Visionary leader at the helm of the PIC
THE AFRICAN continent and South Africa in particular are fortunate to have a visionary leader of the calibre of globally awarded and recognised Dr Daniel Matjila, the chief executive of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).
Under his astute stewardship assets under management grew from R598 billion in 2006 to R1.8 trillion, representing almost 50 percent of South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The PIC has become the largest asset manager on the African continent, with investments in local and foreign bonds, local and foreign equities, cash and money markets, developmental investments and private equity.
The PIC owns almost 13 percent of the JSE market capitalisation and 24 percent of the bond market capitalisation.
Business leaders, championed by well-known Dr Christo Wiese and supported by former government minister, trade unionist and now innovative businessperson, Jayendra Naidoo, committed last week in an intimate strategic engagement with the Minister of Finance, Malusi Gigaba, to focus on co-operation and jointly pave the way for greater engagement and investment in Africa.
Gigaba committed to facilitate the removal of impediments doing business in Africa and business promised that investments will follow.
This ground-breaking commitment from the government is salient, because it capacitates the PIC, its investment arm, and private sector investments.
The PIC’s investment mandate is aligned with government economic priorities, such as the National Development Plan.
Matjila’s investment strategy, Vision 2030 follows a “direct” investment approach – developmental investing for radical socio-economic transformation.
Matjila said in vision 2030: “Our approach of developmental investments and trans- formation is based on the premise that our research shows a direct correlation between the GDP (economic growth) and the growth of the PIC’s assets under management, and there is also a positive correlation between our investment returns and the performance of the economy.
“Our investment approach has changed from our traditional approach over the past 10 years in that we now have an active investment approach, through our developmental investments.
“No longer do we have an investment approach based purely on benchmarks with little focus on economic growth – we have a developmental investment approach where we focus on benchmarks, a very strong focus on transformation and job creation, focus on longterm sustainable investment returns, based on five pillars, namely: economic infrastructure – with a focus on sectors such as transport, water and mining; social infrastructure – with a focus on affordable housing, health and education, priority sector investments, where the focus is on agriculture, agro-processing, manufacturing and beneficiation, a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises, environmental and sustainability – with a focus on renewable energy, clean technology and green buildings,” he said.
BR will publish a series of exceptional leadership articles in the next few weeks. The most outstanding example is Dr Matjila. His visionary investment philosophy has and will pave the way for all business to follow, in Africa and South Africa. Matjila’s impeccable integrity has made him a trusted guardian of pensioner’s hard earned futures.