Allan Gray still king of the castle

April 24, 2010

By Laura du Preez, Personal Finance

Allan Gray remained the top domestic investment house in the PlexCrown survey of unit trust management companies for the periods to the end of March.

Since Allan Gray first qualified for an overall rating in the management company rankings, this is the eighth quarter out of the past nine that it has occupied the top position.

PlexCrown Fund Ratings determines the leading unit trust fund manager from an overall rating calculated on the basis of the PlexCrown ratings a manager achieves for all its qualifying funds. Each fund is awarded a single rating of between one and five based on four different measures of risk-adjusted returns over periods up to five years.

For the periods to the end of March, Allan Gray had six funds that qualified for PlexCrown ratings. Allan Gray's Balanced Fund (A), Stable Fund (A), Orbis Global Equity Feeder Fund (A) and Orbis Global Fund of Funds (A) all scored the highest ranking of five PlexCrowns each, according to Rickus Ferreira, an analyst at PlexCrown Fund Ratings. Allan Gray's Bond Fund (A) and Equity Fund (A) achieved four PlexCrowns each.

Average ratings in various domestic and foreign unit trust sectors are determined, and the average of these ratings is used to calculate an average total domestic and an average total foreign score. The domestic score is accorded a weighting of 75 percent and the foreign score a weighting of 25 percent when the overall score is calculated.

According to Ferreira, Allan Gray's individual fund ratings gave it an overall average PlexCrown rating of 4.500 - the highest score achieved by qualifying fund managers for the periods to the end of March.

Prudential, with a rating of 3.792, was the runner-up in the management company rankings for the quarter to the end of March this year, Ferreira says.

Prudential has six funds that received a PlexCrown rating. Prudential's Dividend Maximiser Fund (A) and Equity Fund (A) achieved five PlexCrowns each. Two funds achieved four PlexCrowns each and two funds were awarded three PlexCrowns each.

Coronation, with an overall rating of 3.583, climbed back up the rankings to be among the top three companies, Ferreira says. It ousted Nedgroup Investments, which had to settle for fourth position, with an overall rating of 3.563. Coronation's Balanced Defensive Fund (A), Balanced Plus Fund (A) and Equity Fund (A) achieved five PlexCrowns each. Among its other funds, five achieved four PlexCrowns each, five achieved three PlexCrowns each and two scored only two PlexCrowns each.

Offshore ratings

With a score of 4.250, Orbis, Allan Gray's offshore sister company, achieved the top spot based on the average PlexCrown ratings among offshore managers that are registered with the Financial Services Board and can be marketed in South Africa, Ferreira says. The good performance of Orbis's equity and fixed-interest funds helped it to achieve this position, he says.

Investec, with a rating of 3.722, was placed second among the offshore managers. It did well in global asset allocation, total equity and total fixed interest.

Ashburton was rated third in the offshore management company rankings. It scored well in global asset allocation and total equity, Ferreira says.