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Transcript of Nigerian Mutual Fund Managers Transparency Report...
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
1 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Nigerian Mutual Fund Managers Transparency Report 2017
Innocent Unah+234 810 639 5676innocentunahbusinessdayonlinecom
Sandra Okougbegun+234 909 564 9198okougbegunsandrabusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
2 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
3 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BusinessDay Research amp Intelligence Unit (BRIU) is a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) within the BusinessDay Group publishers of Nigeriarsquos leading business amp fi-nancial newspaper BRIU operates as an independent department within the organisation The Unitrsquos products and services comprisebull Cutting-edge business intelligence and market research studies bull Industry analysis amp reportsbull Feasibility studies amp business plansbull Client-specific research projects and strategic planning bull Polling and surveys covering industries and business segments
Our areas of focus include market and industry research data mining and eco-nomic and financial analysis BRIU seeks to provide you with rare insights from our robust economic forecasting models and analytics
We serve clients from such diverse corporate sectors as banking insurance financial services manufacturing healthcare ICT BRIU also consults for state and federal government ministries agencies and departments
Our team of research analysts is committed to providing you with the latest insights and perceptions on current trends and developments in your sector and providing you with intelligence on the Nigerian and global economies
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
4 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This document has been prepared in good faith on the basis of information available at the date of publication
BusinessDay Research amp Intelligence Unit (BRIU) does not warrant the accuracy reliability or completeness of the information in this report for the purpose of making any investment decision Readers are advised to assess the relevance and accuracy of the content of this publication against the limitations noted herein
BRIU will not be liable for any loss damage cost or expense incurred or arising by reason of any person using or relying on information in this publication
The opinionsconclusions and suggestions in this report do not represent investment or other advice and should therefore not be construed as such
This publication is a copyright Apart from any use as permitted under Copyright Act 1968 Nigeria no part contained herein may be reproduced copied or duplicated in any form without prior written consent of BRIU
copy BRIU 2017 6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
5 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Contents Page
Highlights 6-7
Objective 8
Background 8
Mutual Funds Types and Benefits 9Types of Mutual Funds 9Benefits of Mutual Funds 9-10
The Need for Transparency 11
Transparency Rating Criteria and Methodology 12-13
Presentation and Interpretation of Results 13-18
Addendum On Findings 19
Limitations 19
Conclusion 20
Recommendations 20
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
6 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FUND MANAGERS in Nigeria lack full transparency as there is no for-mal requirement for them to provide detailed and current information on their mutual funds to investors
Even though there is no regulatory requirement for full disclosure of their fund activities to the investing public it is increasingly imperative that existing and prospective inves-tors be provided with detailed and current information concerning the mutual funds so that they will be able to fully assess the expected re-turns and the attendant risks inher-ent in their investment in any of the funds Comprehensive and timely information will also allow them to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
We understand that the fund man-agers do make information on these funds available on request but this often happens after they might have convinced many to invest in their mutual funds with benefits that only they know as these cannot be sub-jected to independent verification This has fuelled speculations that asset managers might be making fat profits from underperforming funds a fund that has a high expense ratio
HIGHLIGHTS
may have lower return relative to a similar fund that has higher return There has therefore been a strident call for a paradigm from the current regime of opacity by fund managers to one of transparency
This report sets out to ascertain the transparency level of Nigerian mu-tual fund managers by evaluating the nature and extent of information disclosed by each of them on the mutual funds they manage
To do this we checked the websites of the fund managers as the primary source of information with the ex-pectation of obtaining the expense ratios the fund fees and other infor-mation We expected to obtain com-prehensive fact sheets of the various funds for the information
With little information on the web-sites of most of the fund manag-ers we sent e-mails and made calls to them However while just half of them responded by telling us to give them up to 48 hours to supply us with the information we required the other half did not respond and only Investment One Funds Asset Management Ltd responded with information on their mutual funds
Comprehen-sive and timely information will also allow investors to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
7 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Our findings show that the top seven (7) transparent fund manag-ers in the order of their ranking are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd AXA Mansard Investment Ltd Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd ARM In-vestment Managers Ltd and Lotus Capital Ltd These were followed by First City Asset Management Ltd and Stanbic IBTC Asset Manage-ment Ltd
The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Afrinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Management Ltd Cordros Asset Man-agement Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capi-tal Ltd SFS Capital Nigeria Ltd and Ze-nith Asset Management Ltd These fund managers ranked 12th on our transpar-ency scale having garnered a transpar-ency level of only 38 per cent
The only fund manager with infor-mation on expense ratio on its web-site is the Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet as at October 9 2017) Investment
One Funds Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet for the third quar-ter of 2017) and Lotus Capital Ltd (with fact sheet as at September 30 2017) First City Asset Management Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
The most transparent of all the mu-tual funds are the bond funds with a transparency level of 5750 per cent They are followed by ethical funds and equity funds which have transparency levels 5160 per cent and 5133 per cent Mixed funds money market funds and fixed in-come funds have transparency lev-els of 4746 per cent 4715 per cent and 4470 per cent respectively
We recommend that fund managers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
The Nigerian Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Association of Nige-ria (FMAN) should also entrench the practice of full disclosure of infor-mation in the mutual funds industry as this will engender transparency among fund managers
We recommend that fund man-agers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
8 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
The objective of this report is to evaluate fund managers transparency level in Nigeria and specifically to ascertain information disclosed by fund manag-ers on all the mutual funds they manage
One of the most important mecha-nisms for investor protection in any financial market is the provision of vital and up-to-date information to investors But not all fund managers in Nigeria provide recent facts on the funds they manage Also FMAN and SEC seem not to emphasise at the moment transparency by fund managers This is against the prac-tice of other investment associations and regulators in other countries In the UK for example the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) en-courages member firms to provide sufficient information for investors to make decisions
In an ideal investment world inves-tors ought to be properly informed in a stress-free manner complete data on the various costs involved in an investment current perfor-
OBJECTIVE
BACKGROUNDmance in terms of returns on the fund managers website Rather than wait for the investors to request for information Nigerian fund manag-ers should give investors all the in-formation they need upfront Since information provided only on high level returns data are becoming less important for investorsrsquo use in deci-sion-making
Some investors chose mutual funds which have diversification benefits and relatively low volatil-ity as their preferred investment vehicles Mutual funds also tend to involve less transaction cost and other fees Nevertheless it is still possible for an individual to invest in these funds at huge fees with-out knowing it this gives rise to a transparency issue as such fees can reduce their real returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
9 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
A MUTUAL FUND is a profession-ally managed investment vehicle that comprises a pool of moneys from many investors Mutual funds typically invest in securities such as stocks bonds and money market securities Sometimes it invests in a combination of these securities as well as other cash alternatives
Types of Mutual FundsThis research focuses on six types of mutual funds currently managed in Nigeria equity funds money market funds bond funds mixed funds eth-ical funds and fixed income funds
Equity Funds Equity funds invest in stocks of companies from various sectors They usually aim to grow faster than money market or fixed income funds
Money Market Funds These funds invest in short-term fixed income securities such as government bonds treasury bills certificate of deposits etc The purpose is usually to enable investors put their mon-eys in easily-accessible and cash-
MUTUAL FUNDS TYPES AND BENEFITSequivalent assets
Fixed income funds They invest in assets that pay a fixed rate of return and aim to have money coming into the fund on a regular basis mostly through the interest earned
Ethical Funds These mutual funds in-vest only in securities of firms that meet certain social and ethical standards
Bond Funds These funds invest in bonds and other debt securities Most bond funds comprise of cor-porate and government bonds with varying maturity dates
Mixed Funds Mixed funds (also known as balanced funds) aim to provide growth and income oppor-tunities to investors at reduced risk They typically invest in a mixture of equities bonds and other fixed in-come instruments
Benefits of Mutual FundsThere are various benefits of invest-ing in mutual funds and we explain a few of them below
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10 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Diversification Diversification in-volves the mixture of investments within a portfolio and itrsquos used to manage risk Mutual funds can invest in dozens hundreds and thousands of different investment securities making diversification possible by investing in just one fund
Accessibility Mutual funds are easy to buy even beginning investors can easily open an account within minutes
Professional management Mutual funds have professionals who man-age such funds by also research-ing and analysing investments so
investors donrsquot have to These pro-fessional have the skills desire and patience required to do their job well in any professional pursuit Mu-tual funds enable investors to do a lot with their life rather than spend-ing time and energy on investment matters Hence when buying a mu-tual fund you are also choosing a professional money manager
Liquidity One of the advantages of mutual funds is that assets are liquid Liquidity simply refers to convert-ing your assets to cash with relative ease For mutual funds an investor can convert asset to cash by quickly selling it to another investor
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11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
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14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
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16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
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17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
