STANLIB a winner for Liberty

Strong inflows into STANLIB funds at a time of pressure on unit trust portfolios have underlined the success of the restructure of the investment proposition at STANLIB.

STANLIB, the Raging Bull domestic unit trust company of the year, has created a multi-specialist franchise structure that frees its managers to make high conviction calls in their portfolios without being weighted down by “model portfolio” or “buy-list” constraints found in firms that take a more generalist approach to portfolio management.

Liberty’s strong annual results published yesterday (Thursday, February 28) showcase the improved contribution of the unit trust company that grew out of the 2002 merger of Liberty Asset Management and Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank Asset Management.

The Liberty Group’s asset manager now has a base of 450 000 unit trust clients. Net inflows of R13,1 billion (including Money Market) were achieved in 2007. Assets under management approached R340 billion.

The STANLIB team has increased substantially over the last 18 months from 39 investment professionals to more than 50.

Transformation is a strategic objective. Ten of the 18 most senior positions in the team are occupied by black professionals, believed to be the highest incidence of black managers in leadership roles in the investment industry’s larger companies.

Increased focus by teams of specialists drove last year’s success. Similar focus will be maintained going forward. The true measure of a good manager is consistency of performance.

Brits explained: “We recently won the Raging Bull Award as the country’s leading unit trust company. Our predecessor, Liberty Asset Management won the accolade in 2001 and was the runner-up in 2002.

“Our objective is to maintain our position and establish a track record of consistent achievement that identifies STANLIB as one of the pre-eminent performers of the South African investment industry.”