High-fives for NFB Fund performance

The NFB Ci Stable Fund has won the Raging Bull Certificate for top performance on the basis of riskadjusted returns by a domestic collective investment scheme in the sub-category SA Multi-Asset Low-Equity over the fiveyear period ending December.

This comes after winning a certificate in the same category, and a Raging

Bull Award for top performance by a domestic collective investment scheme on a risk-adjusted basis in the category Best SA Multi-Asset Equity Fund in 2016 and 2017.

Low-equity funds are restricted to investing no more than 40% in equities and are aimed at risk-averse investors.

NFB Asset Management’s investment philosophy is based on three key beliefs:

• That asset allocation drives a significant proportion of overall investment returns;

• Markets are inefficient and swing between periods of over-and undervaluation; and

• NFB can exploit these circumstances to the benefit of investors.

“Investors in the NFB Ci Stable Fund will have benefited from significant exposure to funds like the Coronation Strategic Income Fund and the Investec Diversified Income Fund, which returned 7.8% and 9.5% respectively for 2018 and 8.5% and 8.3% per annum for the last five years,” Paul Marais, managing director of NFB Asset Management said.

Marais said investors would have gained from exposure to the Prescient Income Provider Fund, which was present in the NFB fund through most of the review period, only being replaced by the Sanlam Investment Management Active Income Fund at the end of 2018.

Also contributing to the NFB Ci Stable Fund’s performance was the lower-thanpeer average exposure to the SA equity market and foreign currencies.

“Although given the JSE’s poor performance last year we would have liked to have even less exposure for our investors,” Marais said. “Hindsight is a perfect science.” He said the rand wasn’t a help, because even as it weakened, it was extremely volatile.