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19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
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20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
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21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
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22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
2 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
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3 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BusinessDay Research amp Intelligence Unit (BRIU) is a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) within the BusinessDay Group publishers of Nigeriarsquos leading business amp fi-nancial newspaper BRIU operates as an independent department within the organisation The Unitrsquos products and services comprisebull Cutting-edge business intelligence and market research studies bull Industry analysis amp reportsbull Feasibility studies amp business plansbull Client-specific research projects and strategic planning bull Polling and surveys covering industries and business segments
Our areas of focus include market and industry research data mining and eco-nomic and financial analysis BRIU seeks to provide you with rare insights from our robust economic forecasting models and analytics
We serve clients from such diverse corporate sectors as banking insurance financial services manufacturing healthcare ICT BRIU also consults for state and federal government ministries agencies and departments
Our team of research analysts is committed to providing you with the latest insights and perceptions on current trends and developments in your sector and providing you with intelligence on the Nigerian and global economies
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
4 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This document has been prepared in good faith on the basis of information available at the date of publication
BusinessDay Research amp Intelligence Unit (BRIU) does not warrant the accuracy reliability or completeness of the information in this report for the purpose of making any investment decision Readers are advised to assess the relevance and accuracy of the content of this publication against the limitations noted herein
BRIU will not be liable for any loss damage cost or expense incurred or arising by reason of any person using or relying on information in this publication
The opinionsconclusions and suggestions in this report do not represent investment or other advice and should therefore not be construed as such
This publication is a copyright Apart from any use as permitted under Copyright Act 1968 Nigeria no part contained herein may be reproduced copied or duplicated in any form without prior written consent of BRIU
copy BRIU 2017 6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
5 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Contents Page
Highlights 6-7
Objective 8
Background 8
Mutual Funds Types and Benefits 9Types of Mutual Funds 9Benefits of Mutual Funds 9-10
The Need for Transparency 11
Transparency Rating Criteria and Methodology 12-13
Presentation and Interpretation of Results 13-18
Addendum On Findings 19
Limitations 19
Conclusion 20
Recommendations 20
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6 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FUND MANAGERS in Nigeria lack full transparency as there is no for-mal requirement for them to provide detailed and current information on their mutual funds to investors
Even though there is no regulatory requirement for full disclosure of their fund activities to the investing public it is increasingly imperative that existing and prospective inves-tors be provided with detailed and current information concerning the mutual funds so that they will be able to fully assess the expected re-turns and the attendant risks inher-ent in their investment in any of the funds Comprehensive and timely information will also allow them to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
We understand that the fund man-agers do make information on these funds available on request but this often happens after they might have convinced many to invest in their mutual funds with benefits that only they know as these cannot be sub-jected to independent verification This has fuelled speculations that asset managers might be making fat profits from underperforming funds a fund that has a high expense ratio
HIGHLIGHTS
may have lower return relative to a similar fund that has higher return There has therefore been a strident call for a paradigm from the current regime of opacity by fund managers to one of transparency
This report sets out to ascertain the transparency level of Nigerian mu-tual fund managers by evaluating the nature and extent of information disclosed by each of them on the mutual funds they manage
To do this we checked the websites of the fund managers as the primary source of information with the ex-pectation of obtaining the expense ratios the fund fees and other infor-mation We expected to obtain com-prehensive fact sheets of the various funds for the information
With little information on the web-sites of most of the fund manag-ers we sent e-mails and made calls to them However while just half of them responded by telling us to give them up to 48 hours to supply us with the information we required the other half did not respond and only Investment One Funds Asset Management Ltd responded with information on their mutual funds
Comprehen-sive and timely information will also allow investors to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
7 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Our findings show that the top seven (7) transparent fund manag-ers in the order of their ranking are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd AXA Mansard Investment Ltd Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd ARM In-vestment Managers Ltd and Lotus Capital Ltd These were followed by First City Asset Management Ltd and Stanbic IBTC Asset Manage-ment Ltd
The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Afrinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Management Ltd Cordros Asset Man-agement Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capi-tal Ltd SFS Capital Nigeria Ltd and Ze-nith Asset Management Ltd These fund managers ranked 12th on our transpar-ency scale having garnered a transpar-ency level of only 38 per cent
The only fund manager with infor-mation on expense ratio on its web-site is the Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet as at October 9 2017) Investment
One Funds Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet for the third quar-ter of 2017) and Lotus Capital Ltd (with fact sheet as at September 30 2017) First City Asset Management Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
The most transparent of all the mu-tual funds are the bond funds with a transparency level of 5750 per cent They are followed by ethical funds and equity funds which have transparency levels 5160 per cent and 5133 per cent Mixed funds money market funds and fixed in-come funds have transparency lev-els of 4746 per cent 4715 per cent and 4470 per cent respectively
We recommend that fund managers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
The Nigerian Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Association of Nige-ria (FMAN) should also entrench the practice of full disclosure of infor-mation in the mutual funds industry as this will engender transparency among fund managers
We recommend that fund man-agers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
8 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
The objective of this report is to evaluate fund managers transparency level in Nigeria and specifically to ascertain information disclosed by fund manag-ers on all the mutual funds they manage
One of the most important mecha-nisms for investor protection in any financial market is the provision of vital and up-to-date information to investors But not all fund managers in Nigeria provide recent facts on the funds they manage Also FMAN and SEC seem not to emphasise at the moment transparency by fund managers This is against the prac-tice of other investment associations and regulators in other countries In the UK for example the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) en-courages member firms to provide sufficient information for investors to make decisions
In an ideal investment world inves-tors ought to be properly informed in a stress-free manner complete data on the various costs involved in an investment current perfor-
OBJECTIVE
BACKGROUNDmance in terms of returns on the fund managers website Rather than wait for the investors to request for information Nigerian fund manag-ers should give investors all the in-formation they need upfront Since information provided only on high level returns data are becoming less important for investorsrsquo use in deci-sion-making
Some investors chose mutual funds which have diversification benefits and relatively low volatil-ity as their preferred investment vehicles Mutual funds also tend to involve less transaction cost and other fees Nevertheless it is still possible for an individual to invest in these funds at huge fees with-out knowing it this gives rise to a transparency issue as such fees can reduce their real returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
9 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
A MUTUAL FUND is a profession-ally managed investment vehicle that comprises a pool of moneys from many investors Mutual funds typically invest in securities such as stocks bonds and money market securities Sometimes it invests in a combination of these securities as well as other cash alternatives
Types of Mutual FundsThis research focuses on six types of mutual funds currently managed in Nigeria equity funds money market funds bond funds mixed funds eth-ical funds and fixed income funds
Equity Funds Equity funds invest in stocks of companies from various sectors They usually aim to grow faster than money market or fixed income funds
Money Market Funds These funds invest in short-term fixed income securities such as government bonds treasury bills certificate of deposits etc The purpose is usually to enable investors put their mon-eys in easily-accessible and cash-
MUTUAL FUNDS TYPES AND BENEFITSequivalent assets
Fixed income funds They invest in assets that pay a fixed rate of return and aim to have money coming into the fund on a regular basis mostly through the interest earned
Ethical Funds These mutual funds in-vest only in securities of firms that meet certain social and ethical standards
Bond Funds These funds invest in bonds and other debt securities Most bond funds comprise of cor-porate and government bonds with varying maturity dates
Mixed Funds Mixed funds (also known as balanced funds) aim to provide growth and income oppor-tunities to investors at reduced risk They typically invest in a mixture of equities bonds and other fixed in-come instruments
Benefits of Mutual FundsThere are various benefits of invest-ing in mutual funds and we explain a few of them below
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10 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Diversification Diversification in-volves the mixture of investments within a portfolio and itrsquos used to manage risk Mutual funds can invest in dozens hundreds and thousands of different investment securities making diversification possible by investing in just one fund
Accessibility Mutual funds are easy to buy even beginning investors can easily open an account within minutes
Professional management Mutual funds have professionals who man-age such funds by also research-ing and analysing investments so
investors donrsquot have to These pro-fessional have the skills desire and patience required to do their job well in any professional pursuit Mu-tual funds enable investors to do a lot with their life rather than spend-ing time and energy on investment matters Hence when buying a mu-tual fund you are also choosing a professional money manager
Liquidity One of the advantages of mutual funds is that assets are liquid Liquidity simply refers to convert-ing your assets to cash with relative ease For mutual funds an investor can convert asset to cash by quickly selling it to another investor
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11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
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14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
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17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
