GenAfrica Asset Manager overtook the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in portfolio size at the end of June, marking the first time the State-owned fund has fallen behind a private fund manager in nearly seven years.
Data from the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) show that GenAfrica had Sh353.8 billion worth of assets under management on its books in June, compared to the NSSF’s Sh308.26 billion worth of assets.
In December 2022, the NSSF held the top spot with assets under management worth Sh295.65 billion, ahead of Sanlam Investments East Africa’s Sh277.42 billion and GenAfrica at Sh272.35 billion.
The NSSF has led the industry in AuM since the end of 2016 when it regained the position it had ceded three years earlier to PineBridge Investments East Africa, which was in 2017 taken over by South African financial services group Sanlam and rebranded Sanlam Investment East Africa Ltd.
GenAfrica’s jump in assets, which has taken it above both the NSSF and Sanlam, came in a period when the company expanded into the unit trust business, which helped it diversify into the retail market.
“In terms of investments by specific fund managers and approved issuers, GenAfrica asset managers had the largest share of assets under management amounting to Sh353.80 billion, which translates to 22.13 percent of the total assets under fund management,” said the RBA in its industry report for June 2023.
“This was followed by Sanlam Investments East Africa Company in position two with assets amounting to Sh260.75 billion, which translates to 16.31 percent of the total assets under fund management.”
The two private firms have over the last few years alternated in their position as the top private fund manager.
Although GenAfrica now has more assets under its management compared to NSSF, some of these are actually owned by the State-owned fund, which cedes the management of the bulk of its own assets to private fund managers.
By the end of June, the NSSF internally managed assets amounted to Sh46.61 billion, with the remaining Sh261.65 billion under the oversight of six private fund managers.
GenAfrica oversees the biggest slice of these externally managed NSSF funds at Sh58.98 billion, followed by Old Mutual Asset Managers (Kenya) Limited (Sh51.1 billion), Co-op Trust (Sh50.48 billion) and African Alliance Kenya (Sh46.4 billion). Other are CIC Asset Management (Sh27.99 billion) and Sanlam (Sh26.67 billion).
British American Asset Managers Limited was until December 2020 the biggest manager of NSSF assets at Sh82.3 billion, but was dropped from the list of investment managers contracted by the fund to oversee its portfolio.
This allowed the likes of Co-op Trust, Sanlam and CIC Asset management to come in and claim a piece of the portfolio.
