October 2017

11Oct

South Africa. PIC looting concerns raise red flags for proposed state pension fund

Concerns that politicians view the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) as a cash cow will loom large over discussions to establish an overarching pension fund for South Africa. The new fund wants to consolidate the more than 5 000 public and private retirement funds into one giant mandatory institution, possibly under government control. The new centralised retirement fund or National Social Security Fund (NSSF) will centralise current retirement funds estimated to be worth R3trn. It aims to force South Africans to save for retirement,...

October 11, 2017
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09Oct

South Africa’s Fedusa wants to review PIC investments

South African labour federation Fedusa said on Saturday it would consult rival federations over withdrawing an investment mandate the workers’ pension fund has with one of the continent’s largest asset managers, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC). The PIC manages South African government employee retirement funds and has been in the spotlight recently after reports the finance ministry requested money from the pension fund to bail out struggling state firms. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has denied making such a request. Gigaba on...

October 9, 2017
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06Oct

South Africa’s Gigaba wants concerns over irregularities at state pension fund probed

South Africa Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba on Friday asked government pension fund Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to investigate concerns of irregularities at the asset manager to ensure transparency at the institutions. The PIC has been in the spotlight in recent weeks after reports that the finance ministry had requested money from the pension fund to bail out struggling state firms. Gigaba has denied making such a request. “We need to assure pension holders that those with political or economic power will...

October 6, 2017
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September 2017

28Sep

South Africa’s $143b pension fund safe from state abuse, says minister

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba on Wednesday assured South Africans that funds in the hands of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) are safe, contrary to allegations that his office is considering tapping into US$143 billion of state pension funds to finance failing state-owned firms.”I want to assure all South Africans, and every pension holder that their pensions are safe and there is absolutely no attempt to dig into their pensions for reasons that are unscrupulous,” Gigaba said. The minister’s assurance was...

September 28, 2017
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22Sep

Biggest Africa Fund Manager May See Funds Pulled by Unions

Africa’s biggest fund manager may be dumped by a labor federation representing 230,000 South African state workers because it’s concerned that the funds of its members may be used to bail out mismanaged state-owned companies. The Federation of Unions of South Africa, the country’s second-largest labor union grouping, is considering replacing the state-owned Public Investment Corp. with privately owned fund managers to oversee the pension funds of the state workers, including nurses and teachers, that it represents. “There is nothing in...

September 22, 2017
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15Sep

South Africa’s pension fund chief says allegations he misused funds are spurious

The head of South Africa’s state-owned pension fund dismissed as spurious allegations made by a newspaper on Friday that he had misused funds and improperly raised salaries for some executives. Daniel Matjila has been chief executive officer of Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which manages nearly 2 trillion rand ($152.30 billion) of civil servants’ pensions, since 2014. He told Reuters he would meet board members later on Friday to discuss the allegations made by newspaper Business Day. “These are spurious allegations,”...

September 15, 2017
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13Sep

South Africa. Sweating pensions in the post-retirement phase

Only 6% of South Africans (about 3.4 million) are over the age of 65. On the other hand, in the United States 15% (46 million) are over the age of 65 and in the UK, 18% of the population (nearly 12 million) are over 65. Our political focus is quite rightly focussed on the needs of the youth. In developed countries relentlessly aging populations have forced governments to change the political agenda away from an exclusive focus on youth to...

September 13, 2017
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August 2017

30Aug

South Africa. Can the average investor afford such significant underperformance?

I recently attended a board meeting of an independent financial advisor, and the following graph was included in the board pack: The Asisa average for SA Multi Asset High Equity funds over the last 12.5 years makes for interesting reading. This particular category in the Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) space averaged 363.3, which means that if a R100 was invested on December 31, 2004, a client would see an amount of R363.30 returned to him on the June 30, 2017, that...

August 30, 2017
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24Aug

South Africa. Six retirement ‘rules of thumb’ that should be retired

Managers of retirement funds have to manage the underlying assets in retirement funds according to rules in Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act. These rules set certain maximum exposure to certain asset types such as equities, bonds, cash, hedge funds, private equity investments and offshore funds. Managers may invest a maximum of 75% of the portfolio in equities, and a maximum of 25% offshore, (excluding Africa) for example. The maximum exposure to hedge funds is 10% and to private...

August 24, 2017
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