Our performance track record
Every client’s circumstances are different. For this reason it is meaningless to list an overall return for all clients. Initially we reported the returns on clients’ local equity portfolios, but as client circumstances have changed, so have the composition of their equity portfolios. Consequently, we now report the returns of our South African general equity unit trust, the Maestro Equity Prescient Fund as an indication of our ability to manage South African equity portfolios.
As nearly all of our clients local equity assets are invested in this Fund, we believe it to be an accurate indication of our ability, over time, to take care of our clients’ assets and to generate respectable risk-adjusted equity returns. All returns below are shown net of fees i.e. after fees have been taken into account.
Although this runs counter to the manner in which institutional returns are presented, we think it is appropriate to reflect the net returns because this is what matters most to the client. The returns we have achieved on the cash in our care have been in line with conventional cash benchmarks; cash does not represent a large portion of our client portfolios. Each of the returns on the different funds we manage can be found under the respective fund summaries under Funds.
We do not regard investment performance as the “be-all and end-all” of our service offering, although we understand it is vital over the long-term in order to develop sound, rewarding and sustainable relationships. Other important components of our overall service include: across-the-board expertise, competitive and reasonable fees, convenience, accessibility, and the opportunity to develop a close working relationship with the investment decision-makers that will be in charge of your assets.
As you will see from our Investment Philosophy and approach we believe our returns have been achieved with much less risk and volatility than the overall share market.
Table 1: South African equity returns for periods ended 30 September 2020 (%)
SA equity returns
|
Maestro Equity Prescient Fund |
JSE All Share Index |
6 months* |
20.1% |
24.0% |
1 year |
2.9% |
2.0% |
3 years |
-3.2% |
2.4% |
5 years |
-1.3% |
4.8% |
7 years |
1.7% |
6.2% |
10 years |
5.7% |
9.6% |
15 years |
7.1% |
11.3% |
* 6-month returns are un-annualised
Since 2004 Maestro has been managing an offshore unit trust, the Central Park Global Balanced Fund. The largest part of this Fund is invested across global equity markets. Consequently, as an accurate reflection of our ability to manage global equity portfolios, we list below the returns we have achieved on the equity component of the Fund. Although we manage a number of other global equity portfolios, their composition is virtually identical to Central Park’s equity portfolio, meaning the returns of these portfolios are similar to those shown below.
Table 2: Global equity returns for periods ended 30 September 2020 (%) - in US dollars
Global equity returns
|
Central Park Equity Portfolio |
MSCI World Index |
6 months* |
33.2% |
27.8% |
1 year |
32.1% |
8.6% |
3 years |
12.4% |
5.8% |
5 years |
15.3% |
8.4% |
7 years |
11.1% |
6.3% |
10 years |
10.4% |
7.2% |
15 years |
12.2% |
4.5% |
* 6-month returns are un-annualised