Alexforbes wins best Investment Survey Provider at 2022 Africa Global Funds Service Providers Awards for the fourth time in a row

For the fourth consecutive year, the Alexforbes Survey Team has been voted as the winner in the Best Investment Survey Provider category at the 2022 New York-based Africa Global Funds (AGF) Service Providers Awards held on 31 October 2022.

Now in their seventh year, the AGF Service Providers Awards recognise and reward companies that excel at providing services to the African asset management industry.

Alexforbes delivers employee benefit solutions (investments, health, wealth and career) to clients throughout Africa. The key mechanism to building a future that delivers growth and sustainability for our clients, is the ongoing fulfilment of our core purpose of pioneering insights to deliver advice and solutions that impact people’s lives.

As an investment survey provider and the guardian of one of the most respected and widely read surveys in Africa, Alexforbes is committed to ensuring that users are given reliable and appropriate information, as this need becomes increasingly evident. Our surveys are constantly reassessed and enhanced as new investment instruments and strategies, which drive performance, emerge. We also keep pace with analytical and technological advances relating to performance attribution.

The Alexforbes Manager Watch surveys showcase the performance and risk statistics of institutional fund managers in South Africa and have been published since 1994. Not only does Alexforbes pride itself in providing clients with a specialised range of analytical solutions, but we are also the only investment survey provider in South Africa that publishes a survey for all the major asset classes.

Commenting on the award, Don Andrews, head of the Alexforbes survey team, says, “We are delighted to receive this recognition as the best investment survey provider in Africa for the fourth year in a row. This award bears testimony to the continuous commitment of Alexforbes, and the survey team’s disciplined approach, to provide best-class service to our clients and stakeholders.”

The Manager Watch™ Survey of Retirement Fund Investment Managers is an annual survey that showcases the performance of institutional fund managers in South Africa and has been published since 1994.

This edition includes 28 surveys with 90 managers and 689 strategies covering the following:

• 13 balanced surveys

• 14 specialist surveys, and the

• Multi-manager survey.

The following surveys are included:

• SA Large Manager WatchTM Survey

• SA Manager WatchTM Survey – Best Investment View

• SA Manager WatchTM Survey – Conservative

• Global Large Manager WatchTM Survey

• Global Manager WatchTM Survey – Best Investment View

• Global Manager WatchTM Survey – Conservative

• Global Manager WatchTM Survey – Dynamic

• Absolute Return Manager WatchTM Survey

• Africa Manager WatchTM Survey

• BEE Manager WatchTM Survey

• Bond Manager WatchTM Survey

• Decathlon Manager WatchTM Survey

• Equity Manager WatchTM Survey

• Fund of Hedge Funds Manager WatchTM Survey

• International Manager WatchTM Survey

• LDI Manager WatchTM Survey

• Medical-Aid Manager WatchTM Survey

• Money Market Manager WatchTM Survey

• Multi - Manager WatchTM Survey

• Namibia Manager WatchTM Survey

• Property Manager WatchTM Survey

• Shari’ah Manager WatchTM Survey

• LDI Manager WatchTM Survey

• Targeted Development Investment (TDI) Manager WatchTM Survey

In this year’s publication, we feature a range of articles which focus on the theme of geopolitics and sustainability, and how these two topics impact the South African investment industry. The first article featured, is one called The war on ESG. Armed conflict brings with it an incalculable human cost. The multiplier effects of war extend well beyond the societal impact as we are witnessing in Russia/Ukraine, and extend to the geopolitics at play. Using the lens of ESG, we work through the potential spillover effects of a war on investments and its impact on investment performance.

Another article featured in section 1 is From doing good to making good. In this article, Mr Sello Hatang, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, encourages corporates to be effective forces for good in the world by partnering with people we claim to care for, instead of designing solutions for them in isolation.

Section 2 includes the article Peering through the fog. In this piece we examine prior examples of the impact of geopolitics on financial markets, in light of current market events. In this section, we also provide an economic review of what happened in 2022.

Dealing with uncertainty can be tricky because we like to feel as if we are in control, but there seems to be very little we can do. So, where to from here? In section 2 we also feature the article Dealing with uncertainty during turbulent times. It is important to remember that your actions, not the market, is the biggest factor that determines if you will achieve your financial savings goals or not.

Section 3 provides the 2023 investment outlook for the global and local economy. We also share the thoughts of business leaders in a piece called My three wishes for South Africa are… We offered them three wishes, hypothetically speaking, which they thought could contribute to the eradication of some of the difficulties which continue to engulf South Africans and have an impact on quality of life and the economy. In Investing with goodness we look at the impact of geopolitics and ESG on Shari’ah investing.

A glossary of commonly used investment terms is included in Section 5, while a directory of South African asset managers is featured in Section 6.