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19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
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20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
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21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
3 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BusinessDay Research amp Intelligence Unit (BRIU) is a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) within the BusinessDay Group publishers of Nigeriarsquos leading business amp fi-nancial newspaper BRIU operates as an independent department within the organisation The Unitrsquos products and services comprisebull Cutting-edge business intelligence and market research studies bull Industry analysis amp reportsbull Feasibility studies amp business plansbull Client-specific research projects and strategic planning bull Polling and surveys covering industries and business segments
Our areas of focus include market and industry research data mining and eco-nomic and financial analysis BRIU seeks to provide you with rare insights from our robust economic forecasting models and analytics
We serve clients from such diverse corporate sectors as banking insurance financial services manufacturing healthcare ICT BRIU also consults for state and federal government ministries agencies and departments
Our team of research analysts is committed to providing you with the latest insights and perceptions on current trends and developments in your sector and providing you with intelligence on the Nigerian and global economies
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
4 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This document has been prepared in good faith on the basis of information available at the date of publication
BusinessDay Research amp Intelligence Unit (BRIU) does not warrant the accuracy reliability or completeness of the information in this report for the purpose of making any investment decision Readers are advised to assess the relevance and accuracy of the content of this publication against the limitations noted herein
BRIU will not be liable for any loss damage cost or expense incurred or arising by reason of any person using or relying on information in this publication
The opinionsconclusions and suggestions in this report do not represent investment or other advice and should therefore not be construed as such
This publication is a copyright Apart from any use as permitted under Copyright Act 1968 Nigeria no part contained herein may be reproduced copied or duplicated in any form without prior written consent of BRIU
copy BRIU 2017 6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
5 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Contents Page
Highlights 6-7
Objective 8
Background 8
Mutual Funds Types and Benefits 9Types of Mutual Funds 9Benefits of Mutual Funds 9-10
The Need for Transparency 11
Transparency Rating Criteria and Methodology 12-13
Presentation and Interpretation of Results 13-18
Addendum On Findings 19
Limitations 19
Conclusion 20
Recommendations 20
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6 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FUND MANAGERS in Nigeria lack full transparency as there is no for-mal requirement for them to provide detailed and current information on their mutual funds to investors
Even though there is no regulatory requirement for full disclosure of their fund activities to the investing public it is increasingly imperative that existing and prospective inves-tors be provided with detailed and current information concerning the mutual funds so that they will be able to fully assess the expected re-turns and the attendant risks inher-ent in their investment in any of the funds Comprehensive and timely information will also allow them to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
We understand that the fund man-agers do make information on these funds available on request but this often happens after they might have convinced many to invest in their mutual funds with benefits that only they know as these cannot be sub-jected to independent verification This has fuelled speculations that asset managers might be making fat profits from underperforming funds a fund that has a high expense ratio
HIGHLIGHTS
may have lower return relative to a similar fund that has higher return There has therefore been a strident call for a paradigm from the current regime of opacity by fund managers to one of transparency
This report sets out to ascertain the transparency level of Nigerian mu-tual fund managers by evaluating the nature and extent of information disclosed by each of them on the mutual funds they manage
To do this we checked the websites of the fund managers as the primary source of information with the ex-pectation of obtaining the expense ratios the fund fees and other infor-mation We expected to obtain com-prehensive fact sheets of the various funds for the information
With little information on the web-sites of most of the fund manag-ers we sent e-mails and made calls to them However while just half of them responded by telling us to give them up to 48 hours to supply us with the information we required the other half did not respond and only Investment One Funds Asset Management Ltd responded with information on their mutual funds
Comprehen-sive and timely information will also allow investors to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
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7 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Our findings show that the top seven (7) transparent fund manag-ers in the order of their ranking are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd AXA Mansard Investment Ltd Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd ARM In-vestment Managers Ltd and Lotus Capital Ltd These were followed by First City Asset Management Ltd and Stanbic IBTC Asset Manage-ment Ltd
The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Afrinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Management Ltd Cordros Asset Man-agement Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capi-tal Ltd SFS Capital Nigeria Ltd and Ze-nith Asset Management Ltd These fund managers ranked 12th on our transpar-ency scale having garnered a transpar-ency level of only 38 per cent
The only fund manager with infor-mation on expense ratio on its web-site is the Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet as at October 9 2017) Investment
One Funds Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet for the third quar-ter of 2017) and Lotus Capital Ltd (with fact sheet as at September 30 2017) First City Asset Management Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
The most transparent of all the mu-tual funds are the bond funds with a transparency level of 5750 per cent They are followed by ethical funds and equity funds which have transparency levels 5160 per cent and 5133 per cent Mixed funds money market funds and fixed in-come funds have transparency lev-els of 4746 per cent 4715 per cent and 4470 per cent respectively
We recommend that fund managers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
The Nigerian Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Association of Nige-ria (FMAN) should also entrench the practice of full disclosure of infor-mation in the mutual funds industry as this will engender transparency among fund managers
We recommend that fund man-agers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
8 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
The objective of this report is to evaluate fund managers transparency level in Nigeria and specifically to ascertain information disclosed by fund manag-ers on all the mutual funds they manage
One of the most important mecha-nisms for investor protection in any financial market is the provision of vital and up-to-date information to investors But not all fund managers in Nigeria provide recent facts on the funds they manage Also FMAN and SEC seem not to emphasise at the moment transparency by fund managers This is against the prac-tice of other investment associations and regulators in other countries In the UK for example the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) en-courages member firms to provide sufficient information for investors to make decisions
In an ideal investment world inves-tors ought to be properly informed in a stress-free manner complete data on the various costs involved in an investment current perfor-
OBJECTIVE
BACKGROUNDmance in terms of returns on the fund managers website Rather than wait for the investors to request for information Nigerian fund manag-ers should give investors all the in-formation they need upfront Since information provided only on high level returns data are becoming less important for investorsrsquo use in deci-sion-making
Some investors chose mutual funds which have diversification benefits and relatively low volatil-ity as their preferred investment vehicles Mutual funds also tend to involve less transaction cost and other fees Nevertheless it is still possible for an individual to invest in these funds at huge fees with-out knowing it this gives rise to a transparency issue as such fees can reduce their real returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
9 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
A MUTUAL FUND is a profession-ally managed investment vehicle that comprises a pool of moneys from many investors Mutual funds typically invest in securities such as stocks bonds and money market securities Sometimes it invests in a combination of these securities as well as other cash alternatives
Types of Mutual FundsThis research focuses on six types of mutual funds currently managed in Nigeria equity funds money market funds bond funds mixed funds eth-ical funds and fixed income funds
Equity Funds Equity funds invest in stocks of companies from various sectors They usually aim to grow faster than money market or fixed income funds
Money Market Funds These funds invest in short-term fixed income securities such as government bonds treasury bills certificate of deposits etc The purpose is usually to enable investors put their mon-eys in easily-accessible and cash-
MUTUAL FUNDS TYPES AND BENEFITSequivalent assets
Fixed income funds They invest in assets that pay a fixed rate of return and aim to have money coming into the fund on a regular basis mostly through the interest earned
Ethical Funds These mutual funds in-vest only in securities of firms that meet certain social and ethical standards
Bond Funds These funds invest in bonds and other debt securities Most bond funds comprise of cor-porate and government bonds with varying maturity dates
Mixed Funds Mixed funds (also known as balanced funds) aim to provide growth and income oppor-tunities to investors at reduced risk They typically invest in a mixture of equities bonds and other fixed in-come instruments
Benefits of Mutual FundsThere are various benefits of invest-ing in mutual funds and we explain a few of them below
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10 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Diversification Diversification in-volves the mixture of investments within a portfolio and itrsquos used to manage risk Mutual funds can invest in dozens hundreds and thousands of different investment securities making diversification possible by investing in just one fund
Accessibility Mutual funds are easy to buy even beginning investors can easily open an account within minutes
Professional management Mutual funds have professionals who man-age such funds by also research-ing and analysing investments so
investors donrsquot have to These pro-fessional have the skills desire and patience required to do their job well in any professional pursuit Mu-tual funds enable investors to do a lot with their life rather than spend-ing time and energy on investment matters Hence when buying a mu-tual fund you are also choosing a professional money manager
Liquidity One of the advantages of mutual funds is that assets are liquid Liquidity simply refers to convert-ing your assets to cash with relative ease For mutual funds an investor can convert asset to cash by quickly selling it to another investor
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
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14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
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17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
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19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
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20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
