January 31, 2009
By Laura du Preez
Among the unit trust fund managers honoured at this week's Raging Bull Awards were three that successfully limited investors' losses by investing in undervalued shares.
Unit trust fund managers, particularly those with a focus on investing for value and with the least exposure to the recent big losers on the share markets, were honoured at this week's Raging Bull Awards for the still- respectable returns they earned over terms longer than just the past year.
While the events of the past year dented many managers' returns over all periods, longer-term average returns are in many cases still solid, reflecting gains made during the equity bull run from 2003 until last year.
The three top unit trust fund managers for 2008, as determined by PlexCrown Ratings, all focus on investing in shares or bonds that are under- valued relative to what the managers regard as their intrinsic value and their earnings (profit) potential. In this way, these managers have protected their investors to some extent from the recent losses in the equity markets.
Last year was the first year in which Allan Gray qualified for inclusion in the PlexCrown management company of the year survey, because it was the first year in which Allan Gray had the required range of funds with sufficiently long track records.
In contention
So after years of collecting awards for the performance of its individual funds, this year Allan Gray was a contender for, and the winner of, the coveted Raging Bull Award for the Domestic Management Company of 2008 at this year's awards ceremony held in Johannesburg.
The awards are co-sponsored by Personal Finance, ProfileData and Plexus. ProfileData and Plexus provide the performance data and PlexCrown ratings on which the awards are based.
Allan Gray's valuation-based investment approach has resulted in its funds scoring highly in the PlexCrown Ratings, from which the top management company is determined.
Among its funds that invest in domestic markets, three achieved the highest PlexCrown rating of five PlexCrowns. These funds are:
The Allan Gray Stable Fund, which was the top performer in the domestic asset allocation prudential low equity sub-category over all the measurement periods up to seven years. The fund won the Raging Bull Award for the best prudential fund on risk-adjusted returns over five years, as well as the certificate for the best-performing prudential fund over three years.
The Allan Gray Balanced Fund, which collected the certificate for the top performer in the domestic asset allocation prudential variable equity sub-category on risk-adjusted returns over five years.
The Allan Gray Equity Fund, which was the top performer in the domestic general equity sub-category over the seven- and 10-year periods.
The PlexCrown survey of management companies shows that Allan Gray was a joint leader among managers ranked on the performance of their asset allocation funds and the leader among companies for the management of domestic equity funds.
In contrast to the performance of its other funds, Allan Gray's Bond Fund was awarded the lowest rating of one PlexCrown. Nevertheless, based on the ratings of these funds, Allan Gray earned second place among its peers for domestic fund management.
The performance of its rand- denominated foreign funds put Allan Gray in first place among its peers.
One of the funds that contributed to this result was the Allan Gray-Orbis Global Equity Feeder Fund. This fund was the second-best performing foreign general equity fund over three years after a tracker fund, which is excluded from the PlexCrown Ratings and the Raging Bull Awards.
The Feeder Fund won the Raging Bull Award for the best rand-denominated foreign general equity fund over the three years to the end of December and achieved the highest PlexCrown rating of five crowns.
Runner-up
Prudential was the second-best manager, with a PlexCrown rating of 3.542.
Prudential had seven qualifying funds. Its two domestic equity funds scored the highest PlexCrown ratings of five and each collected a Raging Bull Award.
The Prudential Equity Fund was first over five years and won the award for the best risk-adjusted returns over this period in the domestic general equity sub-category.
The fund also won the certificate for being first in this sub-category over three years, after the disqualification of the leading fund.
Prudential's other fund, the Dividend Maximiser, won the award for being the top performer over three years across the domestic equity, value and growth sub-categories. It also won the certificate for being first in the domestic equity value sub-category over three years.
The house's domestic real estate fund, the Enhanced SA Property Tracker Fund, and its asset allocation Prudential Balanced Fund obtained the second highest PlexCrown rating.
Prudential's other domestic fund, its bond fund, delivered a middle-of-the-range, three-crown rating.
The combined performance of all these domestic funds gave Prudential the top spot among its peers for domestic fund management.
Prudential's foreign funds, however, pulled it down in the overall rankings. Among the managers ranked for foreign fund performance, Prudential was below-average.
In third position
Oasis took third place in the overall ratings, with 3.375 PlexCrowns.
The company has eight funds that were rated by PlexCrowns. Its strengths proved to be in the management of its rand-denominated foreign equity funds, the Oasis Crescent International Feeder Fund and the Oasis International Feeder Fund.
Both feed into Oasis's offshore global equity funds, which are domiciled in Ireland. The one that feeds into the sharia-compliant offshore fund scored five PlexCrowns and the other scored four PlexCrowns.
On the basis of the risk-adjusted performance of these funds, Oasis was ranked first with Allan Gray for the management of foreign funds.
While Oasis achieved an above-average score of three PlexCrowns for the management of domestic funds, it was ranked 11th out of 15 competing management companies.
This score was based on the risk-adjusted performance of Oasis's general equity, asset allocation, property and bond funds. The domestic equity fund and two of Oasis's asset allocation funds scored the second highest rating of four PlexCrowns. A third asset allocation fund scored an above-average three crowns.
The two funds that were a drag on Oasis's rating for domestic fund management were its Property Equity Fund and its Bond Fund. Both achieved only two PlexCrowns.
