Oasis has, for a fifth consecutive quarter, retained its position as the top unit trust fund manager in South Africa when managers are ranked on the risk-adjusted performance of nearly all their funds.
However, there has again been a reshuffling of the runners-up in the PlexCrown management company rankings. Coronation, which led the pack for three out of four years until June 2006, has dropped to fourth position and its former rival, Investec, has dropped to seventh position.
Stanlib has moved up to second position, from third position in the first quarter of this year, and Prudential has risen from fourth position to third this quarter.
Sanlam, which has been climbing the rankings, improved from sixth position last quarter to fifth position in the second quarter of this year.
The top-performing management company is determined by calculating an average score of the PlexCrown ratings of all the manager's funds in various sectors and then using these scores to determine the manager's average domestic and foreign PlexCrown ratings.
An overall score is then determined from these two scores, with a 75-percent weighting towards the average domestic fund rating.
The PlexCrown ratings measure a fund's performance on four different measures that take risk into account, over periods up to five years. These measures are distilled into a single rating.
Ryk de Klerk, who developed the PlexCrown Ratings, says management companies were affected significantly by the marked increase in the number of funds rated.
De Klerk says Oasis has improved its overall rating by 0.209 to 4.1251 compared with last quarter. The investment house continues to dominate a number of sectors, being first in the domestic real estate, domestic equity (joint first place) and foreign equity sectors. Oasis is in fourth place in the domestic asset allocation sector and has improved its rating in the domestic fixed- interest sector. Oasis has regained the top spot for total domestic performance and remains the leader for total foreign performance.
Oasis has four funds that achieved the highest PlexCrown rating of five crowns this quarter, and three funds with four crowns. (The PlexCrown ratings of funds are published on this edition's unit trust prices page.)
Stanlib's top performance in the domestic fixed-interest sector helped it snatch second place overall, with 3.5552 PlexCrowns. It was ranked fourth in the total domestic rankings and third in the total foreign rankings.
Stanlib's overall ranking has improved significantly since it has been ranked separately from its multimanager division. Stanlib Multimanager is the second-worst manager among those ranked.
Prudential's third place overall was a result of its all-round above-average ratings, De Klerk says.
Prudential took joint second place in the domestic fixed-interest sector and the foreign fixed-interest sector, resulting in the manager achieving fifth place in the total domestic rankings and fourth place in the total foreign rankings.
Prudential has three funds that achieved four PlexCrowns this quarter and four funds that achieved three PlexCrowns.
De Klerk says Coronation was forced into fourth spot overall, mainly as a result of a relatively poor total foreign ranking caused by a significant weakening in its foreign equity rating. The company is, however, second in the total domestic ratings.
Sanlam's remarkable comeback continues but the house's third place in the total domestic ratings was significantly diluted by a weak total foreign rating, forcing it into fifth place overall.
The rankings (by weighted average PlexCrowns) of unit trust managers as at June 30, 2007:
1. Oasis: 4.1251
2. Stanlib: 3.5552
3. Prudential: 3.5003
4. Coronation: 3.3834
5. Sanlam: 3.3125
6. Nedgroup Investments: 3.2716
7. Investec: 3.0837
8. Old Mutual: 2.9878
9. RMB: 2.9739
10. Absa: 2.9161
11. Momentum: 2.7201
12. Investment Solutions: 2.6251
13. Stanlib Multimanager: 2.2081
14. Futuregrowth: 2.1251