July 2019

18Jul

South Africa. Threat to SA’s R4 trillion retirement savings pot highlighted

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) says in a statement it will be delivering a memorandum to the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) in Rosebank. The memorandum will highlight the “real threat to South Africa’s R4 trillion retirement savings pot”. “The governing African National Congress (ANC) has for some time discussed the possibility that the savings of ordinary South Africans could be prescribed – invested in areas or sectors ‘prescribed’ by the government. As recently as last month, minister...

July 18, 2019
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16Jul

South African State Pension Fund to Invest More Offshore

South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund is planning to invest more of its 2 trillion rand ($144 billion) under management outside the country and in unlisted assets to reduce risk of overexposure to locally traded companies. The strategy was outlined by GEPF Principal Executive Officer Abel Sithole to a commission of inquiry into allegations of wrongdoing and poor governance at the Public Investment Corp., the fund’s biggest manager. The GEPF has more than 93% of its assets invested in...

July 16, 2019
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05Jul

The Ultimate Guide to Retirement in South Africa

By Bruce Cameron, Wouter Fourie Most people are rich for a single day in their lives: the day they retire and receive their retirement savings. This moment is more critical than many people realise – it marks the change from saving for retirement to drawing an income from savings that will ideally sustain them until they die. All too often, pensioners end up struggling financially because they make the wrong decisions after they retire. It is crucial for...

July 5, 2019
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June 2019

26Jun

S. African Pensions Seen at Risk If State Forces Investments

A plan mooted by South Africa’s ruling African National Congress to force retirement funds into investing in specific state-owned companies or government projects could leave pensioners poorer. The ANC in its election manifesto earlier this year said it would investigate using prescribed assets to help foster inclusive economic growth, fund social improvements and diversify the finance industry. A lack of detail as to how this could materialize since it was accepted at the party’s policy conference in 2017 has...

June 26, 2019
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25Jun

Retirement Funding in South Africa 2019

The South African retirement funding sector, with assets in excess of R4.26-trillion, has the fifth highest assets-to-gross domestic product ratio in the world. However, less than 10% of retirement fund members are able to maintain their standard of living when they stop working and 41% of economically active South Africans have not made any provision for their retirement. Total membership of retirement funds rose from 16.6 million to 16.9 million in 2017, while total retirement fund contributions increased by...

June 25, 2019
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25Jun

South Africa’s Market for Retirement Funding, 2019: Covering Comprehensive Profiles of 27 Public & Private Companies

This report is on retirement funding and provides information of size and state of retirement funding in South Africa, on the continent and internationally as well as the factors influencing the sector. There are comprehensive profiles of 27 public and private companies in the sector. These include the Public Investment Corporation, which manages the Government Employees Pension Fund, with 1.27 million members and assets under management totalling around R1.8-trillion. There are profiles of notable private sector players such as...

June 25, 2019
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06Jun

South Africa: Why Has the JSE Performed So Poorly?

That the local stock exchange has performed spectacularly badly for investors in recent years is no secret. The detail of why is unfortunately too often overlooked. Examining the JSE's top companies can illuminate the problems of the economy and the business environment - as well as giving us a clue about what might happen to JSE stocks in future. We should be concerned about the state of the JSE because most of us are invested in the stock market,...

June 6, 2019
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03Jun

South Africa. Key Union Tells Eskom’s Top Bondholder to Sell Its Holdings

The labor union whose members contribute most to the funds overseen by South Africa’s state pension manager wants the institution to stop investing in the debt of Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., potentially increasing funding pressure on the heavily indebted utility. The 240,000-strong Public Servants Association said by buying Eskom’s bonds the Public Investment Corp. is exposing pensioners to excessive risk as the state-owned power company is not selling enough electricity to cover its costs and has had to be...

June 3, 2019
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May 2019

29May

South Africa. PIC’s $250m investment in Ecobank was ‘highly speculative’, inquiry hears

A former executive of West Africa’s Ecobank who was suspended for blowing the whistle on alleged accounting irregularities within the organisation has questioned the soundness of an investment made by the Pubic Investment Corporation (PIC) in the bank. The pan-African bank, which is based in Togo, operates in 36 African countries and four other countries outside of Africa. It has the largest footprint among all banks on the continent. Nedbank holds the biggest share in Ecobank, with a 21.1%...

May 29, 2019
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09May

South African Investment Firm Looted Pension Fund With Insider Information

President Jacob Zuma’s surprise sacking of South Africa’s finance minister at the end of 2015 sparked economic panic: The rand plunged to a record low against the dollar and even the normally steady bond market roiled. But one investment company, a little-known boutique operation, raked in at least 133 million rand (US$9.2 million) by trading on the turmoil. Related deals under investigation may have raised the total profit to as much as 500 million rand (US$32 million) as the country...

May 9, 2019
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