Manager Research
all members of our manager research team have over ten years of investment experience.
ABSA Asset Management has announced that Errol Shear will be leaving the business. He was lead portfolio manager on both the ABSA Select Equity and Absolute funds, both funds with decent track records under his tenure.
This move appears to have taken ABSA by surprise. During our last review in 2015 we identified the key risks with these funds being the lack of a succession plan for Errol (he preferred working outside of the broader team and process), and the potential for disruption given the new franchise type business model being implemented. It seems these concerns have been borne out in the recent change.
The funds will be managed by ‘caretakers’:
- Eben Mare (ex Stanlib, as was Errol) will take over the management of the Absolute fund. Eben is a quantitative analyst and manager, a somewhat different proposition to the simpler/old-school way of managing money which Errol followed in his funds. He will be assisted by Ntobeko Stampu who has experience at a number of managers in addition to the Reserve Bank.
- Kurt Benn and Stephen Arthur will take over management of the Select Equity fund. Kurt is ex-Cadiz, while Stephen has been with the ABSA business for over 10 years and is currently Head of Equities.
Given the changes, we believe there will be substantial change in the underlying funds as Errol followed an individual, rather than team based process. As such, we are placing the funds under review to assess the extent of the changes and to evaluate the short and longer term plans for the management of the funds.
Manager Change: ABSA Select Equity and ABSA Absolute Funds
4 Apr 2017