Manager Research

Old Mutual Investment Group (OMIG) amalgamated several funds managed by their equity franchise, Old Mutual Equities (OME), into the Old Mutual Equity Fund (launched Feb 2018) at the end of May. The funds that formed part of this amalgamation include:

• Old Mutual Financial Services Fund


• Old Mutual Industrial Fund


• Old Mutual Growth Fund


• Old Mutual Top Companies Fund


• Old Mutual Top 20 Fund

The amalgamation reduces the number of funds that the boutique is responsible for from 9 to 4, with the Mining and Resources fund, Gold fund, Old Mutual Equity Fund and Old Mutual Investors’ fund remaining. The narrower fund range does enable the investment team to implement their investment ideas with greater focus.

OMIG is underdoing several changes following the separation of the broader group into separate UK and SA businesses in 2018 and following the appointment of Khaya Gobodo as OMIG MD. The changes include the closing down of the Global Emerging Markets (GEM) boutique, the merging of the GEM funds into one passive index fund, and the appointment of Siboniso Nxumalo (previously the head of the GEM boutique) as co-head of OME, in anticipation of long standing OME head Peter Linley’s departure in September 2019.

We will be spending time with Khaya and the equity investment team in the next few months to get an idea of the scope of the changes and their strategy for the OME boutique going forward. We have placed the Old Mutual Investor’s fund (not being amalgamated but still exposed to the changes) under review until we have spent time with the team. We have not covered the new Old Mutual Equity fund, so we don’t have line of sight of what investors that were in the Growth and Top Companies funds can expect going forward unfortunately. Consequently, we will be removing our coverage and ratings from the funds.