STANLIB is rising to meet the challenge of ever-more sophisticated investment techniques and changing client needs to ensure we continue delivering optimal client outcomes. For the last three years we have been broadening and strengthening the capabilities of our Absolute Returns team.

Reflecting this development, the Absolute Returns team will be renamed the Multi-Strategy investment team. This is a natural step in the evolution  from  an absolute return offering into a broader multi-strategy capability which now manages absolute returns, hedge fund and multi-strategy portfolios for retail and institutional clients.

Multi-strategy investing offers investors dynamically managed, fully diversified multi-asset portfolios that aim to grow capital consistently and smoothly over the long term through skilful asset allocation and granular risk management. These portfolios take an unbiased style and factor approach to portfolio construction and risk budgeting.

The team, under the leadership of Marius Oberholzer, has been strengthened over the past three years. Last year David McNay joined as a senior portfolio manager, bringing additional global market experience and expertise in asset and strategy selection to the existing team of Marius, Warren Buhai, Peter van der Ross and Vaughan Henkel. Dr Michael Streatfield, a quantitative strategist, joined Muntu Mdwara adding to the quantitative and data science capabilities with additional support from analysts Emily Mofokeng and Boipelo Moyo. One of the main strengths of this senior team is that it reflects relevant but differentiated skills and diverse backgrounds. In decision-making, we actively encourage and accommodate a range of opinions and perspectives.

While the name changes to Multi-Strategy, the investment team’s philosophy remains the same. It is anchored on three key tenets: risk is inherent in all assets; generating long-term returns is all about managing risk; and it is important to include a wide source of returns in a portfolio, rather than relying on equities as the predominant growth asset.

This move demonstrates STANLIB’s commitment to augmenting and expanding our expertise and offering our clients progressive solutions.