The end of an era, and start of a new chapter

It’s the end of an era at Futuregrowth, South Africa’s pioneering impact-investing fund managers, which has used a growing pocket of pension savings to produce real change in townships over the past 30 years.

In recent months, it’s hired two external outsiders in the roles of CEO and chief investment officer, filling a pretty large void left by two veterans of the industry and the business, Paul Rackstraw and Andrew Canter.

Rackstraw and Canter were largely responsible for building Futuregrowth’s brand as a company famous for investing in social and infrastructure development.

It blazed a trail: in 1996, at a time when banks considered townships and rural areas too risky to finance, Futuregrowth stepped in through its Community Property Fund, which funded shopping centres in underdeveloped areas. These included retail developments in Gqeberha’s Motherwell, East London’s Mdantsane, Cape Town’s Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha, and Tembisa in Gauteng.

Futuregrowth also facilitated the acquisition of empowerment stakes in larger companies, while funding the development of roads, water and other infrastructure projects. It illustrated that asset managers can create jobs, provide access to services and build municipalities, while generating solid returns for pensioners.

Officially, Rackstraw stepped down at the end of 2024, and he’s now a senior property consultant to Futuregrowth, working on the Community Property Fund. But his departure was followed by the announcement in April that its long-serving CIO, Canter, would step down from executive duties in October this year.

Canter tells Today’s Trustee that he’ll be retained to assist in ensuring continuity in the investment process, as well as on various projects and committees, with his final retirement scheduled for his 65th birthday in October 2027. Into their place step Vuyolwethu Nogantshi and Shaun Harris, both highly acclaimed investment professionals.

Harris was initially hired as CEO to replace Rackstraw from January, but he will shift to the CIO role when Nogantshi starts in July.

Management continuity

So, what do these changes mean for Futuregrowth’s direction? To answer this, it’s useful to consider where the business came from.

Futuregrowth was established in 1994 with the backing of Anglo American’s Southern Life, lauded at the time as a commitment to South Africa’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Then, when Southern Life was bought by FirstRand in 1998, Futuregrowth was folded into the banking group.

It soon became the largest black-owned asset manager in the country. But critically, there’s been management continuity from the start. Its founding manager was Michael Leeman, a University of Cape Town business science graduate, who later founded African Harvest Capital. After Leeman left in 1998, Futuregrowth carved out a niche in impact investing under Rackstraw, Canter and the Italian-born asset manager-cum-winemaker, Dr Alberto Bottega. The trio knew each other well – Canter and Bottega had co-founded RMB Asset Management in 1990.

But in 2006, at the age of 64, Bottega retired. At the time, Futuregrowth had less than R30bn under management. Over the next two decades, it expanded massively, with assets topping R200bn, following the acquisition of Old Mutual’s fixed interest team. It won a series of mandates from pension funds and institutional investors.

Rackstraw and Canter – now both in their early 60s – were joined at the hip, according to other money managers. It was difficult to imagine either of them running Futuregrowth without the other, industry insiders say.

Asked why he’s leaving now, Canter told Today’s Trustee that he’s now 63 and, as energetic as he is, a CIO of a large asset manager shouldn’t remain in the hot seat right up to the end.

“We’re a big asset manager, you know, and clients don’t want to see us waiting until I’m 64 or 65 for me to hand over the reins,” he says. “So we’re in a sweet spot, between the ages of 63 and 64, to [undergo] the transition.”

Harris says the board wanted to allow sufficient time between now and Canter’s formal retirement in 2027 to ensure a smooth handover. But he’s confident he and Nogantshi have what it takes to ensure Futuregrowth’s progress.

‘Fresh energy’

Nogantshi, an actuary, has more than 20 years of experience in the financial-services sector, largely in investment management and risk oversight.

His leadership roles include stints at Allan Gray, Nedgroup Investments and Alexforbes. At Absa Corporate and Investment Bank, he built a formidable reputation for leading three businesses with distinction: retail structured products, exchange traded products, and fund-linked derivatives.

Harris, a chartered accountant, has an equally storied career. At Rand Merchant Bank’s Global Markets division, he headed the institutional client group, and before that, he was MD of Old Mutual’s on-balance-sheet private-debt capability. Canter says this overhaul should be good for the team.