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21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
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22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
4 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This document has been prepared in good faith on the basis of information available at the date of publication
BusinessDay Research amp Intelligence Unit (BRIU) does not warrant the accuracy reliability or completeness of the information in this report for the purpose of making any investment decision Readers are advised to assess the relevance and accuracy of the content of this publication against the limitations noted herein
BRIU will not be liable for any loss damage cost or expense incurred or arising by reason of any person using or relying on information in this publication
The opinionsconclusions and suggestions in this report do not represent investment or other advice and should therefore not be construed as such
This publication is a copyright Apart from any use as permitted under Copyright Act 1968 Nigeria no part contained herein may be reproduced copied or duplicated in any form without prior written consent of BRIU
copy BRIU 2017 6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
5 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Contents Page
Highlights 6-7
Objective 8
Background 8
Mutual Funds Types and Benefits 9Types of Mutual Funds 9Benefits of Mutual Funds 9-10
The Need for Transparency 11
Transparency Rating Criteria and Methodology 12-13
Presentation and Interpretation of Results 13-18
Addendum On Findings 19
Limitations 19
Conclusion 20
Recommendations 20
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6 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FUND MANAGERS in Nigeria lack full transparency as there is no for-mal requirement for them to provide detailed and current information on their mutual funds to investors
Even though there is no regulatory requirement for full disclosure of their fund activities to the investing public it is increasingly imperative that existing and prospective inves-tors be provided with detailed and current information concerning the mutual funds so that they will be able to fully assess the expected re-turns and the attendant risks inher-ent in their investment in any of the funds Comprehensive and timely information will also allow them to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
We understand that the fund man-agers do make information on these funds available on request but this often happens after they might have convinced many to invest in their mutual funds with benefits that only they know as these cannot be sub-jected to independent verification This has fuelled speculations that asset managers might be making fat profits from underperforming funds a fund that has a high expense ratio
HIGHLIGHTS
may have lower return relative to a similar fund that has higher return There has therefore been a strident call for a paradigm from the current regime of opacity by fund managers to one of transparency
This report sets out to ascertain the transparency level of Nigerian mu-tual fund managers by evaluating the nature and extent of information disclosed by each of them on the mutual funds they manage
To do this we checked the websites of the fund managers as the primary source of information with the ex-pectation of obtaining the expense ratios the fund fees and other infor-mation We expected to obtain com-prehensive fact sheets of the various funds for the information
With little information on the web-sites of most of the fund manag-ers we sent e-mails and made calls to them However while just half of them responded by telling us to give them up to 48 hours to supply us with the information we required the other half did not respond and only Investment One Funds Asset Management Ltd responded with information on their mutual funds
Comprehen-sive and timely information will also allow investors to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
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7 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Our findings show that the top seven (7) transparent fund manag-ers in the order of their ranking are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd AXA Mansard Investment Ltd Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd ARM In-vestment Managers Ltd and Lotus Capital Ltd These were followed by First City Asset Management Ltd and Stanbic IBTC Asset Manage-ment Ltd
The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Afrinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Management Ltd Cordros Asset Man-agement Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capi-tal Ltd SFS Capital Nigeria Ltd and Ze-nith Asset Management Ltd These fund managers ranked 12th on our transpar-ency scale having garnered a transpar-ency level of only 38 per cent
The only fund manager with infor-mation on expense ratio on its web-site is the Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet as at October 9 2017) Investment
One Funds Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet for the third quar-ter of 2017) and Lotus Capital Ltd (with fact sheet as at September 30 2017) First City Asset Management Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
The most transparent of all the mu-tual funds are the bond funds with a transparency level of 5750 per cent They are followed by ethical funds and equity funds which have transparency levels 5160 per cent and 5133 per cent Mixed funds money market funds and fixed in-come funds have transparency lev-els of 4746 per cent 4715 per cent and 4470 per cent respectively
We recommend that fund managers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
The Nigerian Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Association of Nige-ria (FMAN) should also entrench the practice of full disclosure of infor-mation in the mutual funds industry as this will engender transparency among fund managers
We recommend that fund man-agers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
8 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
The objective of this report is to evaluate fund managers transparency level in Nigeria and specifically to ascertain information disclosed by fund manag-ers on all the mutual funds they manage
One of the most important mecha-nisms for investor protection in any financial market is the provision of vital and up-to-date information to investors But not all fund managers in Nigeria provide recent facts on the funds they manage Also FMAN and SEC seem not to emphasise at the moment transparency by fund managers This is against the prac-tice of other investment associations and regulators in other countries In the UK for example the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) en-courages member firms to provide sufficient information for investors to make decisions
In an ideal investment world inves-tors ought to be properly informed in a stress-free manner complete data on the various costs involved in an investment current perfor-
OBJECTIVE
BACKGROUNDmance in terms of returns on the fund managers website Rather than wait for the investors to request for information Nigerian fund manag-ers should give investors all the in-formation they need upfront Since information provided only on high level returns data are becoming less important for investorsrsquo use in deci-sion-making
Some investors chose mutual funds which have diversification benefits and relatively low volatil-ity as their preferred investment vehicles Mutual funds also tend to involve less transaction cost and other fees Nevertheless it is still possible for an individual to invest in these funds at huge fees with-out knowing it this gives rise to a transparency issue as such fees can reduce their real returns
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9 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
A MUTUAL FUND is a profession-ally managed investment vehicle that comprises a pool of moneys from many investors Mutual funds typically invest in securities such as stocks bonds and money market securities Sometimes it invests in a combination of these securities as well as other cash alternatives
Types of Mutual FundsThis research focuses on six types of mutual funds currently managed in Nigeria equity funds money market funds bond funds mixed funds eth-ical funds and fixed income funds
Equity Funds Equity funds invest in stocks of companies from various sectors They usually aim to grow faster than money market or fixed income funds
Money Market Funds These funds invest in short-term fixed income securities such as government bonds treasury bills certificate of deposits etc The purpose is usually to enable investors put their mon-eys in easily-accessible and cash-
MUTUAL FUNDS TYPES AND BENEFITSequivalent assets
Fixed income funds They invest in assets that pay a fixed rate of return and aim to have money coming into the fund on a regular basis mostly through the interest earned
Ethical Funds These mutual funds in-vest only in securities of firms that meet certain social and ethical standards
Bond Funds These funds invest in bonds and other debt securities Most bond funds comprise of cor-porate and government bonds with varying maturity dates
Mixed Funds Mixed funds (also known as balanced funds) aim to provide growth and income oppor-tunities to investors at reduced risk They typically invest in a mixture of equities bonds and other fixed in-come instruments
Benefits of Mutual FundsThere are various benefits of invest-ing in mutual funds and we explain a few of them below
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10 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Diversification Diversification in-volves the mixture of investments within a portfolio and itrsquos used to manage risk Mutual funds can invest in dozens hundreds and thousands of different investment securities making diversification possible by investing in just one fund
Accessibility Mutual funds are easy to buy even beginning investors can easily open an account within minutes
Professional management Mutual funds have professionals who man-age such funds by also research-ing and analysing investments so
investors donrsquot have to These pro-fessional have the skills desire and patience required to do their job well in any professional pursuit Mu-tual funds enable investors to do a lot with their life rather than spend-ing time and energy on investment matters Hence when buying a mu-tual fund you are also choosing a professional money manager
Liquidity One of the advantages of mutual funds is that assets are liquid Liquidity simply refers to convert-ing your assets to cash with relative ease For mutual funds an investor can convert asset to cash by quickly selling it to another investor
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11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
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17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
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19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
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21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
5 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Contents Page
Highlights 6-7
Objective 8
Background 8
Mutual Funds Types and Benefits 9Types of Mutual Funds 9Benefits of Mutual Funds 9-10
The Need for Transparency 11
Transparency Rating Criteria and Methodology 12-13
Presentation and Interpretation of Results 13-18
Addendum On Findings 19
Limitations 19
Conclusion 20
Recommendations 20
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
6 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FUND MANAGERS in Nigeria lack full transparency as there is no for-mal requirement for them to provide detailed and current information on their mutual funds to investors
Even though there is no regulatory requirement for full disclosure of their fund activities to the investing public it is increasingly imperative that existing and prospective inves-tors be provided with detailed and current information concerning the mutual funds so that they will be able to fully assess the expected re-turns and the attendant risks inher-ent in their investment in any of the funds Comprehensive and timely information will also allow them to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
We understand that the fund man-agers do make information on these funds available on request but this often happens after they might have convinced many to invest in their mutual funds with benefits that only they know as these cannot be sub-jected to independent verification This has fuelled speculations that asset managers might be making fat profits from underperforming funds a fund that has a high expense ratio
