth for women investors and uses its collective investment clout to promote the interests of women in society.

The PWGW has been working closely with the SA Presidency to find comprehensive solutions for women’s unique financial needs. The new fund forms part of a package called Financial Solutions for Women, launched by the PWGW.

The Women’s Activism Balanced Fund seeks to provide investors with inflation-beating returns over the long term, while at the same time leveraging shareholder activism to drive the interests of South African women.

To facilitate the social and economic advancement of women in South Africa, the PWGW is currently establishing a separate legal entity, Atumia Ltd. Atumia is being registered as a non-profit organisation under section 21 of the Companies Act and will provide a legal vehicle through which the PWGW can engage service providers and provide an independent governance and activism framework to achieve the objectives of the PWGW. The Women’s Activism Committee will serve as sub-committee within Atumia to effect changes in companies in which the Women’s Activism Balanced Fund invests.

Brenda Madumise, the PWGW spokesperson and Chairperson of the Women’s Activism Committee says: "The Women’s Activism Committee will use the collective assets within the fund to buy shares in companies. The Activism Committee will then flex its shareholder voting muscle to influence corporate conduct in South Africa around corporate governance, and environmental and social responsibility programmes".

"Engagement with these companies will focus specifically on increasing the number of women in leadership and decision-making positions within the companies," she says.

The PWGW wants to mobilise women in South Africa to invest in the fund. "To enable meaningful engagement with these companies, we require significant investment in this fund from individual women, groups of employed women, and large retirement funds on behalf of their female members," Madumise says.

Old Mutual Investment Group South Africa’s (OMIGSA) multi-manager investment boutique, SYmmETRY, has been appointed to manage the fund.

SYmmETRY Head of Product Development, Meyer Coetzee says the fund will invest in a balance of local equities, bonds and cash and offshore assets and will target significant outperformance of inflation over the longer term, typically five years and more.

As a multi-manager, SYmmETRY is responsible for selecting the underlying investment managers of the fund. One of the top women fund manager, Gail Daniel, from Investec Asset Management has been chosen as the first fund manager. As the asset size of the fund grows, SYmmETRY will appoint more managers to complement the skills brought to the fund by Investec.

"Daniel, who is a director of Investec Asset Management, has an exemplary track record in managing investments locally and globally and has achieved a top quartile ranking for her Equity and Managed unit trust funds over five years," Coetzee says.

Individual investors who wish to invest in the new Women’s Activism Balanced Fund can do so through certain Old Mutual product offerings, including retirement annuities under the MAX and Investment Frontiers brands.

Retirement funds can access the Women’s Activism Balanced Fund by taking out a fund policy with Old Mutual, or they can participate in Old Mutual’s Evergreen umbrella retirement fund. Old Mutual will make the new fund available to investors through other products, such as unit trusts, in future.

Seed capital of R70 million has been injected into the fund by Old Mutual, of which R20 million is from the Domestic Workers Plan, a retirement annuity established last year by the PWGW and Old Mutual.

Sylvia Walker, Market Development Manager at Old Mutual says: "Retirement planning is a critical area of neglect for many women".

"Women spend their lives taking care of others and because they outlive men by an average of seven years, they are often left alone in the last years with no-one to take care of them.

"The new fund represents an opportunity for women to take care of themselves in their old age and to help other women while building a retirement nest egg."

Walker says Old Mutual is committed to ensuring the financial empowerment of women in South Africa through proper financial planning and creating opportunities for women to develop and take their rightful place in business.

"The relationship with the PWGW and its "Financial Solutions for Women" initiative has provided a unique opportunity in this regard," she says.

Madumise adds that the PWGW has partnered with Old Mutual on its first two projects - the Women’s Activism Balanced Fund and the Domestic Workers Plan. The PWGW began a process of engagement last year with other financial services providers to develop additional solutions for women.

"We further invite companies across the spectrum to approach us with unique proposals to financially empower women in this country," she says.