In the land of giants
STEPHEN CRANSTON: Yes, size counts. Especially when it comes to asset managers
The PIC seems like a colossus until you see the size of the global managers
It certainly gives some perspective to see how huge many of the world’s largest asset managers have become. We tend to see the Public Investment Corp (PIC) as a colossus. And in emerging market terms that is true. Its main client, the Government Employees Pension Fund, is one of the 12 largest retirement funds in the emerging world. But even at today’s relatively favourable rand exchange rate, the PIC manages about €150bn. The 25th-largest asset manager in the world, Insight Investment Management, runs €613bn, about four times the size. The largest fund manager in the world, BlackRock, has an office in SA and local investors can buy its index funds, as exchange traded funds or as more conventional mutual funds. BlackRock has an interesting history. It was founded by entrepreneurs from the US West Coast, headed by Larry Fink, as a fixed-interest house. It made two transformative acquisitions in the years around the global financial crisis, first Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, whi...
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