Financial Services
How declining interest rates, others drive a shift in Nigeria’s investment sector
It has been noted that the declining rates of interest have forced savers to turn to mutual funds.
There is an ongoing paradigm shift in the Nigerian investment space, especially due to the crash in interest rates in the first half of 2020.
This fact was revealed in the presentation of a revolutionary report recently released by Coronation Asset Management, titled, “Shifting the Appetite of Nigerian Investors; From Savings to Mutual funds.”
The report highlighted that Nigerian investors are faced with difficult choices, as interest rates have crashed; therefore the options are either to wait for the rates to rise in the future or accept more risk, in order to increase returns. The report also highlighted that over the last 10 years, it has been remarkably easy to beat inflation by buying FGN Treasury Bills, which averaged 2.57% above inflation between 2010- 2019. However, with the crash in interest rates in the first half of the year, this era has ended abruptly.
Gold rush
In a keynote presentation, the Head of Research at Coronation Asset Management, Guy Czartoryski, stated that the declining rates of interests have forced savers to turn to mutual funds, as a way of managing and protecting their money.
He also stated that the total assets under management (AUM), over the last four years 2015-2019, more than doubled in inflation-adjusted terms, and were up in nominal terms by over 305%. He further remarked that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in total AUM from 2015 to 2019, was 22% in inflation-adjusted terms, and 42% in nominal terms. It would be difficult to find a Nigerian industry that matches this.
At the moment this industry is only about one-tenth the size of the Pension Funds, but it is growing fast.
Breakdown analysis
- Money Market funds grew, from 2015 to 2019, at a CAGR of 28% in inflation-adjusted terms and 49% in nominal terms, faster than the fund management industry as a whole. They grew by 11% in the first half of this year.
- Fixed Income funds grew, from 2015 to 2019, at a CAGR of 82% in inflation-adjusted terms, and 111% in nominal terms. Growth has picked up rapidly in the past two years, with growth at 60% during H1 2020, in nominal terms.
Distribution of Mutual Funds
- The AUM of the fund management industry stood at N1.3 trillion (US$3.4bn), as at 30 June 2020.
- The distribution by type is Money Market funds, 61.4%; Fixed Income funds, 16.6%; US dollar bonds funds, 10.4%; Infrastructure fund (one fund), 4.4%; Real Estate funds, 3.2%; Mixed funds (i.e. money market plus fixed income plus equity), 1.9%; Exchange Trade funds, 1.0%; Equity funds, 0.8%; Ethical funds, 0.3%.
Conclusion and the way forward
Guy, in his closing remarks, suggested pragmatic ways by which the mutual funds industry can grow. He opined that the industry needs a new level of risk management. Investment risk is rising as yields fall, and fund managers and investors need to master risk management, and learn the benefits of diversifying their investments across asset classes.
In addition, he called for the need to liberalize information of the industry, especially as it relates to fund performance, “For example, in a developed market such as the UK, it is possible to access the Morningstar website and the Financial Times Fund Comparison website and make easy and effective comparisons across thousands of funds. Nigeria’s regulator, the SEC, is moving the industry in this direction.”
Business
#EndSARS: We were not hacked – CBN
The Central Bank of Nigeria has dismissed rumours that its website was hacked by hacker group, Anonymous.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has debunked rumours that its website was hacked. This was disclosed via its official Twitter handle in the early hours of today.
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The apex bank assured the Nigerian public that there was no cause for alarm and it would do everything within its statutory power to protect its proprietary data from being breached.
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CBN Website Not Hacked pic.twitter.com/nZFdabmARo
— Central Bank of Nigeria (@cenbank) October 16, 2020
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The press release concluded by advising the Nigerian public to ignore such false claims, designed at undermining the credibility of the CBN.
Backstory
Nigerians were shocked yesterday when the website of the CBN was temporarily off the grid, leaving many to suspect that it may have been hacked. Recall that Anonymous, an international hackers group, had earlier claimed via its Twitter handle, that it breached some Nigerian government websites.
