The STANLIB Flexible Income Fund

Victor Mphaphuli

Head: Fixed Income

The STANLIB Income Fund is managed in line with the STANLIB Fixed Income team’s philosophy of delivering returns through active management.

The STANLIB Income Fund continues to deliver consistent returns which beat inflation and the Fund’s benchmark. It has delivered a total gross annualised return of 10.3% over the 12 months to the end of December 2023 versus 8.1% for its STEFI benchmark. The fund has reliably outperformed this benchmark over one, three and five years.

The Flexible Income Fund protects and grows its investors’ capital by allocating more actively than its peer group across the entire spectrum of income-generating asset classes in SA and offshore. Each asset class is a potential source of return for the fund. The following chart shows how each one has driven the fund’s performance over one, three and five years.

The fund’s holdings in SAGBs are concentrated in issues with maturities between three and seven years, the most liquid part of the yield curve. To gain access to credit, a less liquid asset class than sovereign bonds, the fund allocates to STANLIB’s Income Fund and Extra Income Fund, both of which offer daily liquidity.

Fund highlights

The STANLIB Flexible Income Fund is the ideal steward of investors’ capital in today’s volatile fixed income environment.
The fund’s mandate allows our portfolio managers to invest in a broader set of building blocks than many of their peers, improving their ability to position the fund for conditions throughout the cycle.
For investors who are pre- and post-retirement, the fund offers bond-like returns but with less volatility and a focus on preserving investors’ hard-earned capital.

Investors in the fund benefit from STANLIB’s dominant position in South African fixed income, the experience and diversity of our portfolio managers and their access to global insights through STANLIB’s strategic partnership with J.P. Morgan Asset Management.