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NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Pension funds manager doubles asset portfolio

Business

By Standard Reporter | Jun 13, 2013

By Standard Reporter

Asset management firm PineBridge Investments East Africa says its portfolio of assets under its ambit more than doubled since it rebranded from AIG Investments in 2010.

The firm, which controls about a quarter of the pension industry, said it currently manages Sh144.7 billion in assets, up from Sh70.2 billion in 2010, helped by a rebound in the stock market.

PineBridge Investments CEO Jonathan Stichbury also attributed the growth to an upsurge in the number of clients and a strong team of experts serving the firm’s client base of medium to large clients, mainly drawn from retirement benefit schemes.

“It is our client-focused approach that has enabled us to reach this new milestone, signing up 24 new clients in the last three years,” Stichbury said. PineBridge’s portfolio increased by Sh19.4 billion from Sh98.2 billion six months earlier.

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According to a report released last week by the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA), PineBridge Investment’s portfolio of retirement benefits assets under its management rose to Sh117.6 billion, nearly matching the statutory workers’ pension fund, National Social Security Fund (NSSF).

The private fund manager, which provides management services to retirement schemes of high-end companies, becomes the first to have a portfolio of more than Sh100 billion. This compares to NSSF’s asset base of Sh121 billion.

“The fund manager with the largest market share of retirement benefits assets remained PineBridge with Sh117.6 billion of assets, followed by Genesis and CFC Stanbic,” noted RBA in the report.

Started in 1998, PineBridge provides fund management and investment advisory services to East African segregated pension funds and other institutional investors. It directly invests client assets in local equity and fixed income instruments.

As at December last year, the pension industry had assets worth Sh548 billion, an increase from Sh497.5 billion in June, with the 16 registered fund managers holding Sh436.7 billion while NSSF was managing Sh82.1 billion. According to the RBA, assets under management grew by 10.7 per cent in the six months to December.

Top Fund managers

NSSF transferred Sh39.4 billion to the top six fund managers last year, with each getting an estimated Sh6.6 billion. The six are Old Mutual, PineBridge, Co-op Trust, ICEA, Genesis and CFC Stanbic.

The fund recorded a weighted average return of 26.4 per cent on its investment for last year, while ICEA Asset Management was the best performing fund manager in 2012, with a 31.2 per cent return. Its assets grew to Sh34.8 billion in December from Sh23 billion six months earlier.

In the individual segment, membership grew to 88,509 in December from 61,240 a year earlier driven by the RBA’s Mbao Pension Scheme, which has 39,000 members. The scheme, which draws its members from the informal sector, received contributions worth Sh6.4 billion last year.