HIGHLIGHTS
may have lower return relative to a similar fund that has higher return There has therefore been a strident call for a paradigm from the current regime of opacity by fund managers to one of transparency
This report sets out to ascertain the transparency level of Nigerian mu-tual fund managers by evaluating the nature and extent of information disclosed by each of them on the mutual funds they manage
To do this we checked the websites of the fund managers as the primary source of information with the ex-pectation of obtaining the expense ratios the fund fees and other infor-mation We expected to obtain com-prehensive fact sheets of the various funds for the information
With little information on the web-sites of most of the fund manag-ers we sent e-mails and made calls to them However while just half of them responded by telling us to give them up to 48 hours to supply us with the information we required the other half did not respond and only Investment One Funds Asset Management Ltd responded with information on their mutual funds
Comprehen-sive and timely information will also allow investors to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
7 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Our findings show that the top seven (7) transparent fund manag-ers in the order of their ranking are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd AXA Mansard Investment Ltd Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd ARM In-vestment Managers Ltd and Lotus Capital Ltd These were followed by First City Asset Management Ltd and Stanbic IBTC Asset Manage-ment Ltd
The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Afrinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Management Ltd Cordros Asset Man-agement Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capi-tal Ltd SFS Capital Nigeria Ltd and Ze-nith Asset Management Ltd These fund managers ranked 12th on our transpar-ency scale having garnered a transpar-ency level of only 38 per cent
The only fund manager with infor-mation on expense ratio on its web-site is the Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet as at October 9 2017) Investment
One Funds Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet for the third quar-ter of 2017) and Lotus Capital Ltd (with fact sheet as at September 30 2017) First City Asset Management Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
The most transparent of all the mu-tual funds are the bond funds with a transparency level of 5750 per cent They are followed by ethical funds and equity funds which have transparency levels 5160 per cent and 5133 per cent Mixed funds money market funds and fixed in-come funds have transparency lev-els of 4746 per cent 4715 per cent and 4470 per cent respectively
We recommend that fund managers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
The Nigerian Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Association of Nige-ria (FMAN) should also entrench the practice of full disclosure of infor-mation in the mutual funds industry as this will engender transparency among fund managers
We recommend that fund man-agers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
8 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
The objective of this report is to evaluate fund managers transparency level in Nigeria and specifically to ascertain information disclosed by fund manag-ers on all the mutual funds they manage
One of the most important mecha-nisms for investor protection in any financial market is the provision of vital and up-to-date information to investors But not all fund managers in Nigeria provide recent facts on the funds they manage Also FMAN and SEC seem not to emphasise at the moment transparency by fund managers This is against the prac-tice of other investment associations and regulators in other countries In the UK for example the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) en-courages member firms to provide sufficient information for investors to make decisions
In an ideal investment world inves-tors ought to be properly informed in a stress-free manner complete data on the various costs involved in an investment current perfor-
OBJECTIVE
BACKGROUNDmance in terms of returns on the fund managers website Rather than wait for the investors to request for information Nigerian fund manag-ers should give investors all the in-formation they need upfront Since information provided only on high level returns data are becoming less important for investorsrsquo use in deci-sion-making
Some investors chose mutual funds which have diversification benefits and relatively low volatil-ity as their preferred investment vehicles Mutual funds also tend to involve less transaction cost and other fees Nevertheless it is still possible for an individual to invest in these funds at huge fees with-out knowing it this gives rise to a transparency issue as such fees can reduce their real returns
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9 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
A MUTUAL FUND is a profession-ally managed investment vehicle that comprises a pool of moneys from many investors Mutual funds typically invest in securities such as stocks bonds and money market securities Sometimes it invests in a combination of these securities as well as other cash alternatives
Types of Mutual FundsThis research focuses on six types of mutual funds currently managed in Nigeria equity funds money market funds bond funds mixed funds eth-ical funds and fixed income funds
Equity Funds Equity funds invest in stocks of companies from various sectors They usually aim to grow faster than money market or fixed income funds
Money Market Funds These funds invest in short-term fixed income securities such as government bonds treasury bills certificate of deposits etc The purpose is usually to enable investors put their mon-eys in easily-accessible and cash-
MUTUAL FUNDS TYPES AND BENEFITSequivalent assets
Fixed income funds They invest in assets that pay a fixed rate of return and aim to have money coming into the fund on a regular basis mostly through the interest earned
Ethical Funds These mutual funds in-vest only in securities of firms that meet certain social and ethical standards
Bond Funds These funds invest in bonds and other debt securities Most bond funds comprise of cor-porate and government bonds with varying maturity dates
Mixed Funds Mixed funds (also known as balanced funds) aim to provide growth and income oppor-tunities to investors at reduced risk They typically invest in a mixture of equities bonds and other fixed in-come instruments
Benefits of Mutual FundsThere are various benefits of invest-ing in mutual funds and we explain a few of them below
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10 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Diversification Diversification in-volves the mixture of investments within a portfolio and itrsquos used to manage risk Mutual funds can invest in dozens hundreds and thousands of different investment securities making diversification possible by investing in just one fund
Accessibility Mutual funds are easy to buy even beginning investors can easily open an account within minutes
Professional management Mutual funds have professionals who man-age such funds by also research-ing and analysing investments so
investors donrsquot have to These pro-fessional have the skills desire and patience required to do their job well in any professional pursuit Mu-tual funds enable investors to do a lot with their life rather than spend-ing time and energy on investment matters Hence when buying a mu-tual fund you are also choosing a professional money manager
Liquidity One of the advantages of mutual funds is that assets are liquid Liquidity simply refers to convert-ing your assets to cash with relative ease For mutual funds an investor can convert asset to cash by quickly selling it to another investor
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11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
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12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
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13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
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14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
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15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
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16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
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17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
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19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
6 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FUND MANAGERS in Nigeria lack full transparency as there is no for-mal requirement for them to provide detailed and current information on their mutual funds to investors
Even though there is no regulatory requirement for full disclosure of their fund activities to the investing public it is increasingly imperative that existing and prospective inves-tors be provided with detailed and current information concerning the mutual funds so that they will be able to fully assess the expected re-turns and the attendant risks inher-ent in their investment in any of the funds Comprehensive and timely information will also allow them to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
We understand that the fund man-agers do make information on these funds available on request but this often happens after they might have convinced many to invest in their mutual funds with benefits that only they know as these cannot be sub-jected to independent verification This has fuelled speculations that asset managers might be making fat profits from underperforming funds a fund that has a high expense ratio
HIGHLIGHTS
may have lower return relative to a similar fund that has higher return There has therefore been a strident call for a paradigm from the current regime of opacity by fund managers to one of transparency
This report sets out to ascertain the transparency level of Nigerian mu-tual fund managers by evaluating the nature and extent of information disclosed by each of them on the mutual funds they manage
To do this we checked the websites of the fund managers as the primary source of information with the ex-pectation of obtaining the expense ratios the fund fees and other infor-mation We expected to obtain com-prehensive fact sheets of the various funds for the information
With little information on the web-sites of most of the fund manag-ers we sent e-mails and made calls to them However while just half of them responded by telling us to give them up to 48 hours to supply us with the information we required the other half did not respond and only Investment One Funds Asset Management Ltd responded with information on their mutual funds
Comprehen-sive and timely information will also allow investors to evaluate their portfolio performance whenever they choose to
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
7 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Our findings show that the top seven (7) transparent fund manag-ers in the order of their ranking are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd AXA Mansard Investment Ltd Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd ARM In-vestment Managers Ltd and Lotus Capital Ltd These were followed by First City Asset Management Ltd and Stanbic IBTC Asset Manage-ment Ltd
The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Afrinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Management Ltd Cordros Asset Man-agement Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capi-tal Ltd SFS Capital Nigeria Ltd and Ze-nith Asset Management Ltd These fund managers ranked 12th on our transpar-ency scale having garnered a transpar-ency level of only 38 per cent
The only fund manager with infor-mation on expense ratio on its web-site is the Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet as at October 9 2017) Investment
One Funds Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet for the third quar-ter of 2017) and Lotus Capital Ltd (with fact sheet as at September 30 2017) First City Asset Management Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
The most transparent of all the mu-tual funds are the bond funds with a transparency level of 5750 per cent They are followed by ethical funds and equity funds which have transparency levels 5160 per cent and 5133 per cent Mixed funds money market funds and fixed in-come funds have transparency lev-els of 4746 per cent 4715 per cent and 4470 per cent respectively
