Ninety One has retained its position as SA’s largest asset manager as peer Allan Gray slipped down the pecking order, while multimanagers are making a strong showing and closing the gap, albeit slowly, on single mangers.
That’s according to data collated by Alexforbes in its Manager Watch Survey of Retirement Fund Investment Managers. The data shows that Ninety One grew assets under management by 4% in 2024, while Stanlib, the country’s second-largest money manager, registered a robust 10% growth in assets.
Ninety One has about R3-trillion in assets under management (AUM), about R860bn of which is owned by SA clients, while Standard Bank’s AUM amounts to R714bn.
Sanlam Investments leapfrogged Coronation and Allan Gray to take third place, with just less than R600bn under management, after a 20% rally in assets.
Coronation is now SA’s fourth-largest asset manager and Allan Gray is fifth.
SA markets enjoyed a buoyant 2024, with 13.4% in returns from the JSE all share index and the capped Swix index, and a gain of 17.2% from the all bond index.
According to the survey Allan Gray fund underperformed its benchmark for the year ending December largely due to certain major holdings, such as AB InBev, not keeping pace with businesses more closely linked to the SA economy.
But the survey shows there is still a large concentration of assets in the country’s top 10 money managers.
“The total assets of the survey participants grew by 6% from June 2023, with the top 10 asset managers still holding the largest share. This group now accounts for 63% of the total assets across the 79 managers in the survey, showing a continued concentration at the top,” the survey reads.
“Today, Alexforbes surveys feature 88 participating asset managers, 178 strategies and more than R8.2-trillion in assets, demonstrating the extensive range of investment opportunities now available.”
Stanlib CEO Derrick Msibi, told Business Day last year that he expected a big merger in the industry to take place as consolidation in the industry gathers pace due to high costs, a tough trading environment and the search for scale.
He said while mergers and acquisitions were more prevalent among small players in the sector, the consolidation would eventually lead to big players pursuing acquisitive growth to increase revenues and build scale.
Ninety One announced a deal to solidify its market-leading position with the proposed acquisition of Sanlam Investment Management for about R5bn.
If the deal clears regulatory scrutiny, it will provide access to R400bn in new assets under management.
In addition, Sanlam would appoint Ninety One as the permanent investment manager to oversee the assets of Sanlam Investments UK, a wholly owned unit of the Sanlam Group. Sanlam will serve as an anchor investor in Ninety One’s international private and specialist credit strategies that meet its investment requirements.
The mooted deal would see Sanlam Group receive an equity stake of about 12.3% in Ninety One through a combination of Ninety One Ltd and Ninety One Plc shares, thereby establishing Sanlam as a long-term shareholder of Ninety One.
The Alexforbes survey shows that the proportion of multimanager growth relative to single managers has steadily increased, indicating growing investor interest in diversified investment strategies.
“In 2019, for every R1 managed by single managers, multimanagers held 15c. By 2024, this had increased to 29c. This steady increase indicates that multimanagers are gradually expanding their presence in the market,” the survey states.
Multimanagers, also known as discretionary funds managers, are a team of investment professionals who select and manage a mix of investment strategies on behalf of clients.
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