CAPE TOWN – The latest statistics from the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (Asisa) reveal that Coronation has maintained its position on top of the list of local managers in terms of assets under management. The company is now managing almost R3.5 billion more than Allan Gray.

This figure only reflects money in unit trusts and exchange-traded funds, not in any other products managed by the respective companies.

The below table shows the latest ranking of managers by assets held in collective investment schemes:

South Africa’s largest unit trust managers

Manager                             Number of funds          Assets (millions)

Coronation                                   22                          R 221 760

Allan Gray                                     9                           R 218 270

Stanlib                                          90                          R 188 407

Investec                                        28                          R 153 967

Old Mutual                                   60                          R 127 954

Nedgroup Investments               39                           R 110 799

Sanlam                                         86                           R 88 252

Prudential                                    14                           R 84 215

Absa                                             18                            R 80 301

Foord                                            8                              R 58 372

Source: ASISA

Together, these ten managers look after just more than R1.33 trillion, which is 79% of all the money in South African collective investment schemes. The three largest each control more than 10% of the market individually. Coronation’s market share is 13.1%, Allan Gray’s 12.9%, and Stanlib’s 11.1%.

To give some idea of how significant that is, the tenth largest manager, Foord, has a market share of just 3.4%.

However, these positions are far from static. A number of the large managers saw net outflows during the last quarter.

The below table shows the flow of money into and out of funds run by each of the top ten managers in the third quarter of 2014:

Fund flows for South Afria’s largest unit trust managers Q3 2014

Manager                           Gross sales (millions)  Repurchases (millions)  Net sales (millions)

Coronation                         R31 356                       R23 213                            R8 143

Allan Gray                          R34 045                       R28 928                            R5 117

Stanlib                               R112 932                      R131 597                         -R18 665

Investec                             R38 416                        R44 455                           -R6 093

Old Mutual                        R14 068                        R12 520                           R1 547

Nedgroup Investments    R53 200                        R58 158                            -R4 957

Sanlam                               R11 760                       R9 668                             R2 091

Prudential                          R27 854                       R26 242                           R1 613

Absa                                   R117 234                     R129 193                          -R11 959

Foord                                  R5 178                        R2 223                              R2 955

Source: ASISA

Coronation and Allan Gray sustained their dominance by showing the largest absolute net gains in this group, however in percentage terms Foord showed the most growth. It grew its assets under management by 5.3% over the quarter, whereas Coronation grew by 3.8% and Allan Gray 2.4%.

The managers that saw the highest outflows were Stanlib and Absa. They also saw the highest turnover.

To some extent, the large amounts of money going in and out of Stanlib and Absa funds could be ascribed to these managers running very large money market offerings. As these are shorter-term vehicles, the churn is much higher.

Nevertheless, they both saw significant net outflows over the period. Stanlib’s assets under management dropped by 9.0%, while Absa’s fell by 13.0%.

It’s hard not to suspect that African Bank had a big role to play here. The Absa Money Market Fund and Stanlib Money Market Fund were the two funds most exposed to African Bank paper and this led to a notable decline in confidence.

Although these ten management companies dominate the unit trust market, the largest inflows over the quarter went into funds run by smaller managers. By far the most new money went into the 133 funds managed by Boutique Collective Investments (BCI), most of which are co-branded portfolios run by managers such as Efficient Select, Harvard House and Anchor Capital.

The below table shows those managers that experienced growth in assets under management of over 10% over the quarter:

Fund flows for South African unit trust managers Q3 2014

Manager                   Assets (millions)    Net sales (millions)    Growth

BCI                            R22 823                    R14 917                        188.70%

Prime                        R5 196                     R748                             16.80%

Coris Capital            R1 378                     R182                              15.20%

Rezco                        R2 340                     R288                             14.00%

Kagiso                       R3 662                     R356                             10.80%
Source: ASISA

So while they may be growing more quickly than their larger competitors, they are nowhere near competing on the same scale.

Overall, the assets under management in the entire collective investment scheme industry grew by marginally over 1.0% during the quarter.

Article credit: http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/content/en/moneyweb-investment-insights/coronation-cements-its-place-ahead-of-allan-gray