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The act is said to be in support of the ongoing #EndSARS protests that have taken over many cities in Nigeria, following calls for the disbandment of the notorious police unit – FSARS.
Financial Services
Stanbic IBTC retains Fitch’s AAA Rating
Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC and Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC were rated high based on the potential support from their parent company, Standard Bank Group.
Globally renowned credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings, has reaffirmed that Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC and its subsidiary, Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC, have retained their National Long-Term’ AAA (nga)’ and National Short-Term’ F1+(nga)’ ratings.
Fitch Ratings is a leading provider of credit ratings, commentary and research for global markets. The National Long-Term’ AAA (nga)’ and National Short-Term’ F1+(nga)’ Ratings are the highest possible ratings on Fitch’s rating scale.
Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC and Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC were rated high based on the potential support from their parent company, Standard Bank Group, which is based in South Africa.
According to Fitch Ratings, both organisations retained their ratings as a result of the vital role they play in Standard Bank Group’s primary operations in West Africa as well as its size and high operational integration.
“The National Long-Term Ratings on Stanbic IBTC Bank’s N30 billion senior unsecured notes and the National Long- and Short-Term Ratings on the N150 billion structured note programme for senior unsecured debt are in line with the Bank’s issuer ratings,” Fitch says.
Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC is a subsidiary of the Standard Bank Group. Its principal operating entity is Stanbic IBTC Bank, a mid-tier commercial bank, which represented 96 per cent of the holding company’s consolidated assets at the end of 2019.
Both entities are highly integrated with Standard Bank Group’s risk-management framework with access to Standard Bank Group’s competitive advantages relative to peers. This also includes connectivity to its network and the ability to serve large domestic and multinational companies.
The ‘AAA (nga)’ is given to issuers with the lowest expectation of default risk when compared with their competitors. The National Short-Term Rating of ‘F1+(nga)’ is assigned to issuers that have the strongest capacity for timely payment of financial commitments in comparison to other issuers in Nigeria
Cryptocurrency
Crypto: Popular Hedge Fund, Grayscale record best quarter ever
Grayscale Investments has had impressive growth after registering its third consecutive record-breaking quarter.
Popular American based hedge fund, Grayscale Investments, has had impressive growth after registering its third consecutive record-breaking quarter with more than a billion inflows recorded.
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Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Investments product remained the most widely selected investment product. Grayscale Investments in its most recent report for Q3 2020 report, total investments into the digital asset managers fund in those three months alone accounted for more than a billion dollars. Adding Q1, Q2, which were also record-breaking at their respective time, the year-to-date inflows surged to $2.4 billion.
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Just for comparing our massive, the recent feat is, Grayscale had received $1.2 billion s2013 to 2019. This makes the year to date for 2020 inflows twice as much.
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What you must know; Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Among Fastest Growing Investment Products: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust experienced $719.3 million in 3Q20 inflows.
- The Trust has seen its assets under management (“AUM”) surge from $1.9 billion to $4.7 billion YTD.
- Grayscale Bitcoin Trust does not operate a redemption program and its shares do not trade on a national securities exchange.
- Trust is therefore not an ETP or ETF. Still, if the Trust were compared to global ETPs and ETFs with over $1B AUM at the start of the year, it would rank as the third-fastest growing product YTD with an AUM increase of approximately 147%.
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Backstory
Recall Nairametrics about five months ago, revealed how institutional investors and hedge funds around the world have been rushing to have a stake in crypto assets which all have been outperforming other financial assets in 2020.
A popular hedge fund based in New York –Grayscale Investments –caught the investment world by surprise by buying up Bitcoin (BTC) at a great rate in recent months.
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What you need to know about Hedge Funds; They are firms that offer alternative investments to a specific type of investors (high net worth individuals), in a bid to protect their investment portfolios from market uncertainty, while generating positive returns regardless of market sentiments.
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John
October 9, 2020 at 2:49 pm
Very serious questions begging for answer.
1. Why is SEC not as active as CBN as a regulator?
2. Why is there no cap on CEO of asset management firms tenure?
3. Why is SEC so lackadaisical about rampant lack of corporate governance in asset mgt industry?