A growth in the number of homegrown African HNWIs has seen a heightened demand for local wealth management.
Local players are able to offer something unique. A knowledge of fast-growing local economies can provide investment returns that few international firms could match. These local private banks and wealth managers also know their way around national regulations, something which many western banks find too cumbersome to contemplate.
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While there are many banks and wealth managers that have looked after the continent’s wealthy from afar, the local players are less well known.
Private Banker International therefore speaks to some of Africa’s newest organisations tasked with managing African wealth.
Meristem Wealth Management
Country: Nigeria
Established: 2008
Meristem Wealth Management started life as a fund and portfolio manager in August 2008 before later becoming a fully-fledged wealth management company with assets under management of N260.95bn ($718m).
“We currently have clients across Africa and Nigerians in diaspora at large,” Adeola Oseni, group customer service officer tells PBI. “The company was the first and only indigenous asset manager in Nigeria to claim compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) as defined by the CFA Institute.”
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By GlobalDataMaitland Family Office
Country: South Africa
Established: 2018
The global trust and administration firm Maitland announced last year it would launch a multi-family office to service high net worth families, individuals and entrepreneurs in South Africa.
In setting up the offering, Maitland acquired Talaria, a Johannesburg-based fiduciary business set up by Cheryl Howard. Speaking to PBI, Howard said that the family office would meet the rising demands of South Africa’s wealthy in managing their wealth internationally: “From a South African point of view, family offices are becoming important because we have a number of beneficiaries moving abroad.
“The compliance and regulatory landscape [of family offices] is more appealing. The wealthy do want to make sure their affairs are managed correctly. Corporate governance is becoming a factor based on professional advisors.”
Brenthurst Wealth Management
Country: South Africa and Mauritius
Established: 2004
Formally Magnus Heystek Investment Planning Services, Brenthurst, as it is now known, has 14 financial planners advising around R7bn ($500m) in assets under management.
“We manage investments for individuals from diverse backgrounds. Some are entrepreneurs, others corporate executives. We also have clients who are large scale commercial farmers or property developers,” Brenthust’s Daleen van Wyk tells PBI. “So, our kind of client is pretty much anyone interested in our investment philosophy of independent advice, long term relationships and market view of diversification; especially into offshore portfolios.”
More recently Brenthurst has opened an office in Mauritius providing asset management services to individuals and corporate financial services businesses.
PSG
Country: South Africa and Namibia
Established: 1998
PSG has an extensive footprint in South Africa and Namibia with over 546 wealth advisers and R230bn ($16.2bn) assets under management as of August 2018.
“Our client base includes individuals, corporates and other entities. We are proud to focus on intergenerational wealth creation and look after family wealth holistically,” PSG told PBI.
Its Namibia presence makes it one of the larger wealth managers in a country with a financial services sector traditionally tied to South Africa.
Access Bank
Country: Nigeria
Established: 2018
Though Access Bank has been around since 1989, its recent acquisition of Nigerian rival, Diamond Bank will create Nigeria’s newest and largest bank by customers.
Prior to their merger in December 2018, both banks ran private banking divisions that counted some of Nigeria’s wealthiest among their clients.
“With the final merger of both banks and the status of the resulting entity as ‘the largest bank in Africa’s largest economy,’ this greatly bolsters the bank’s brand, opening doors of opportunity both in local and international markets,” Herbert Wigwe, Access Bank’s CEO, said this month.
W8 Advisory
Country: Nigeria and UK
Established: 2014
“Our typical clients would be African families with diversified private fortunes; families who are or have been owners of a business or families with international assets and activities,” Bimpe Nkontchou, managing principle of W8, tells PBI. “We are 100% focused on African families.”
The services available for Africa families include areas of succession and estate planning, wealth structuring, tax compliance, family governance, capital raising, asset management, philanthropy and next-generation development. Assets under advice and management are estimated at about £90m.
