Following the increase in the foreign allowance to 45% we relooked our optimisation and found that we could increase the global allocation in the STANLIB Multi-Manager Shari’ah Balanced Fund.

Our search to find the right global Shari’ah fund was long and intensive with numerous interactions with managers – from unpacking their investment philosophies to understanding their Shari’ah compliance processes.

A managers that we partner with in the STANLIB Multi-Manager Global Equity Fund, Sands Capital, recently launched a Shari’ah fund. The increase in the foreign allowance became the perfect opportunity for us to assess their capability for our STANLIB Multi-Manager Shariah Balanced Fund of Funds. We know the manager well and they have contributed meaningfully to our global funds over the years. We subsequently decided to add Sands Capital to the underlying maneger line-up of our Shari’ah Fund.

This will increase the diversification of the Fund as Sands Capital introduces a different global focus – long-term growth.

Sands Capital runs the same investment process in the Shari’ah fund as they do in their other mandates. The only difference is an exclusion of non-compliant Shari’ah stocks. Their process is one we know well and we understand how they derive alpha.

This makes Sands Capital an appropriate fit for our Shari’ah Fund.

A diversified blend of managers

The table below provides the new strategic manager allocation: