Staff Reporter
Windhoek-The Social Security Commission’s (SSC) Board of Commission last week approved the appointment of four independent investment management firms in managing the Commission’s external portfolio totalling some N$2.5 billion worth of assets. The appointed firms are Allan Gray Namibia, Investec Asset Management, Prudential Investment Managers and Namibia Asset Management.
“Early 2016, the SSC’s board went through an extensive Investment Policy Statement review exercise. The new investment policy, which was approved by the line minister, balances the Commission’s desire to preserve the investable assets in an uncertain investment universe, which presents potential growth opportunities. Hence, a broader asset and geographic portfolio allocation approach was adopted and is now to be implemented by the appointed investment managers under new mandates. This means that social security funds will be invested offshore outside Namibia and South Africa for the first time in the history of SSC since inception,” explained SSC CEO Milka Mungunda.
“The process to appoint the independent investment managers was a vigorous evaluation process, which included various criteria. The entire process of adjudication and evaluation was handled by the Investment Committee with the assistance of an independent investment consultant, Selekane Asset Consultants. By closing, on the 2 October 2017, 20 bids were received,” said Mungunda.
The appointed asset managers are not only reputable on the Namibian and global investment landscape, but also have strong track records in managing global portfolios with similar mandates in Namibia and abroad.
Furthermore, the SSC recognised that investment managers were, as was done recently, selected on the basis of their investment staff depths, consistency of investment philosophy and long-term performance track record, amongst other criteria. These, therefore, eliminate the excess of the majority Namibian-owned investment management firms from managing Namibian assets across the country and industries as they do not meet the aforesaid minimum criteria.
The SSC, as a result, developed a Namibian Asset Manager Incubation Policy to ensure market access and to assist the said managers to transition from incubation to full investment manager status. The policy that was developed in this regard aims to uphold the SSC investment objectives of maintaining an investment programme that has a greater probability of growing its assets within controlled risks of capital loss prevention.
SSC will, together with its investment consultant, conduct further due diligence in considering Namibian majority-owned investment managers under the incubation policy.
“SSC remains confident that the appointed asset managers will deliver on the investment policy standards and board expectation of preventing capital loss and to earn returns in excess of the agreed benchmarks. The SSC’s board, the executive and the entire staff members wish the four appointed managers great wisdom in delivering on their investment mandates,” Mungunda added.