STANLIB Lesotho Income Fund
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STANLIB Lesotho Income Fund Quarterly update at 30 June 2021 Who are the investment managers? STANLIB Lesotho (Pty) Ltd, a licensed asset manager under the Central Bank of Lesotho (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations, 2018, manage the investments of the portfolio. Investment Manager 1 Legal Name was established in August 2001 as a joint venture between Standard Lesotho Bank and STANLIB South Africa, with management control residing with STANLIB South Africa. Victor Mphaphuli Sylvester Kobo BCom (Hons)(Economics), GEDP BSc (Hons)(Pure Mathematics) Co-head of Fixed Interest Senior Portfolio manager Victor is a key member of STANLIB’s multi-award-winning Fixed Sylvester joined STANLIB in 2013 as a Money Market dealer and a Interest team, one of the largest in South Africa. Victor is one of the trainee portfolio manager. He then moved to the bond team, top fixed income fund managers in the country and has won ABSIP assuming a role of portfolio manager and trader. Sylvester started Awards for fund management as well as Raging Bull Awards. He his career in 2009 at ABSA Capital as a credit quantitative analyst initially joined the team as a bond dealer and later assumed added focusing on pricing and management of risk on all derivatives. In responsibility for portfolio management. He was promoted to head of 2012 he assumed the lead role for credit in the Absa/Barclays Africa Bond and Income Funds in 2008, assuming full responsibility for the Integration roll-out of the sales and trading programme to 11 Barclays daily management of these funds. In 2016 Victor was promoted to Africa countries. Sylvester’s BSc from Wits University includes co-head of Fixed Interest which he jointly manages with Henk Viljoen. majors in pure maths and economics. He then went on to get his Victor began his financial services career as a trainee foreign honours degree in pure mathematics in 2009 from the same currency dealer with Standard Bank’s treasury division in 1996. After university. gaining experience as a bond market dealer with Nedbank Investment Bank, he joined STANLIB’s forerunner Liberty Asset Management in 2001. Fund review The STANLIB Lesotho Income Fund increased from ML1.55 billion to ML1.62 billion during the second quarter. The fund continued to deliver good performance compared with money market returns. Our significant allocation to high-quality credits, cash and floating rate notes was a major contributor to performance, along with selling fixed rate bonds into strength. The fund remains defensive in this uncertain environment. It is largely invested in floating rate instruments, and its modified duration was decreased to 0.33 years from 0.6 years in the previous quarter. Market overview Following a particularly challenging first quarter, focus shifted to monetary policy authorities to calm inflationary fears building up in financial markets. In the US, these fears were fuelled by massive government stimulus directed at households and businesses, along with vaccine roll-outs. In May, US employment data was significantly below expectations, which allayed inflation concerns and bolstered the case for the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to continue supporting the economy with accommodative monetary policies. Against this favourable global backdrop, the US dollar underperformed, especially against the euro, to reach a low of EUR1.22/$ in May. Emerging market (EM) currencies also had a good run against the dollar, with the rand strengthening to R13.43/$ in Q2, bolstered by favourable terms of trade, making it one of the top-performing commodities-based EM currencies. However, after its June policy meeting, the Fed’s Open Market committee’s tone was more hawkish than the market had anticipated, even though it unanimously kept the Fed funds rate at 0-0.25% and maintained asset purchases at $120 billion per month. The Fed Chair noted that initial discussions about tapering have commenced and provided an updated dot plots projection with earlier rate hikes. Thirteen of the 18 voting members are now pencilling in two interest rate hikes in 2023, whereas in the previous meeting no hikes were expected until 2024. Markets reacted with a sell- off in equities, rising bond yields and a strengthening dollar. Domestically, the impact of reduced weekly nominal auction and tax receipts running ahead of budget proved to be particularly beneficial for long- dated bonds. The government took significant steps to reform the economy. There was a surprise announcement from President Cyril Ramaphosa allowing the private sector to produce up to 100MW of power without a licence. The government also concluded the partial privatisation of SAA. After a challenging start, vaccine distribution has gained momentum. South African bond yields moved lower across the board, and long-end bond yields fell further than the benchmark bond, the R186. As anticipated, local