Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Allan Gray takes it away ... again
Allan Gray says winning the award affirms its investment philosophy, which it has applied consistently over 40 years. reports
CAPE Town-based asset manager Allan Gray has retained its position as South Africa’s bestperforming unit trust management company. At the glittering Raging Bulls Awards gala dinner at The Avenue conference centre at the V&A Waterfront this week, Allan Gray walked off with the Raging Bull Award for the South African Management Company of the Year for the second year in a row.
Allan Gray has won the award six times in the past 10 years, equalling the record of its Mother City rival, Coronation Fund Managers.
The runners-up for the management company award were PSG Asset Management in second place and Coronation Fund Managers in third place.
Winning the Raging Bull
Award for Offshore Management Company of the Year were, tied in first place, Investec and Nedgroup Investments. And a new award was presented for the first time, the Chairman’s Raging Bull Award for the Best Black-owned Management Company (see
The Raging Bull Awards, hosted each year by Personal Finance, ProfileData and PlexCrown
Ratings, recognises outstanding performance by unit trust fund managers. Actively managed funds are judged on straight performance over three years and on riskadjusted performance over five years.
Management companies are judged on the risk-adjusted performance of their qualifying funds over five years – in this case to the end of 2017.
Risk-adjusted performance for the Raging Bull Awards is measured using the PlexCrown Ratings system (see “How the PlexCrown system rates funds”, right).
Interviewed by Personal Finance after the event, Allan Gray’s chief operating officer designate, Rob Formby, said it is always an honour to receive such an award, and, although awards generally shouldn’t determine how investors choose a management company, the award reaffirms the benefits of Allan Gray’s investment philosophy.
Allan Gray prides itself, Formby says, on its consistency of approach and long-term value creation.
“We look for under-valued companies and we buy into those, and when they reach fair value we sell them. This sounds quite simple, but the trick is in how you implement it. Applying the same philosophy over more than 40 years through different market cycles has led to the returns and wealth creation for investors.
“What distinguishes us is this consistency of approach.
When things are tough it’s easy to move away from that, and it’s less easy to be resolute, and I think that’s generally what
we’ve got right,” Formby says.
TOP THREE MANAGERS
To the end of December 2017, seven of Allan Gray’s eight qualifying funds scored five PlexCrowns. These were three rand-denominated global and worldwide funds (the Allan GrayOrbis Global Equity Feeder Fund, Global Fund of Funds, and Global Optimal Fund of Funds); the Allan Gray Equity Fund; Allan Gray Bond Fund; and two multi-asset funds (its Balanced Fund and Stable Fund). Its Optimal Fund, a more conservative multi-asset fund, scored three PlexCrowns. Taking into account different weightings of fund categories, Allan Gray achieved an overall rating of 4.994 PlexCrowns
had seven qualifying funds, of which five scored five PlexCrowns. These were the PSG Equity Fund, PSG Diversified Income Fund, and three multiasset funds (PSG Balanced Fund, Flexible Fund and Stable Fund).
The two remaining funds, the PSG Global Equity Feeder Fund and
PSG Income Fund, scored three PlexCrowns. The manager’s overall rating was 4.658 PlexCrowns.
had 19 qualifying funds. Two achieved the top rating of five PlexCrowns (the Industrial Fund and Resources Fund), while four achieved an above-average four PlexCrowns (the Optimum Growth Fund, Equity Fund, Smaller Companies Fund, Top 20 Fund, Bond Fund, Jibar Plus Fund, Strategic Income Fund and