Manager Research

Prudential

Prudential announced yesterday that Marc Beckenstrater, their Chief Investment Officer (CIO), will be leaving in early 2017 to join M&G Investments in London (Prudential’s parent company and majority shareholder).  Despite the strength of the broader Prudential investment team and the fact that an association with Marc will remain through the M&G link, losing a CIO in the SA team is a very material change especially given the fact that Marc has been instrumental in developing and embedding the investment philosophy and process at Prudential over many years.  Prudential have indicated that they have decided not to fill the CIO role at this point in time with the investment leadership shared between Chris Woods (Head of Equity), David Knee (Head of Fixed Income) and Michael Moyle (Head of Real Return).

There is still time before Marc’s departure, however we will be meeting with Marc and the rest of the investment leadership at Prudential this month to understand in detail how the transition will be managed.  Once we have assessed the change, we will provide feedback and consider whether there should be any change to our ratings on the range of Prudential funds.

Click here to read Prudential's announcement.

Prescient

Prescient recently issued a SENS (Stock Exchange News Service) announcement with Stellar Capital Partners (Stellar) about a proposed transaction involving Prescient’s financial services operations.  The Prescient Group is a listed business that is effectively made up of a Financial Services group and an Information Management Services group.  If the transaction goes ahead, the Financial Services part of the business (which includes the asset manager) will be unbundled and delisted, with the deal contingent on the successful introduction of a significant BEE shareholder to the new unlisted business.  Stellar will also be looking to acquire any shares from Prescient Holdings shareholders who choose to exit their holding in the new unlisted entity. 

In 2015, Stellar bought (and then delisted) Cadiz with the aim of refocusing the business to be a pure asset management business.  The question going forward is whether Stellar is looking to be a shareholder in a number of different asset management businesses or whether the intention is to merge the likes of Cadiz and Prescient, forming one asset manager. 

We are meeting with Prescient in the coming weeks to ensure we have a clear understanding of the future direction of the business.  In particular, we would be looking for comfort from Prescient that key investment people are at ease with the proposed changes.  Again once we have done the research on the changes, we will provide feedback on our views.

Click here to read Prescient's announcement.