Stanbic IBTC Asset Mgt. Limited, FBN Capital Asset Mgt, and Asset & Resources Mgt. Co. Ltd topped the list of fund managers with the highest Net Asset Value (NAV) as at the week ended May 10, 2019, according to BusinessDay analysis of the fund managers who control the largest share of the mutual fund assets using data from the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC).
A mutual fund is an investment vehicle made up of a pool of money collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments, and other assets.
Among the 27 fund managers controlling the 84 different funds listed on the securities exchange, FSDH Asset Management Ltd and AXA Mansard Investments Limited were also in the list of the top five with the largest asset under their portfolio.
For the week ended May 10, 2019, Stanbic IBTC Asset Mgt. Limited, a fund manager in charge of 11 different funds, had a total of N327.92 billion as its NAV. The assets managed by Stanbic IBTC Asset Mgt. Limited represented 44.45 percent of the entire mutual funds NAV at N737.74 billion.
FBN Capital Asset Mgt, a fund manager and a subsidiary of FBNQuest, has six funds spread across the seven asset classes listed on the securities exchange. BusinessDay analysis of the NAV summed to N172.02 billion, the second manager with the highest NAV in its portfolio. Compared to the asset managed by Stanbic IBTC, the latter is higher than the asset of the former by 155.89 billion or 47.54 percent.
According to Johnson Chukwu, MD of Cowry Asset Limited, the volume of assets in the portfolio of fund managers is dependent on the size and the number of funds they manage.
“It is driven by the size of the funds. If you have funds in different asset classes, the more likely you will have more assets in your portfolio. So, the larger the number of funds and the bigger the sizes, the more assets a fund manager will control,” Chukwu said.
A further analysis of the SEC data revealed that Asset & Resources Mgt. Co. Ltd with four funds under its management had a total NAV of N63.46 billion. This is N108.54 billion or 171 percent less than the asset managed by FBN Capital Asset Mgt but the total NAV managed by the fund manager is higher than the asset controlled by each of the remaining 24 fund managers on the securities exchange.
Also on the top five with largest asset under management, FSDH Asset Management Ltd and AXA Mansard Investments Limited, both fund managers controlling three and two funds, respectively, reported NAV of N38.59 billion and N26.89 billion, respectively.
However, fund managers like Capital Express Asset and Trust Limited, Lead Asset Management Limited, and PAC Asset Management Limited reported some of the smallest assets under management with NAV at N326.21 million, N380.65 million and N732.69 million, respectively.
SEC data analysed by BusinessDay revealed that the total funds controlled by the various mutual fund managers grew by N660 billion from N77.67 billion NAV reported for the week ended August 19, 2011 to N737.74 billion as it the week ended May 10, 2019.
On how Nigerian mutual funds mangers were able to grow their assets under management in the eight-year period analysed by BusinessDay, industry sources say it’s on improved level of sensitisation, product development and distribution.
“Within the asset management space, more products have been created and a lot of fund managers are into distribution, in terms of marketing,” Dayo Obisan, president, Fund Managers Association of Nigeria (FMAN), said.
Paul Uzuma, MD of Halo Nigeria Capital Ltd, said improvement in the level of sensitisation has led to the growth in the asset managed by the fund managers.
“There has been improvement in sensitisation of what mutual fund is all about. As such, fund managers have been able to reach out to a lot of investors, encouraging them and of course giving them adequate information on what mutual fund entails,” Uzuma told BusinessDay.
“Most retail investors that put in their resources in mutual funds use it to reduce volatility” as it is a way of diversifying their portfolio, he added.
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