Ashburton Investments - South Africa: About Us

Who we are

Ashburton Investments is a standalone asset management business and an entirely owned subsidiary of FirstRand Limited, one of Africa’s largest and most diversified financial services groups. We provide investors with a broad range of local and global solutions across active, passive and alternative strategies. Our investment approach is grounded in disciplined risk management and a responsible‑investment framework that supports decisions aimed at delivering sustainable, long‑term performance. Over the years, strategic talent acquisitions and enhanced capabilities have strengthened our specialist expertise. While we are recognised for our strong fixed income and credit franchise, our offering also includes multi‑asset solutions, equities and global capabilities designed to meet the needs of institutional and individual investors.

We are fully invested in delivering meaningful solutions that help our clients navigate markets with clarity and confidence.

Ashburton Fund Managers (Proprietary) Limited is an authorised Financial Services Provider (FSP 40169).

Our mission

We are fully invested in our relationships with our clients who trust us to preserve and grow their assets in real terms. We infuse client-centric solutions with cuttingedge investment expertise and technology to mitigate risk, create wealth and optimise future wellbeing. Fully invested has been our brand’s purpose statement since 2018, and it is our guiding light for everything we do. For us it means fully committing to meeting our clients’ needs substantially and responsibly, and continually earning the trust of our clients, our people and the market.

Our purpose

We are both fully invested in helping our clients achieve their investment goals and we are fully invested in our people. We value diversity and always endeavour to do the right thing. Our investment philosophy aims to meet the twin objectives of capital preservation and capital appreciation over the long term, through an investment strategy that considers diverse sources of return while being risk-aware. The outcome of this process is to deliver real returns in line with our investors’ particular risk appetites. We have a strong team of investment professionals, whose collective mission it is to meet our clients’ unique needs with integrity. We have one of the most diverse asset management teams in the country, with a significant number of women and black team members in our investment and executive teams.

Our Commitment to Transformation

Ashburton Investments, as part of the FirstRand group, has a strong focus on empowerment and believes that the commitment to transformation is not just about meeting scorecard objectives. We hold to the spirit and the tenets of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), which aims to ensure the economic empowerment of all previously disadvantaged South African's.

FirstRand measures its BEE contribution and progress at group level. Ashburton Investments proudly supports and contributes to these efforts and is measured through the group process.

FirstRand’s empowerment strategy

Our Capabilities and Solutions

We pride ourselves on being able to customise across our existing product range to meet each client’s specific needs.

Ashburton Investments is fully invested in the outcomes of our clients. Through providing access to diverse sources of return across both listed and unlisted asset classes, combined with our focus on risk and volatility management, we have committed to helping our clients achieve better results for themselves, and all those who depend on them.

What we offer

We pride ourselves on being able to customise across our existing product range to meet each client’s specific needs.

A range of single manager domestic and international funds including equity, multi-asset, fixed income and indexation strategies

Multi-Asset offering

Investors can achieve their goals by investing in funds that have the flexibility to invest in a range of asset classes locally; hence offering better diversified sources of returns while managing risk appropriately.

While equities have historically produced the highest returns over the long term, they can be volatile over shorter-term periods. The Ashburton Balanced Fund is suited to investors who require a real return on their capital over time and has a moderate risk profile. The Ashburton Targeted Return Fund is suited to investors seeking a conservatively managed multi-asset fund with stable inflation-beating returns. The range also includes the Diversified Income Fund, which suits investors with a lower risk profile since it does not invest in equity instruments.

Explore our funds

Our people

Rooted in community, our people embody strength and togetherness.

Leadership

Investment

Distribution

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Investment proposition and philosophy

Real returns optimised within a risk framework

Our investment philosophy aims to meet the twin objectives of capital preservation and capital appreciation over the long term, through an investment strategy that considers diverse sources of return while being risk aware. The outcome of this process is to deliver real returns which are in line with your risk appetite.

Our fundamental aim is to maximise risk-adjusted returns for our clients, and this is done both at the asset class level in the case of actively managed funds and at asset allocation level in the case of multi-asset funds. We follow a consistent investment process based on the conviction that returns are obtained through a combination of the correct strategic and tactical asset allocation. We value each asset class to identify mispricing opportunities which can be captured either via selection within an asset class or by our asset allocation process when comparing across asset classes.

Our team-driven and prudent investment process is applied across all our investment decisions and across all mandates and funds with individual accountability given to the portfolio managers managing your money. We follow a systematic, fundamentally based approach to investing which allows us to avoid behavioural biases.

Top-down and Bottom-up

We believe that asset prices are driven both by macro factors (top-down) and bottom-up fundamentals. By analysing local and global economic data, we identify trends that will influence asset prices.

Our investment approach is built on the below principles:

Macro

Macro factors are important inputs in the asset allocation and valuation process. We use a wide range of economic and market data alongside an array of proprietary inputs from one of the largest and most sophisticated teams of economists in the country. Macro awareness aims to incorporate big-picture thinking into the investment process, a key component in a fast-changing world.

Our Capabilities

Fixed Income

Property

Equity

Passive

Offshore

Credit

Valuation

We rely on asset class valuation when making active investment decisions. We employ asset class specialists onshore and offshore to be able to provide the best possible understanding of specific asset classes. The bottom-up valuation assists in asset allocation decision-making. We have access to a broad spectrum of assets and a fundamental advantage when it comes to originating, selecting and monitoring credit which is an important building block in many of the fixed income funds.

By combining a top-down view and bottom-up valuations, we are able to determine the best possible combination of asset classes to deliver on your real return targets, while optimising for risk. We also account for ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors when analysing companies to evaluate the sustainability of their returns in the long term.

Responsible Investing

Our investment decisions consider a wide range of factors that may affect the risk and return profile of the investments we make, now and in the future. Our long-term success is not measured in investment performance alone, but also on the impact on society and the environment.

We recognise that responsible companies ought to have good governance processes, effective risk management and compliance functions and stakeholder engagement. They prepare for changes in their operating environment, from shifts in public opinion to the challenges of resource scarcity and the impact of climate change.

Incorporating environmental, social and governance factors into our investment and ownership decisions supports the pursuit of superior risk-adjusted returns for our clients.

Ashburton Investments is a participant in the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa’s Responsible Investing sub-committee and fully endorse the Codes for Responsible Investing South Africa. We are a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI).

Awards & nominations

Celebrating achievement, honoring distinction.

Nominated for:

Ashburton SA Fund
Ashburton Bond Fund

Contact Us

Our team of investment specialists is ready to discuss how we can help you achieve your financial objectives.

Call us on011 685 5050

Email us onclientservice@ashburton.co.za

Johannesburg Head Office2 Merchant Place, 1 Fredman Drive, Sandton, Johannesburg, 2196

Request a callback

Contact Us

Our team of investment specialists is ready to discuss how we can help you achieve your financial objectives.

Call us on+27(0) 860 000 339

Email us onquery@ashburton.co.za

Johannesburg Head Office2 Merchant Place, 1 Fredman Drive, Sandton, Johannesburg, 2196

Request a callback

Ashburton Fund Managers (Proprietary) Limited is a licensed Financial Services Provider ("FSP") in terms of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 37 of 2002, FSP number 40169, and Ashburton Management Company RF (Pty) Ltd is an approved manager of Collective Investment Schemes in terms of Collective Investments Scheme Control Act, 45 of 2002 by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and is also a full member of the Association for Savings and Investment SA (ASISA).