Other managers of local funds that were honoured with Raging Bull Awards were Metropolitan, for its local bond fund, and Investec, for its asset allocation flexible fund.
The offshore manager of the year (on the basis of foreign-domiciled funds registered in South Africa) was TriAlpha. Raging Bull Awards for the performance of individual foreign- domiciled funds were also collected by Sarasin and Ashburton.
Reports on the winning funds that invest in foreign markets, as well as on the foreign fund manager of the year, will be published next week.
AWARD WINNERS
TOP MANAGEMENT COMPANIES OF THE YEAR
Domestic Management Company of the Year: ALLAN GRAY
Second-best Company: PRUDENTIAL
Third-best Company: OASIS
Offshore Management Company of the Year: TRIALPHA
TOP OUTRIGHT PERFORMERS
Best Broad-based Domestic Equity Fund
The fund with the highest ProfileData total investment return ranking over three years in the domestic equity general, value and growth sectors.
PRUDENTIAL DIVIDEND MAXIMISER FUND
Best Domestic Fixed Interest Fund
The fund with the highest ProfileData total investment return ranking over three years in the domestic fixed interest bond and income sectors.
METROPOLITAN GILT FUND
Best Foreign (South Africa-domiciled) Equity Fund
The fund with the highest ProfileData total investment return ranking over three years in the foreign equity general sector.
ALLAN GRAY-ORBIS GLOBAL EQUITY FEEDER FUND
Best Offshore Global Equity Fund
The fund with the highest ProfileData total investment return ranking over three years in ProfileData’s offshore global equity general sector.
SARASIN CI EQUISAR DOLLAR GLOBAL THEMATIC FUND
TOP RISK-ADJUSTED PERFORMERS
Best Domestic Asset Allocation Flexible Fund
The fund with the highest PlexCrown ranking over five years in the domestic asset allocation flexible sector.
INVESTEC OPPORTUNITY FUND (A)
Best Domestic Asset Allocation Prudential Fund
The fund with the highest PlexCrown ranking over five years in the domestic asset allocation prudential high equity, medium equity, low equity and variable equity sectors.
ALLAN GRAY STABLE FUND
Best Domestic General Equity Fund
The fund with the highest PlexCrown ranking over five years in the domestic equity general sector.
PRUDENTIAL EQUITY FUND
Best Offshore Global Asset Allocation Fund
The fund with the highest PlexCrown ranking in ProfileData’s offshore global asset allocation flexible and prudential sectors.
ASHBURTON REPLICA EURO ASSET ALLOCATION MANAGEMENT FUND
Certificate winners
Top outright performers over three years
Domestic funds
Best Domestic Equity General Fund:
Prudential Equity Fund
Best Domestic Equity Growth Fund:
SIM Growth Fund (A)
Best Domestic Equity Industrial Fund:
Stanlib Industrial fund (A)
Best Domestic Equity Financial Fund:
Stanlib Financials Fund
Best Domestic Equity Resources and Basic Industries Fund:
Old Mutual Mining and Resources Fund (R)
Best Domestic Equity Smaller Companies Fund:
RMB Small Mid-Cap Fund
Best Domestic Equity Value Fund:
Prudential Dividend Maximiser Fund
Best Domestic Asset Allocation Flexible Fund: Rezco Value Trend Fund
Best Domestic Asset Allocation Prudential Fund (Includes the prudential high equity, medium equity, low equity and variable equity sectors):
Allan Gray Stable Fund
Best Domestic Fixed Interest Bond Fund: Metropolitan Gilt Fund
Best Domestic Fixed Interest Income Fund:
Old Mutual Income Fund
Best Domestic Real Estate Fund:
Investec Property Equity Fund
Foreign funds
Best Foreign Fixed Interest Bond Fund:
Coris Capital International Bond Fund
Best Offshore Europe Equity General Fund:
Invesco Pan European Structured Equity Fund
Best Offshore Far East Equity General Fund: Invesco Greater China Equity Fund
Best Offshore Japan Equity General Fund:
Orbis SICAV Japan Equity fund (Yen Class)
Best Offshore USA Equity General Fund: Templeton Latin America Fund
Best Offshore Global Fixed Interest Bond Fund: TriAlpha International Bond Fund
Top risk-adjusted performers over five years
Domestic funds
Best Worldwide Asset Allocation Flexible Fund: Flagship Worldwide Flexible Fund of Funds
Best Foreign Asset Allocation Flexible Fund: Alpha Global Diversified Fund of Funds
Best Domestic Asset Allocation Prudential Medium Equity Fund:
Prescient SA Balanced Quant Plus Fund
Best Domestic Asset Allocation Prudential Low Equity Fund:
Allan Gray Stable Fund
Best Domestic Asset Allocation Prudential Variable Equity Fund:
Allan Gray Balanced Fund
Best Domestic Fixed Interest Bond Fund: Stanlib Bond Fund (A)
Best Foreign Equity General Fund: Oasis Crescent International Feeder Fund
Best Real Estate Fund (The fund with the highest PlexCrown ranking over five years in the domestic real estate general sector):
Stanlib Property Income Fund
Foreign funds
Best Offshore Global Fixed Interest Bond Fund: TriAlpha International Bond Fund
Best Offshore Global Equity General Fund:
Orbis Global Equity Fund
  
 
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