The “Oscars” of the unit trust industry, the annual Raging Bull Awards, hosted by Personal Finance, will take place on Tuesday February 28. Reverting to tradition after two years of being a virtual presentation owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event takes the form of a lavish black-tie gala dinner, to be held this year at Pigalle restaurant in Green Point, Cape Town.
The special guest speaker at this year’s ceremony, which celebrates the top-performing unit trust funds of 2022, is Edward Kieswetter, Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service (Sars).
Kieswetter has headed Sars since 2019. His previous roles included group chief executive for the Alexander Forbes Group, group executive of the Sars Large Business Centre and High Net Worth Unit, Sars chief operating officer and deputy commissioner, and senior executive roles at FirstRand and Eskom.
Also speaking at the event will be Dr Leila Fourie, chief executive of the JSE, one of the sponsors of this year’s awards.
The Raging Bull Awards ceremony has been a key event on the South African investment industry calendar since its inception in 1997 by Personal Finance and its founding editor, Bruce Cameron.
While the awards are of special interest to unit trust companies, financial services regulators and investment industry bodies, they are chiefly aimed at the individual investor, who is faced with a bewildering array of about 1 500 funds from which to choose. In essence, the awards recognise funds and managers that have proved their abilities over time.
The data providers, on whose methodology the awards are determined, are ProfileData and its subsidiary, PlexCrown Fund Ratings.
There are 30 certificates for the best funds in their categories and eight Raging Bull trophies for the top-performing funds for performance to the end of 2022.
The eight trophies for individual funds are as follows:
•Four for straight performance over three years in the South African equity general, South African interest-bearing, rand-denominated global general equity and offshore global equity categories.
•Four for risk-adjusted performance, as measured by the PlexCrown Ratings, in the South African general equity, South African multi-asset flexible, South African multi-asset equity and offshore global asset allocation categories.
The highlight of the ceremony is the announcement of the South African Manager of the Year and Offshore Manager of the Year. Last year these awards went to Ninety One and Mellville Douglas, respectively.
A special Raging Bull Awards tabloid supplement, with details of all the award and certificate winners as well as interviews with the award-winners, will be published on March 4 in the Saturday Star, Saturday Argus, Independent on Saturday, and Pretoria News.
For more details or to book a table, go to www.ragingbullawards.co.za