We recommend that fund managers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
The Nigerian Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Association of Nige-ria (FMAN) should also entrench the practice of full disclosure of infor-mation in the mutual funds industry as this will engender transparency among fund managers
We recommend that fund man-agers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
8 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
The objective of this report is to evaluate fund managers transparency level in Nigeria and specifically to ascertain information disclosed by fund manag-ers on all the mutual funds they manage
One of the most important mecha-nisms for investor protection in any financial market is the provision of vital and up-to-date information to investors But not all fund managers in Nigeria provide recent facts on the funds they manage Also FMAN and SEC seem not to emphasise at the moment transparency by fund managers This is against the prac-tice of other investment associations and regulators in other countries In the UK for example the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) en-courages member firms to provide sufficient information for investors to make decisions
In an ideal investment world inves-tors ought to be properly informed in a stress-free manner complete data on the various costs involved in an investment current perfor-
OBJECTIVE
BACKGROUNDmance in terms of returns on the fund managers website Rather than wait for the investors to request for information Nigerian fund manag-ers should give investors all the in-formation they need upfront Since information provided only on high level returns data are becoming less important for investorsrsquo use in deci-sion-making
Some investors chose mutual funds which have diversification benefits and relatively low volatil-ity as their preferred investment vehicles Mutual funds also tend to involve less transaction cost and other fees Nevertheless it is still possible for an individual to invest in these funds at huge fees with-out knowing it this gives rise to a transparency issue as such fees can reduce their real returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
9 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
A MUTUAL FUND is a profession-ally managed investment vehicle that comprises a pool of moneys from many investors Mutual funds typically invest in securities such as stocks bonds and money market securities Sometimes it invests in a combination of these securities as well as other cash alternatives
Types of Mutual FundsThis research focuses on six types of mutual funds currently managed in Nigeria equity funds money market funds bond funds mixed funds eth-ical funds and fixed income funds
Equity Funds Equity funds invest in stocks of companies from various sectors They usually aim to grow faster than money market or fixed income funds
Money Market Funds These funds invest in short-term fixed income securities such as government bonds treasury bills certificate of deposits etc The purpose is usually to enable investors put their mon-eys in easily-accessible and cash-
MUTUAL FUNDS TYPES AND BENEFITSequivalent assets
Fixed income funds They invest in assets that pay a fixed rate of return and aim to have money coming into the fund on a regular basis mostly through the interest earned
Ethical Funds These mutual funds in-vest only in securities of firms that meet certain social and ethical standards
Bond Funds These funds invest in bonds and other debt securities Most bond funds comprise of cor-porate and government bonds with varying maturity dates
Mixed Funds Mixed funds (also known as balanced funds) aim to provide growth and income oppor-tunities to investors at reduced risk They typically invest in a mixture of equities bonds and other fixed in-come instruments
Benefits of Mutual FundsThere are various benefits of invest-ing in mutual funds and we explain a few of them below
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10 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Diversification Diversification in-volves the mixture of investments within a portfolio and itrsquos used to manage risk Mutual funds can invest in dozens hundreds and thousands of different investment securities making diversification possible by investing in just one fund
Accessibility Mutual funds are easy to buy even beginning investors can easily open an account within minutes
Professional management Mutual funds have professionals who man-age such funds by also research-ing and analysing investments so
investors donrsquot have to These pro-fessional have the skills desire and patience required to do their job well in any professional pursuit Mu-tual funds enable investors to do a lot with their life rather than spend-ing time and energy on investment matters Hence when buying a mu-tual fund you are also choosing a professional money manager
Liquidity One of the advantages of mutual funds is that assets are liquid Liquidity simply refers to convert-ing your assets to cash with relative ease For mutual funds an investor can convert asset to cash by quickly selling it to another investor
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
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17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
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20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
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21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
7 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Our findings show that the top seven (7) transparent fund manag-ers in the order of their ranking are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd AXA Mansard Investment Ltd Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd ARM In-vestment Managers Ltd and Lotus Capital Ltd These were followed by First City Asset Management Ltd and Stanbic IBTC Asset Manage-ment Ltd
The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Afrinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Management Ltd Cordros Asset Man-agement Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capi-tal Ltd SFS Capital Nigeria Ltd and Ze-nith Asset Management Ltd These fund managers ranked 12th on our transpar-ency scale having garnered a transpar-ency level of only 38 per cent
The only fund manager with infor-mation on expense ratio on its web-site is the Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet as at October 9 2017) Investment
One Funds Asset Management Ltd (with fact sheet for the third quar-ter of 2017) and Lotus Capital Ltd (with fact sheet as at September 30 2017) First City Asset Management Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
The most transparent of all the mu-tual funds are the bond funds with a transparency level of 5750 per cent They are followed by ethical funds and equity funds which have transparency levels 5160 per cent and 5133 per cent Mixed funds money market funds and fixed in-come funds have transparency lev-els of 4746 per cent 4715 per cent and 4470 per cent respectively
We recommend that fund managers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
The Nigerian Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Association of Nige-ria (FMAN) should also entrench the practice of full disclosure of infor-mation in the mutual funds industry as this will engender transparency among fund managers
We recommend that fund man-agers should provide monthly funds fact sheet with pertinent information for investors on their website at all times
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
8 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
The objective of this report is to evaluate fund managers transparency level in Nigeria and specifically to ascertain information disclosed by fund manag-ers on all the mutual funds they manage
One of the most important mecha-nisms for investor protection in any financial market is the provision of vital and up-to-date information to investors But not all fund managers in Nigeria provide recent facts on the funds they manage Also FMAN and SEC seem not to emphasise at the moment transparency by fund managers This is against the prac-tice of other investment associations and regulators in other countries In the UK for example the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) en-courages member firms to provide sufficient information for investors to make decisions
In an ideal investment world inves-tors ought to be properly informed in a stress-free manner complete data on the various costs involved in an investment current perfor-
OBJECTIVE
BACKGROUNDmance in terms of returns on the fund managers website Rather than wait for the investors to request for information Nigerian fund manag-ers should give investors all the in-formation they need upfront Since information provided only on high level returns data are becoming less important for investorsrsquo use in deci-sion-making
Some investors chose mutual funds which have diversification benefits and relatively low volatil-ity as their preferred investment vehicles Mutual funds also tend to involve less transaction cost and other fees Nevertheless it is still possible for an individual to invest in these funds at huge fees with-out knowing it this gives rise to a transparency issue as such fees can reduce their real returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
9 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
A MUTUAL FUND is a profession-ally managed investment vehicle that comprises a pool of moneys from many investors Mutual funds typically invest in securities such as stocks bonds and money market securities Sometimes it invests in a combination of these securities as well as other cash alternatives
Types of Mutual FundsThis research focuses on six types of mutual funds currently managed in Nigeria equity funds money market funds bond funds mixed funds eth-ical funds and fixed income funds
Equity Funds Equity funds invest in stocks of companies from various sectors They usually aim to grow faster than money market or fixed income funds
Money Market Funds These funds invest in short-term fixed income securities such as government bonds treasury bills certificate of deposits etc The purpose is usually to enable investors put their mon-eys in easily-accessible and cash-
MUTUAL FUNDS TYPES AND BENEFITSequivalent assets
Fixed income funds They invest in assets that pay a fixed rate of return and aim to have money coming into the fund on a regular basis mostly through the interest earned
Ethical Funds These mutual funds in-vest only in securities of firms that meet certain social and ethical standards
Bond Funds These funds invest in bonds and other debt securities Most bond funds comprise of cor-porate and government bonds with varying maturity dates
Mixed Funds Mixed funds (also known as balanced funds) aim to provide growth and income oppor-tunities to investors at reduced risk They typically invest in a mixture of equities bonds and other fixed in-come instruments
Benefits of Mutual FundsThere are various benefits of invest-ing in mutual funds and we explain a few of them below
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10 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Diversification Diversification in-volves the mixture of investments within a portfolio and itrsquos used to manage risk Mutual funds can invest in dozens hundreds and thousands of different investment securities making diversification possible by investing in just one fund
Accessibility Mutual funds are easy to buy even beginning investors can easily open an account within minutes
Professional management Mutual funds have professionals who man-age such funds by also research-ing and analysing investments so
investors donrsquot have to These pro-fessional have the skills desire and patience required to do their job well in any professional pursuit Mu-tual funds enable investors to do a lot with their life rather than spend-ing time and energy on investment matters Hence when buying a mu-tual fund you are also choosing a professional money manager
Liquidity One of the advantages of mutual funds is that assets are liquid Liquidity simply refers to convert-ing your assets to cash with relative ease For mutual funds an investor can convert asset to cash by quickly selling it to another investor
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
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17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
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19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
8 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
