Futuregrowth Asset Management, the Old Mutual Ltd. fixed-income unit, said it plans to boost the proportion of the 185 billion rand ($13 billion) fund manager owned by black South Africans.
“We will also be taking pro-active steps to bring Futuregrowth’s black shareholding up from the current 28%,” Andrew Canter, the chief investment officer of the Cape Town-based company, said in a video giving his outlook for 2020.
Since the end of apartheid in 1994 South Africa’s government has passed legislation and worked with companies to boost black involvement in the economy to make up for discrimination during whites-only rule. Still, the country remains one of the most unequal on earth and its economy is dominated by the white minority.
“It is a strategic national imperative, a strategic industry imperative, a client concern, and thus a business concern and imperative,” Canter said in response to questions. “It’s not a big-bang, as much as a journey.”
Source: Bloomberg Quint
