STANLIB selects BlackRock’s Aladdin enterprise to drive growth investment

South African Asset Manager STANLIB selects BlackRock’s Aladdin enterprise investment management technology to drive transformational growth.
  • STANLIB looks to optimise client experience by increasing agility, reducing complexity and increasing data accuracy.
  • The technology has been enhanced to capture South African market nuances.
  • STANLIB is the first asset manager in South Africa to onboard Aladdin’s enterprise capabilities.
Growing-Wealth-Digital
STANLIB

STANLIB

In a first for South Africa, STANLIB has onboarded Aladdin’s enterprise capabilities, BlackRock’s market leading investment technology to drive transformational growth by optimising the client experience and reducing complexity. Aladdin’s technology combines sophisticated risk analytics with portfolio management, trading, and operations tools to unify the investment management process across all major asset classes. Furthermore, Aladdin’s enterprise capabilities will help simplify STANLIB’s operating model, minimise operational risk, support effective investment decision making and deliver best-in-class risk and performance analytics.

 

Recognising technology’s critical role in transforming asset management models, STANLIB identified Aladdin as the ideal technology solution to drive and improve investment outcomes and lower the company’s total cost of technology over time.

 

“Our primary focus is on our fiduciary duty to deliver the best possible investment outcomes for our clients. Consequently, we have invested significantly in technology that is critical to our growth strategy, which is centered on our clients and aims to create South Africa’s most advanced asset management infrastructure,” said Derrick Msibi, CEO of STANLIB.

 

“Aladdin’s enterprise capabilities will increase transparency through the investment lifecycle, accelerate information delivery and synchronise data throughout the process to support portfolio managers’ investment decision making. Seamlessly plugging into our data ecosystem, this technology will also enhance our efficiency and scalability and allow fast implementation of digital applications. Ultimately, it will provide clients with a continuous and efficient experience when combined with the rest of our technology and data architecture.”

 

Aladdin’s technology will help STANLIB capitalise on the continued acceleration of digital transformation forecast for the South African asset management industry, and Africa at large. Two key drivers of digital transformation are regulation and evolving investor requirements. Regulation is opening up options for investors, now permitting an increase in the amount of offshore (i.e., non-South African) and alternative assets that a portfolio can hold. This is satisfying investors’ growing appetite for greater geographical and asset-class diversification. The second is investors’ growing requirements of greater transparency and lower cost structures in local asset management. Aladdin’s enterprise capabilities will enable STANLIB to respond to these market requirements supporting more effective collaboration, more agile responses to clients and more efficient data leverage.

 

“We’re excited to partner with STANLIB to more fully streamline its investment process,” said Sudhir Nair, Global Head of the Aladdin Business at BlackRock. “Aladdin will provide STANLIB a unified technology platform, tailored around its business, strengthening the investment process and creating operating scale in support of its clients.”

 

Aladdin’s technology unifies the investment management process by providing a common data language within an organisation to enable scale, provide insights, and support business transformation. The platform has been enhanced to deliver specific product features that will meet the unique demands of the South African market. These include South African rates and inflation factors, as well as a fundamental factor model for South African equities.

 

“The integration of Aladdin’s technology is another example of STANLIB’s unrelenting commitment to innovation and bringing best-in-class products and product enhancement to our clients. In addition to the technical expertise, we value BlackRock’s shared focus on operating with the client at centre of all decisions,” concluded Msibi.

 

ENDS

 

About STANLIB

STANLIB, which is part of the Standard Bank Group, is one of South Africa’s largest investment managers, administering over R615 billion in assets under management (as at June 2022). The depth and breadth of the investment teams gives investors a range of options to preserve capital and create wealth. It offers specialist investment management disciplines – from fixed income to multi-asset, listed property, balanced, equity and alternatives, across a broad choice of traditional and alternative asset classes and multiple investment strategies, including active and passive management, as well as single and multi-manager capabilities.

STANLIB Asset Management (Pty) Ltd is an authorised Financial Services Provider in terms of the FAIS Act.

 

About BlackRock

BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a provider of BlackRock Aladdin, a leading financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/corporate

 

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