If it aint broke, don’t fix it
You may well be right on this one… I love my asset manager – so if things aint broke don’t fix them. If you were looking at the asset management industry and specifically the asset owners and asset allocators who decide on the direction of asset flows… on the face of it, things are not broken, they in fact seem to be churning along as usual. Our favourite large managers are delivering returns.. well actually not as consistently as we would like to think, but we know them… they will come back from their extended periods of underperformance… even if it takes almost 10 years. But we know them and they know us.
Changing landscape
Can this be our continued mantra into the changing landscape which is unfolding in front of us, especially considering the issues in a South African context, regarding the “S” in Environment, Social and Governance (ESG). Here I refer to the three scourges of South African society we live with, poverty, unemployment and inequality – and their daily consequences we all endure… There are no quick fixes for these scourges, sure government have not pulled their weight, but looking at the level of black representation in the long term savings and investment industry… the private sector has not been doing a sterling job as well..
Asset Manager selection
So, the issue is not whether your existing large consultant or large Multi-manager can select good black managers like Motswedi does… The issues is rather, that the Regulator would like to see more medium sized businesses like Motswedi being given an opportunity to manage assets on behalf of asset owners like retirement funds and medical schemes, etc. Looking at the writing on the wall which the Regulator has been trying to get us all to see, the SA landscape is changing, no matter how hard we may fight to prevent it …
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As usual, always keen to hear from you.
Regards
Mark