The objective of this report is to evaluate fund managers transparency level in Nigeria and specifically to ascertain information disclosed by fund manag-ers on all the mutual funds they manage
One of the most important mecha-nisms for investor protection in any financial market is the provision of vital and up-to-date information to investors But not all fund managers in Nigeria provide recent facts on the funds they manage Also FMAN and SEC seem not to emphasise at the moment transparency by fund managers This is against the prac-tice of other investment associations and regulators in other countries In the UK for example the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) en-courages member firms to provide sufficient information for investors to make decisions
In an ideal investment world inves-tors ought to be properly informed in a stress-free manner complete data on the various costs involved in an investment current perfor-
OBJECTIVE
BACKGROUNDmance in terms of returns on the fund managers website Rather than wait for the investors to request for information Nigerian fund manag-ers should give investors all the in-formation they need upfront Since information provided only on high level returns data are becoming less important for investorsrsquo use in deci-sion-making
Some investors chose mutual funds which have diversification benefits and relatively low volatil-ity as their preferred investment vehicles Mutual funds also tend to involve less transaction cost and other fees Nevertheless it is still possible for an individual to invest in these funds at huge fees with-out knowing it this gives rise to a transparency issue as such fees can reduce their real returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
9 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
A MUTUAL FUND is a profession-ally managed investment vehicle that comprises a pool of moneys from many investors Mutual funds typically invest in securities such as stocks bonds and money market securities Sometimes it invests in a combination of these securities as well as other cash alternatives
Types of Mutual FundsThis research focuses on six types of mutual funds currently managed in Nigeria equity funds money market funds bond funds mixed funds eth-ical funds and fixed income funds
Equity Funds Equity funds invest in stocks of companies from various sectors They usually aim to grow faster than money market or fixed income funds
Money Market Funds These funds invest in short-term fixed income securities such as government bonds treasury bills certificate of deposits etc The purpose is usually to enable investors put their mon-eys in easily-accessible and cash-
MUTUAL FUNDS TYPES AND BENEFITSequivalent assets
Fixed income funds They invest in assets that pay a fixed rate of return and aim to have money coming into the fund on a regular basis mostly through the interest earned
Ethical Funds These mutual funds in-vest only in securities of firms that meet certain social and ethical standards
Bond Funds These funds invest in bonds and other debt securities Most bond funds comprise of cor-porate and government bonds with varying maturity dates
Mixed Funds Mixed funds (also known as balanced funds) aim to provide growth and income oppor-tunities to investors at reduced risk They typically invest in a mixture of equities bonds and other fixed in-come instruments
Benefits of Mutual FundsThere are various benefits of invest-ing in mutual funds and we explain a few of them below
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10 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Diversification Diversification in-volves the mixture of investments within a portfolio and itrsquos used to manage risk Mutual funds can invest in dozens hundreds and thousands of different investment securities making diversification possible by investing in just one fund
Accessibility Mutual funds are easy to buy even beginning investors can easily open an account within minutes
Professional management Mutual funds have professionals who man-age such funds by also research-ing and analysing investments so
investors donrsquot have to These pro-fessional have the skills desire and patience required to do their job well in any professional pursuit Mu-tual funds enable investors to do a lot with their life rather than spend-ing time and energy on investment matters Hence when buying a mu-tual fund you are also choosing a professional money manager
Liquidity One of the advantages of mutual funds is that assets are liquid Liquidity simply refers to convert-ing your assets to cash with relative ease For mutual funds an investor can convert asset to cash by quickly selling it to another investor
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11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
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13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
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14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
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16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
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17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
9 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
A MUTUAL FUND is a profession-ally managed investment vehicle that comprises a pool of moneys from many investors Mutual funds typically invest in securities such as stocks bonds and money market securities Sometimes it invests in a combination of these securities as well as other cash alternatives
Types of Mutual FundsThis research focuses on six types of mutual funds currently managed in Nigeria equity funds money market funds bond funds mixed funds eth-ical funds and fixed income funds
Equity Funds Equity funds invest in stocks of companies from various sectors They usually aim to grow faster than money market or fixed income funds
Money Market Funds These funds invest in short-term fixed income securities such as government bonds treasury bills certificate of deposits etc The purpose is usually to enable investors put their mon-eys in easily-accessible and cash-
MUTUAL FUNDS TYPES AND BENEFITSequivalent assets
Fixed income funds They invest in assets that pay a fixed rate of return and aim to have money coming into the fund on a regular basis mostly through the interest earned
Ethical Funds These mutual funds in-vest only in securities of firms that meet certain social and ethical standards
Bond Funds These funds invest in bonds and other debt securities Most bond funds comprise of cor-porate and government bonds with varying maturity dates
Mixed Funds Mixed funds (also known as balanced funds) aim to provide growth and income oppor-tunities to investors at reduced risk They typically invest in a mixture of equities bonds and other fixed in-come instruments
Benefits of Mutual FundsThere are various benefits of invest-ing in mutual funds and we explain a few of them below
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
10 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Diversification Diversification in-volves the mixture of investments within a portfolio and itrsquos used to manage risk Mutual funds can invest in dozens hundreds and thousands of different investment securities making diversification possible by investing in just one fund
Accessibility Mutual funds are easy to buy even beginning investors can easily open an account within minutes
Professional management Mutual funds have professionals who man-age such funds by also research-ing and analysing investments so
investors donrsquot have to These pro-fessional have the skills desire and patience required to do their job well in any professional pursuit Mu-tual funds enable investors to do a lot with their life rather than spend-ing time and energy on investment matters Hence when buying a mu-tual fund you are also choosing a professional money manager
Liquidity One of the advantages of mutual funds is that assets are liquid Liquidity simply refers to convert-ing your assets to cash with relative ease For mutual funds an investor can convert asset to cash by quickly selling it to another investor
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
10 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Diversification Diversification in-volves the mixture of investments within a portfolio and itrsquos used to manage risk Mutual funds can invest in dozens hundreds and thousands of different investment securities making diversification possible by investing in just one fund
Accessibility Mutual funds are easy to buy even beginning investors can easily open an account within minutes
Professional management Mutual funds have professionals who man-age such funds by also research-ing and analysing investments so
investors donrsquot have to These pro-fessional have the skills desire and patience required to do their job well in any professional pursuit Mu-tual funds enable investors to do a lot with their life rather than spend-ing time and energy on investment matters Hence when buying a mu-tual fund you are also choosing a professional money manager
Liquidity One of the advantages of mutual funds is that assets are liquid Liquidity simply refers to convert-ing your assets to cash with relative ease For mutual funds an investor can convert asset to cash by quickly selling it to another investor
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
11 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
GRAPHICS Orasopee Communication Ventures
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
ldquoTransparency people talk a lot about itrsquos a goal eve-rybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove very few people actually adhere to itrdquo - Keith Rabois
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
12 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
TRANSPARENCY is a pertinent issue in the Nigerian fund manage-ment industry Investors should be provided with detailed and current information concerning mutual funds so that they can properly evaluate the risk and return char-acteristics of the funds they invest in (or intend to invest in) and also be able to monitor their portfolio on an on-going basis
A huge level of transparency will help to prevent uncertainty which will prevent fear and panic on the part of investors as to making in-vestment decision This also helps to prevent exposure to unneces-sary and unavoidable risk
Providing all the information inves-tors need will help fund managers build trust develop a better rapport with investors and also reduce the number of request for additional analysis which will help save time and resources One of the ways fund managers can build trust is if they put the need of investors at a higher level than their personal gains
TRANSPARENCY RATING CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGYWe assessed fund managersrsquo trans-parency based on the nature and level of information provided or not provided focusing on the following criteria
bull Information available on companyrsquos websiteonline This criterion is based on the availability of information on the company rsquos website or online We assigned 33 points weight for information available on a companyrsquos website
bull Currencyofinformation This criterion refers to how recent the information a fund man-agerrsquos websiteonline is It also assesses how current a man-agerrsquos fund fact sheet is We as-signed the following weight to the criterionbull This month and within 1
month ndash 10 pointsbull Within 3 months ndash 6 pointsbull Within 6 months but more
than 3 months ndash 3 pointsbull Within 12 months but more
than 6 months ndash 2 pointsbull More than 12 months ndash 1
point
bull Fund returns This criterion evaluates whether or not in-formation is available on fund return A fund with returns in-formation scores 5 points a fund with no information at-tracts no score
bull Expenseratio A fund with in-formation on its expense ratio scores 15 points while a fund
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
13 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Criteria Proportion of Managers ()
Fund Returns 8657
Expense Ratio 597
Fund Fees 2537
Fund Fact Sheet 4478
Currency Of Information 2090
Availability of Information on Website 4030
The table above shows that 58 mutual funds representing 8657 per cent of the mutual funds registered with SEC as at the week ended October 27 2017 has information on returns Only 597 per cent of the mutual funds provide information on fundrsquos expense ratio (funds ex-penses as a proportion of their value) The only fund managers that provide information on expense ratio are Vetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos (DV Balanced Fund) and Investment One Funds Managers Ltd ( Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund Vantage Balanced Fund and Abacus Money Market Fund)
