Johannesburg - Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are not only becoming popular with retail investors, but are gathering support from the multi-manager and retirement fund sectors in South Africa.
This is the view of Michael Keeves, head of ETFs at Investec Capital Markets.
An exchange traded fund is a passive investment instrument which tracks the performance of a specific index. In South Africa the Satrix 40 and NewGold ETFs are the best known in this investment class.
Satrix 40 allows investors to passively track the performance of the top 40 stocks on the JSE, while NewGold allows investors to track the underlying gold price without investing in local gold producers.
Keeves was speaking after the announcement of the listing of Zshares GOVI, South Africa's first fixed income exchange traded fund on the JSE. This instrument will give investors of all sizes access to the South African bond market.
"Traditionally, retail investors looking to enter the bond market require about R100:nbsp;000 to start with," said Keeves.
The Zshares GOVI will trade live on the JSE, while the underlying government bonds in the portfolio will be traded on the Bond Exchange of South Africa (Besa) or Yield-X.
"In the current credit market turmoil, the Zshares GOVI will afford an investor the safest South African investment possible from a credit perspective, as the fund will hold bonds guaranteed by the South African government," says Keeves. "We believe this ETF should be a core holding in any diversified portfolio."
Clients can buy into ETFs by contacting their stockbroker.
No No performance management fees
Judging from the feedback from the Fin24.com community, many ordinary retail investors have lost faith in the performance of actively managed funds.
Statistics from the Association of Collective Investments (ACI) show that investors have been withdrawing their money from equity-based funds and putting it into low-risk sectors such as money market funds.
"One of the attractive features for investors is the transparency of holdings and costs offered by ETFs," said Keeves.
Retail and institutional investors (such as multi-managers and retirement fund managers) are able to look at the holdings of ETFs at any given time, as they are based on a specific underlying index. There is no fund manager making active investment decisions on which shares to buy or sell.
As a result, ETFs do not require performance-based management fees, for exceeding a benchmark and costs are expected to be lower.
According to Keeves, multi-manager and retirement funds have had less focus on costs and more emphasis on performance. However, with the market coming off sharply investors are sharpening their pencils around cost savings.
This is an area where he believes ETFs will be able to gain ground over other collective investments.
Keeves believes that over time, South African corporate investors will continue to increase their exposure to ETFs.
"Investors will probably look at a combination of ETFs and specialist asset-managers," said Keeves.
"The ETF will provide the investor with a benchmark, and the specialist asset-manager will hopefully provide the client with some outperformance."
Tips for investors
"One of the big challenges we face around ETFs is educating retail and corporate investors about where they fit into a diversified portfolio," said Keeves.
Keeves has provided the following insights for potential investors.
Retail investors may find the "spread" between the bid and offer price of ETFs a little daunting.
Like shares, you can only buy something if there is a seller with something to sell. Often this is deters would-be investors. Keeves says that if you feel the price on offer is too wide, it is better to contact market makers directly and have them secure you an appropriate price.
Different ETFs handle distributions to holders differently. Some ETFs will declare interest or dividends depending on what they are invested in.
In the case of Zshares GOVI, a "notional distribution" is declared which will issue existing ETF
holders with new units, which will be reinvested automatically. Investors have the option of selling them.
- Fin24.com