The acquisition, which includes the Atlantic Specialised Finance division, complements Ashburton’s existing fixed income business by adding to its range of traditional fixed income funds. If will also introduce Atlantic’s expertise in managing social impact investments.
Stand apart offering
Ashburton’s chief executive Boshoff Grobler said: “Atlantic has some of South Africa’s best expertise in the traditional fixed income and money market space, as well as being pioneers in social impact investing.
“We believe their entrepreneurial spirit and their investment philosophy is a perfect match for ours and that our combined experience consolidates Ashburton’s ability to offer clients a stand apart fixed income offering.”
Fund incorporation
Atlantic’s funds will be incorporated into the Ashburton stable but the mandates and teams will remain exactly the same.
“We’ve seen a move away from fixed income mandates that include just government and state-owned companies (SOC) bonds towards mandates that also include unlisted and listed corporate credit."
Arno Lawrenz, chief investment officer of Atlantic, will be appointed head of fixed income portfolio management at Ashburton Investments.
Heather Jackson, chief executive of Atlantic Specialised Finance, will be working with the strong alternatives capability within Ashburton.
Her focus on solutions across the non-profit, private and government sectors is a differentiated approach to the complex financing challenges that South Africa faces, and one which few asset managers are able to offer.
Asset allocation shift
According to Grobler, Ashburton is now very well placed for the ongoing shift in asset allocation by institutional investors.
“We’ve seen a move away from fixed income mandates that include just government and state-owned companies (SOC) bonds towards mandates that also include unlisted and listed corporate credit.
“In particular we believe that South African unlisted credit represents a high quality and under-invested opportunity for institutional investors to earn attractive, stable long-term real returns at relatively low levels of risk.”
Subject to regulatory approval, the Atlantic funds will, in time, rebrand to Ashburton Investments. The acquisition is due to close on 1 January 2016.
