Background and ownership:

Prescient Investment Management is South Africa’s leading quantitative investment house, founded in 1998. The founders, Herman Steyn and Guy Toms, are still with the company today, which is privately owned and controlled through Prescient Holdings.

Prescient offers independent investment and retirement solutions, and life insurance. It also owns a niche stock broking firm. Prescient Investment Management has R95-billion of assets under management and administration, and the business has grown 50 percent per year since inception. Although focused on the local market, the group has been expanding its presence overseas. Today it has offices in South Africa, Namibia, Australia, Ireland and China. It is now looking to build its business across the rest of Europe and in Africa.

The Group, Prescient Holdings, is 50 percent owned by the founders, and 23 percent by staff. Effectively 73 percent of the company is owned by staff. The balance of 27 percent is owned by outside Black Economic Empowerment interests. Collectively the total BEE component is 29 percent.

Our Mission:

To preserve and grow our client’s wealth by delivering superior risk-adjusted controlled returns, both in the domestic and international markets.

Our Philosophy:

Prescient’s core investment philosophy is capital preservation and the management of downside risk. Through quantitative investing, decisions are based on pragmatic valuations and considered views. In so doing, the approach is to remove all the emotion from the decision-making process.

Our People:

Intellectual capacity and management skills are vital for any quantitative investment firm. Prescient recognised this from the outset, and sought out industry experts to join the business. As a result, all Prescient’s people fulfill essential roles, to help the group follow its strict processes in achieving those mandates set out by the clients.

Prescient co-founder, Herman Steyn has been involved in the investment management industry since 1985, having held senior management positions in several asset management companies, including Old Mutual and Investec. He established Investec Asset Management’s international fund management capability in 1995. He also started the first index tracker fund in South Africa, known as the Composite Unit Trust, in 1993. In 1998 Herman and Guy Toms founded Prescient Investment Management.

Guy Toms, Prescient’s co-founder, is credited with developing what is arguably one of the leading investment tools - Prescient's QuantPlus®. He has worked as a bond analyst and derivative specialist at a number of asset management houses, including Investec and District Securities Bank. Today Guy is Prescient's Chief Investment Strategist and is widely respected in the investment management industry, particularly in the field of bond and derivative management.

Carey Millerd has worked in the investment management industry since 1982. Career highlights include establishing Nedbank’s offshore and domestic investment products. During this time he was CEO of the Nedcor Bank Management Company. He was later transferred to NIB as CEO of their management company. Carey joined Prescient in October 2002 as Chief Operating Officer, was later promoted to CEO and is now Deputy Chairman and Executive Director.

Eldria Fraser has 19 years experience in investment markets, having worked for Deutsche Securities and Investment Solutions. At the end of 2005, Eldria became Prescient Chief Investment Officer. Today, Eldria is an Executive Director and the Chief Executive Officer of Prescient Investment Management. She is responsible for the overall running of the business, and has remained fully involved in the investment process.

Sharon Bailey’s industry experience spans organisations such as Syfrets Limited, Nedcor Investment Bank Asset Managers and African Harvest Fund Managers where she has held executive-level positions. Sharon was a recipient of the Nedcor Going for Gold Award. Today she heads up Business Development and Marketing at Prescient, and is an Executive Director at  Prescient Investment Management.

Business Breakdown:

The Prescient Group  has six areas of business:

• Prescient Investment Management, an independent investment management company specialising in portfolio and risk management for institutional, pension and provident fund assets;
• Prescient Securities, a niche stock broking firm with Black Economic Empowerment credentials which focuses on the institutional market, covering equity, derivative and fixed income markets.
• Prescient Management Company, formed to offer institutional clients a pooled solution to its various mandates;
• Prescient Life Limited, a long-term life insurer that offers pooling and administrative services to institutional clients such as pension funds, multi managers and third party investment managers;
• Prescient Administration Services, the backbone of the group which performs the function of a cost-efficient, profitable and best practise in-house and third party administration service;
• Prescient Wealth is a private client wealth management company offering financial, retirement and estate planning as well as asset management services to high net worth individuals and families.

Why use Prescient:

The Prescient Group has won numerous awards, highlighting the strength of the investment philosophy and process.

2009

Nominated Cash Manager of the Year – Imbasa Yegolide Awards

Nominated Equities Manager of the Year - Imbasa Yegolide Awards

2010

Nominated Cash Manager of the Year - Imbasa Yegolide Awards

Overall Investment Manager of the Year - Imbasa Yegolide Awards

Retail: Morningstar 5 Star Award for our Balanced Fund

Retail: Raging Bull Award for Nedgroup Bond QuantPlus

Top Performance for a 3-year period ending December 2010.

Best Performance Risk Adjusted for a 5 year period ending December 2010.

2011

Winner Overall Investments/Asset Manager of the Year - Imbasa Yegolide Awards

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www.prescient.co.za