The Strategic Growth Fund, which is Mauritius domiciled and administered by Guernsey headquartered Fund Corporation, was suspended in February last year.
Prior to its suspension, the product had been recommended by some deVere advisers, who sold it to clients on the understanding that it was a multi-manager fund investing with a global mandate. However, according to deVere, fund manager Cobus Kellerman began over time to invest the portfolio in more regionally specific and less liquid securities.
DeVere estimated at the time of the suspension it had around $50m of its clients’ money trapped in the vehicle, although it said part of the reason the fund was suspended was because of its decision to tell clients to exit the fund.
BK One
While the fund administrator hasn’t provided International Adviser with the fund holdings at the time of suspension, other vehicles managed by Kellerman at the time may provide some clue as to what was held.
In addition to working for United Asset Management – a company which was owned by deVere’s chief executive Nigel Green (before ownership was transferred to a Gibraltar based company, Frontier, in January 2013) – Kellerman also ran and continues to run a number of other portfolios in South Africa.
One company Kellerman worked for was Ankh Analytic. Ankh hit the headlines in 2012 in South Africa after Kellerman took the decision to sell shares in a private investment company called BK One, which was a large investor in a firm called Basileus Capital, on the day Basileus’s CEO was shot dead by his business partner (although there is no suggestion of a link between these two events).
According to Johannesburg-based newswire, Moneyweb, which reported on the financial fallout following the shooting, Ankh owned 1,404,000 shares in Basileus as at 30 June, 2012 “which is exactly the same number of shares traded on the date that [Basileus Capital CEO Julian] Williams was shot”.
It seems Kellerman did not take the decision to trade out of BK One in all the portfolios he managed at the time as, according to the last Strategic Growth Fund factsheet available, BK One was still a “key holding” in January 2013.
BK One itself is a private investment firm based in Cape Town and listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange. The company is the majority shareholder in two businesses – Pure Ocean Aquaculture and Avalloy.
According to BK One’s latest available accounts, which run to the end of August 2013, it owned 28.41% of Avalloy and 38% of Pure Ocean Aquaculture, with the latter accounting for 98% of the total firm’s investment and Avalloy making up the remaining 2%.
There is also a possibility the Strategic Growth Fund was invested directly in these two companies, Avalloy and Pure Ocean Aquaculture, although a deVere spokesperson said while it “believes” this is the case it “cannot confirm this”.
The Ankh portfolios managed by Kellerman and co-manager Hendrik Vos, are called the Ankh Prudential Fund and Ankh Stable Fund. Both are described as having a “moderate” risk, with the Stable Fund marketed as suitable for those in or near retirement.
