Our Funds | STANLIB Absolute Plus Fund

Fund Overview

The portfolio aims to achieve capital growth over time horizons of three years or longer. Over the short term, it aims to profit from rising equity markets while protecting against capital losses in weaker equity markets. This is predominantly an asset allocation fund, spanning local and global assets. Liquid, easily tradeable instruments are used such as shares and bonds, cash and money market that enable the manager to quickly and cost-effectively add or remove exposure to entire asset classes. The fund is hedged to protect against large losses. Fund exposures comply with the Prudential Investment Guidelines for retirement funds as permitted by Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act. The manager may, from time to time, invest in participatory interests or any other form of participation in portfolios of collective investment schemes which are consistent with the fund’s investment policy.

Additional Fund Information

Classification: South African - Multi Asset - Medium Equity
‍Benchmark: CPI +4%
‍Regulation 28: Complies

Fund Manager

Portrait of a man in a dark suit, white shirt, and striped tie, smiling slightly against a blurred office background.

Marius Oberholzer

Overview

STANLIB’s Multi-Asset team adopts a unique multi-dimensional investment framework as well as a proactive approach to risk management to deliver investors stable and real returns over the medium to longer term whilst protecting their capital. Risk management is integral to the investment process, and portfolios are constructed on a marginal contribution to risk basis. Portfolio construction begins with the setting of clear risk parameters that are deliberate and not an afterthought.

Our multi-dimensional framework enables us to identify risks and opportunities across the global investment landscape. This framework includes several dimensions and is not solely valuation-focused. This allows us to draw on a pool of possible opportunities offering different risks, asset classes, geographies and sectors. We evaluate our performance not only on a pure return basis but, more importantly, on a risk-adjusted basis.

We take a broad view of markets and interrogate our views. Our scenario-based tactical asset allocation process then allows us to, take into account a wide range of possible eventualities that could affect markets and the consequent implication for specific assets, their volatility and in some cases correlations. This process forces us to factor in alternate outcomes and contrary views. It gives us a distinct advantage in managing risk and makes our process dynamic and versatile in an ever-changing market environment.

Investment Philosophy

STANLIB Multi-Asset team’s philosophy is anchored on three core beliefs:

Risk is inherent in all assets, even cash. Cash delivers a poor real return in the long term, and is always denominated in a particular currency, so currency risk must be actively managed.
Generating long-term returns is all about managing risk. Managing risk in a portfolio requires more than simply diversifying with traditional asset classes where correlations vary in times of market stress as correlations generally converge. Preserving our clients’ capital during these market events requires a different approach to portfolio construction.
The concentration of risks in equities requires careful management. It is important to include a wide source of returns rather than relying on equities as the predominant growth asset.

Investment Team

Portfolio managers within the Multi-asset team bring relevant but differentiated skills drawn from their diverse backgrounds.
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Differences of opinion and perspective are actively encouraged and accommodated. This is the bedrock on which our philosophy and thinking is built. It is a significant element that makes our team different from any other.

Marius Oberholzer

Marius Oberholzer with more than 20 years’ experience, leads the team of highly experienced, passionate investment professionals who collectively hold more than 200 years of investment experience.

Our Funds

LOCAL

STANLIB Multi-Asset Growth Fund

STANLIB Multi-Asset Cautious Fund

STANLIB Absolute Plus Fund

Why Us?

We aim to deliver absolute returns through a flexible asset allocation framework to embrace growth and management of downside risk to protect capital. We have a diverse skillset and use a mutli-dimensional framework to identify risks and opportunities. We use a wide-ranging toolkit and apply a risk-based approach to assest allocation.