South Africa’s asset management industry grows to R3.27 trillion

The local Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) industry grew to R3.27 trillion in assets under management (AUM) in the first quarter of 2023.

This is a significant increase from the R3.16 trillion in AUM at the end of December 2022.

This was revealed in the CIS industry statistics for the quarter and year ended March 2023, released by the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA).

The statistics showed participating CIS management companies achieved total net inflows of R114.8 billion over the 12 months to the end of March 2023.

ASISA senior policy advisor Sunette Mulder said the industry reported net inflows of R34.8 billion for the first three months of this year, with South African Multi-Asset and SA Interest Bearing portfolios attracting the bulk of the net inflows.

Mulder said the strong growth in AUM and the healthy net inflows were achieved despite significant local and global market turmoil during the first quarter. 

In South Africa, climbing inflation triggered a higher-than-expected interest rate hike of 50 basis points in March 2023, which, combined with ongoing power outages, placed significant downward pressure on the economy. 

This resulted in negative investor sentiment from global investors driven by heightened risk aversion, which saw the rand start the descent in the first quarter to its now-historic lows.