Anchor goes against the tide

Specialised asset manager Anchor Group, founded by CEO Peter Armitage, has bucked the trend, reporting record new inflows for the first half of its financial year, offsetting poor equity market conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Specialised asset manager Anchor Group, founded by CEO Peter Armitage, has bucked the trend, reporting record new inflows for the first half of its financial year, offsetting poor equity market conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Armitage said while the economic environment has been tough, other asset classes such as fixed income and offshore equities remained attractive during the period.

“At any point in time, we put very little money into local equities,” Armitage said. “If your business was focused just on local equities, you’ve had a very, very tough time, you would’ve seen outflows. But we have very strong growth in our offshore stuff and our fixed-income business, which has doubled in size over the past year,” he said.

Anchor, which provides private client, asset management and stockbroking services, grew its assets under management to R64.9bn, a 13% increase from December. Since listing on the JSE in 2014, the company has grown its funds under management from less than R10bn.

The group expects adjusted headline earnings per share (Heps) for the period to be between a decrease of 2% and an increase of 14%. Heps are expected to fall by between 66% and 71% from the prior comparative period, when it saw a oneoff termination fee in respect of the Astoria investment management agreement of R70.4m.

Armitage said he expects inflows to continue to increase. “We have a fair amount of predictability about future growth. So it continued at that rate through July and August and we anticipate it carrying on for the rest of the year.”

With the JSE having dropped as much as 35% during March, the company is now investing in resources shares, and values Naspers highly.

“While the [overall] market has recovered, there are still a lot of shares that have been left behind. We still like the tech companies,” he said.

Anchor’s shares gained the most in more than a year on Thursday, up 6.86% to R3.74.

The group will release its interim results to end-June on September 15.

IF YOUR BUSINESS WAS FOCUSED JUST ON LOCAL EQUITIES, YOU ’ VE HAD A VERY, VERY TOUGH TIME