Shaun Harris and Vuyolwethu Nogantshi ... coming in with a growth mindset

“They see the fresh energy coming and the fresh perspective, the fresh questions, and a renewed drive for excellence. So there’s a lot of positive energy at the senior levels of the investment team – I like to think throughout the whole investment team actually,” he says.

The challenge will be not just to expand the franchise, but to retain something of the entrepreneurial culture that was embedded during Rackstraw’s and Canter’s tenure.

Nonetheless, Harris acknowledges that new leaders bring their own style. “Inherently, people have to decide whether they’re aligned with that or not, but the intention is that we’re coming in with is a growth mindset,” he says.

No big changes are expected in the investment team, says Canter, but the executive team will look to prioritise Futuregrowth’s marketing, client relations and business development.

So, what more could be done to give it a bigger platform? A listing on the JSE perhaps, alongside the likes of Coronation and Ninety One? Harris says this is unlikely. There’s no need for liquidity in the company’s shares, where staff and Futuregrowth’s investment partners, including Old Mutual, have no desire to sell out.

Canter, too, says he won’t be quick to sell his shares when he retires, and will remain a shareholder until 2030.

‘Black ownership restored’

“If you screw up the business and you walk out, you shouldn’t get an exit and, in fact, if you really screw up the business, there’s no guarantee [of] repurchase. You can ride those shares all the way down, and that’s quite well aligned with both clients and shareholders,” says Canter.

While Futuregrowth has had a number of changes in its shareholding structure over the years, no imminent shifts are likely at this point.

Back in 2002, the asset manager was firmly ensconced in the FirstRand group, but things changed dramatically when Wiphold, the black female-owned investment group founded by

Gloria Serobe and Louisa Mojela, bought a 40% stake in Futuregrowth. This made it the largest black-empowered and women-owned asset manager in the country, with R27bn of assets under management. It then transferred 20% of its equity to an employee share scheme. A few years later, Wiphold increased its holding to 70%.

Things changed again in 2005, when Wiphold invested in Old Mutual’s empowerment deal and, in 2008, it sold its stake in Futuregrowth to Old Mutual.

“Wiphold made a great contribution to our business over those years and really challenged our thinking. That was hugely positive, and we felt a sense of loss when they exited in 2008,” Rackstraw said.

In June 2022, AWCA Investment Holdings (AIH), a black women-owned investment company, bought 21.2% of Futuregrowth, restoring its black-ownership credentials. Today, two-thirds of Futuregrowth is black-owned.

Harris sees AIH continuing under the new leadership, saying it’s still early stages of their investment, and that “the same blood is pumping through their heart as ours”.

The future of Futuregrowth

Futuregrowth built a fantastic business focusing on financing developments in neglected townships and rural areas. But over the past decade, several other pension-fund managers have joined the party, eating into the market Futuregrowth once owned.

Andrew Canter, the outgoing CIO, says it’s great that other investors have embraced “development-oriented investing” in the past several years. In part, he says, this is a response to demand from clients – and it’s good for investors, markets and the economy.

“Given South Africa’s needs there are plenty of developmental investments deals for all of us, and to service all of our clients, and it’s great that the world woke up,” he tells Today’s Trustee.

“To be the only voice in the world… shouting about doing developmental investing for 20 years is really not satisfying.” Nonetheless, Canter says Futuregrowth has a competitive advantage in that space.

“We’ve done it longer and better, and have capacity, mandates, and scale to do it properly”.

However, this moment is a particular inflexion point for infrastructure investing.

The Government of National Unity has promised to dramatically increase the amount of state capital invested in rail, water, agriculture and housing projects. And if this happens, private-sector firms (such as Futuregrowth) will be able to invest alongside the state and, potentially, buy into state-owned assets.

But, as Canter points out, it requires government to begin delivering on these promises. “It does require government, for example, to get Water Affairs going. It requires Transnet to properly roll out private use of the public rail network. It requires these things to happen – but we are there, and the clients are there,” he says.

Shaun Harris, who’ll replace Canter as the chief investment officer, says Futuregrowth will soon be unveiling a new strategy in the property space. Over the next few years, he’d like to see Futuregrowth consolidating its fixed-income business with a global view and solidifying a position as one of the leading private credit managers.

“Keep an eye on the property, private credit, development equity fund and the venture capital stable in there,” says Harris – four areas where he expects deals in the next few years.

This article was originally published in the June-August issue of Today's Trustee and republished here with permission. Read the original.

Read: Leadership transition at Futuregrowth