inflation accelerated faster than expected, with a year-on-year CPI print of 5.2% in Q2. This was attributed to base effects and higher administered prices. Market participants, anticipating that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) will join other central bankers in curbing the rise in inflation, have started pricing in interest rate hikes as early as the July MPC meeting. Looking ahead We expect the market will be more focused on the effect of US data on the Fed’s stance towards policy normalisation and asset purchase tapering. The upcoming annual central banks’ symposium at Jackson Hole, along with later FOMC meetings, will be the key event risks. Although social unrest erupted in SA after the arrest of the former president for contempt of court, we expect the markets will overlook short-term volatility, but it will adversely affect wage negotiations. Positive local developments bode well for long-end bonds, while mounting pressure on the SARB to normalise rates will keep short-end bonds elevated. The commentary gives the views of the portfolio manager at the time of writing. Any forecasts or commentary included in this document are not guaranteed to occur. This is a Quarterly Report (QR). Please refer to the Monthly Fact Sheet (MFS) for additional information relating Issue Date: 25 July 2021 to this portfolio and to Disclosures for information relating to the content of this document. Page 1 of 2 STANLIB Lesotho Income Fund Quarterly update at 30 June 2021 Change in allocation of the fund over the quarter Fund classes Asset type Q2 2021 Q1 2021 Change Class Type TER Price (spu) Units NAV (Maloti) Lesotho Cash & Mny Mkt 12.94 10.95 1.99 A Retail 1.29 95.98 406,289,475.69 389,972,703.51 Namibia Cash & Mny Mkt 0.08 0.55 -0.47 B1 Retail 1.07 96.05 1,277,736,392.74 1,227,322,301.40 Namibia Fixed Interest 6.78 8.01 -1.24 All Price, Units and NAV data as at 30 June 2021. South Africa Cash & Mny Mkt 0.71 0.57 0.14 Units - amount of participatory interests (units) in issue in relevant class. TER - 1 Year Total Expense Ratio (%) including VAT as at 31/03/2021. The Total Expense ratio South Africa Fixed Interest 79.49 79.91 -0.42 (TER) shows the charges, levies and fees relating to the management of the portfolio and is expressed as a percentage of the average net asset value of the portfolio, calculated over the period shown and annualised to the most recently completed quarter. A higher TER does not necessarily imply a poor return, nor does a low TER imply a good return. The current TER should not be regarded as an indication of future TERs. Disclosures Collective Investment Schemes are generally medium to long term investments. The value of participatory interests may go down as well as up and past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. CIS are traded at ruling prices and can engage in borrowing and scrip lending. The STANLIB Lesotho Income Fund is a portfolio of the STANLIB Lesotho Collective Investment Scheme (the Scheme). The Scheme is licenced, regulated and supervised by the Central Bank of Lesotho (the Registrar) under the Central Bank of Lesotho (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations, 2018. The asset manager of the Scheme is Investment Manager 1 Legal Name (the Asset Manager). The Asset Manager is licensed by the Registrar under the Central Bank of Lesotho (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations, 2018. An investor has a right to choose an investment option, choosing any particular investment option does not guarantee any particular investment outcome. The custodian/trustee of the Scheme is Minet Lesotho. The investments of this portfolio are managed by the Asset Manager. Prices are calculated and published on each working day, these prices are available on the Asset Manager’s website (http://ww2.stanlib.com/Lesotho) and in Lesotho printed news media. This portfolio is valued at 15h00. Forward pricing is used. Investments and repurchases will receive the price of the same day if received prior to 15h00. This portfolio is permitted to invest in foreign securities. Should the portfolio include any foreign securities these could expose the portfolio to any of the following risks: potential constraints on liquidity and the repatriation of funds; macroeconomic risks; political risks; foreign exchange risks; tax risks; settlement risks; and potential limitations on the availability of market information. This is a portfolio that derives its income primarily from interest-bearing instruments. The yield (if shown) is a current effective yield calculated daily. All performance returns/figures quoted are shown in LSL and are based on data sourced from Morningstar or Statpro and are as at 30 June 2021. Annualised return figures are the compound annualised growth rate (CAGR) calculated from the cumulative return for the period being measured. These annualised returns provide an indication of the annual return achieved over the period had an investment been held for the entire period.