Furthermore just 2537 per cent of the mutual funds have information on fees while 4478 per cent provides fact sheet
with no information scores zero point
bull Fund fees Fund fees information has a weight of 15 points Hence a fund with no information on fees scores zero
bull Fund fact sheet Funds fact sheet avail-ability scores maximum points of 10 points while no score is given to funds without a fact sheet
Information provided by fund managers based on the criteria
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
14 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Fund Managers Date of Fact Sheet
FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd October 9 2017
Investment One Funds Management Ltd Third Quarter 2017
Lotus Capital Ltd September 30 2017
First City Asset Management Ltd July 31 2017
ARM Investment Managers Ltd July 31 2017
Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd June 31 2017
Fund Managers Transparency Score (Points)
Rank
FBN Capital 7300 1st
Axa Mansard 6900 2nd
Vetiva 6600 3rd
ARM 6225 4th
Lotus Capital 5400 5th
FCAM 5200 6th
Stanbic IBTC 5186 7th
Meristem 5100 8th
Investment One Fund 4025 9th
United Capital 4000 10th
AIICO Capital 3900 11th
ACAP 3800 12th
Arinvest 3800 12th
Chapelhill Denham 3800 12th
Cordros 3800 12th
FSDH 3800 12th
Greenwich 3800 12th
PACAM 3800 12th
SCM Capital 3800 12th
SFS Capital 3800 12th
Zenith 3800 12th
From table we can see that the fund manager with the most recent fund fact sheet is FBN Capital Asset Management Ltd with a fund fact sheet as at October 9 2017 Investment One and Lotus Capital Ltd have the next most recent fact sheet to FBN Capital Investment Onersquos Fund fact sheet was for the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017) Lotus Capitalrsquos fund fact sheet was for September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have their funds fact sheets for July 31 2017
Fund managers with most recent fund fact sheet Funds Managersrsquo Transparency Chart
Source BRIU
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
15 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
FBN Capital Asset Management LtdFBN Capital Asset Management Ltd topped our transparency chart having scored 73 points ahead of other fund managers FBN has the most recent fund fact sheet all their funds provide information on returns and manage-ment fees but none on expense ratio
AXA Mansard Investment LtdAXA Mansard Investment Ltd has a transparency level of 69 on our 100 point scale placing them 2nd behind FBN This fund manager has two mutual funds the money market fund and equity fund both of which provide information on returns and management fees The funds also have fact sheets on the managerrsquos website
Vetiva Fund Managers LtdVetiva Fund Managers Ltdrsquos DV balanced fund ranked 3rd with a transpar-ency level of 66 The DV balanced fund provides information on returns and expense ratio with a fund fact sheet dated July 2017 This is the only mutual fund manager in addition that has information on expense ratio on its website
Arm Management Co LtdThe Asset and Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) has four mu-tual funds comprising the aggressive growth fund money market fund ethical fund and discovery fund The aggressive growth fund the ethical fund and the discovery funds all have transparency score of 66 points while the money market fund has a transparency score 51 points
The three funds with transparency score of 66 points provide information on their management fees with fact sheet dated July 31 2017 the money market fund provides information on just returns and has a fact sheet for July 31 2017 None of the funds provide information on the expense ratio Overall ARM has a transparency level of 6225 on our transparency scale and is ranked 4th on our transparency index
Lotus Capital LtdWith a transparency score of 54 points Lotus Capital Ltd ranks 5th on our transparency chart The lotus capital fixed income fund and the lotus halal investment fund each has a fact sheet as at September 2017 with informa-
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
16 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
tion on returns and fees
First City Asset Management Ltd (FCAM) FCAM Ltd has a transparency score of 52 points The equity and short maturity fund provides information on returns and has a fund fact sheet as at July 31 2017
Stanbic Ibtc Asset Management Ltd Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Ltd has a transparency level of 5186 points and is ranked 7th on our transparency chart Stanbic IBTC mutual funds have fact sheets as at the fourth quarter of 2016 All Stanbic mu-tual funds have 50 points transparency score except the money market fund that has transparency score of 65 points being the only fund that provides information on fees
Meristem Wealth Management LtdMeristem Wealth Management Ltd provides 38 points information on its equity fund and 64 points information on its money market fund The money market fund has a fact sheet with information on returns and man-agement fee The equity fund provides information only on returns On the whole Meristem has a score of 51 points and ranks 8th on our transpar-ency chart
Investment One Funds Management LtdInvestment One Funds Management Ltdrsquos mutual funds abacus money market fund vantage balanced fund and vantage guaranteed income fund provide information on fund returns fees and expense ratio Apart from the kedari investment fund (KIF) that provides information only on returns all its funds have fact sheets With a transparency score of 4025 points Investment one ranks 9th on our transparency chart
United Capital Asset Management Ltd United Capital Asset Management Ltd ranked 10th on our transparency chart having earned just 40 points transparency score All the mutual funds of United Capital provide information on returns except the Wealth for Women Fund with information only on fees The funds have no infor-mation on expense ratio and no fact sheet
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
17 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
AIICO Capital LtdAIICO Capital Ltd provides 39 points score of information on its money market fund it has a fact sheet as at September 2014 and has informa-tion only on returns AIICO Capital ranks 11th on our transparency chart
Afrinvest Asset Management LtdAfrinvest Asset Management Ltd has transparency score of 38 points and ranks 12th on our transparency chart Both the equity fund and the Nigeria International Debt Fund provide information on returns and none on fees expense ratio They also do not have fact any fact sheet
Alternative Capital Partners LtdThis fund manager has two mutual funds and provides just 38 points in-formation on both funds ACAP Canary Growth Fund and ACAP Income Fund provide information on just returns they have no fact sheets
Chapelhill Denham Management LtdChapehill Denham Management Ltd has a transparency level of 38 points and provides information on just the returns of its Paramount Equity Fund
Source BRIU
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
18 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
Money Market Fund and the Women Investment Fund The funds do not have fact sheet and provide no information on expense ratio and fees
Cordros Asset Management LtdCordros Asset Management Ltd also provides 38 per cent information on the Cordros Money Market Fund with information only on returns It pro-vides no information on its expense ratio and fees and has no fact sheet
FSDH Asset Management LtdFSDH Asset Management Ltd has a transparency score of 38 points Its Coral Income and Coral Growth Funds provide information on just returns
Greenwich Asset Management LtdGreenwich Asset Management Ltd provides information only on returns and has a transparency level of 38 points
PAC Asset Management LtdThe PACAM Money Market Fund fixed income fund and balanced fund provide information on just returns None of the funds has a fact sheet The firm achieved 38 points transparency score
SCM Capital LtdSCM Capital Ltd Frontier Fund provides information only on returns The fund manager ranks 12th on our transparency chart the same rank with the other fund managers that also reached just 38 points on the transparency chart The fund provides information only on returns and has no fund fact sheet
SFS Capital Nigeria LtdSFS Capital Nigeria Ltd provides 38 points level of information on its only managed fund the SFS Fixed Income Fund and ranks 12th on our transpar-ency chart The SFS fixed income only provides information on the fundrsquos return but none on fees and expense ratio and it has no fund fact sheet
Zenith Asset Management LtdZenith Asset Management Ltd also ranks 12th on our transparency chart since it reached transparency level of just 38 points The income fund eq-uity fund and ethical fund have no fund fact sheet and provide informa-tion only on returns
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
19 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
LIMITATIONSWe sent emails to the fund manag-ers that had little information about their mutual funds on their websites However only 50 per cent responded to our mails re-questing extended time to provide information But as at the time of concluding this report only Invest-ment One Funds Asset Management Ltd had responded with information on its mutual funds leaving us with in-formation we could obtain online and the information on fund managersrsquo website
bull The fund managers that ranked the same and also the least (12th) are Alterna-tive Capital Partners Ltd Af-rinvest Asset Management Ltd Chapelhill Denham Man-agement Ltd Cordros Asset Management Ltd FSDH Asset Management Ltd Greenwich Asset Management Ltd PAC Asset Management Ltd SCM Capital Ltd SFS Capital Nige-ria Ltd and Zenith Asset Man-agement Ltd They all reached transparency level of just 38 per cent
bull The only fund manager with information on expense ratio on its website is Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd
bull The fund managers with 2017 fund fact sheet are FBN Capi-tal Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet as at Octo-ber 9 2017 Investment One
ADDENDUM ON FINDINGS Funds Asset Management Ltd with fact sheet for Q3 2017 and Lotus Capital Ltd with fact sheet as at September 30 2017 First City Asset Manage-ment Ltd ARM Investment Managers Ltd and Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd all have fund fact sheet as at July 2017
bull The most transparent mu-tual funds are the bond funds that have transparency score of 5750 points It is followed by ethical funds with 5160 points transparency score eq-uity funds with 5133 points transparency score and mixed funds with 4746 points trans-parency score The money market funds and fixed in-come funds have 4715 points and 4470 points score on the transparency scale
bull Only 4478 per cent of the mu-tual funds have fact sheets
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
20 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
This report has shown that most fund managers in Nigeria do not give full disclosure on their mutual funds For this reason the importance of trans-parency in the Nigerian mutual funds industry should be emphasised by not just the regulatory bodies and industry associations such as the FMAN but also by investors and financial advisers this in our opinion will pro-mote best practices among the fund managers
Mutual fund transparency is critical as it allows investors and other stake-holders to make fact-based decisions In addition it allows investors to properly assess the risk they expose themselves to when they decide to in-vest in mutual funds Being more transparent will also help the fund man-agers to build and sustain the trust of their clients
1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fund Managers Associations of Nigeria (FMAN) should encourage greater transparency by Nigerian fund managers by requiring them to disclose on their websites detailed and current informa-tion that will enable investors make better investment decisions
2 Even without any regulatory pronouncement fund managers should provide detailed and current information on mutual funds From the research findings not all mutual funds have fact sheets while some are not updated a situation that im-pedes investorrsquos ability to correctly assess the managersrsquo fund management ability in terms of expected returns vis-agrave-vis the associated costs
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
21 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom
BUSINESSDAY RESEARCH amp INTELLIGENCE UNIT wwwbusinessdayonlinecom
22 NIGERIAN MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2017
BRIU6 Point Road GRAApapa Lagos wwwbusinessdayonlinecomemail researchbusinessdayonlinecom