Today's Labour News

newsThis news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.

UIF and Compensation Fund halt new investments by PIC in unlisted assets

Details

picBL Premium reports that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the Compensation Fund have said no to ramping up investments in unlisted entities by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which acts as the asset manager for the two statutory funds.

The UIF cited as its reason the poor performance in the sector, including the liquidation of several companies. But, the approach of the funds towards their unlisted investment portfolio contrasts with the approach of the PIC, which told MPs in June that it planned to ramp up its unlisted asset share from the current 5% to a “visionary” 25% over the next five years to drive transformation and job creation. It claimed it had negotiated a new investment mandate with its clients that provided for the new framework for unlisted investments. The two funds disclosed their approach to their unlisted investments when questioned during a meeting with parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday. The UIF has unlisted investments of R20.6bn in just more than 25 unlisted companies, while the Compensation Fund’s unlisted investments amount to R2bn. The commissioners of both funds undertook to provide Scopa with a report on their unlisted investments. UIF CFO Fezeka Puzi told MPs: “Due to the poor performance of some of these instruments and some of these instruments being impaired to an extent that the fund sometimes gets to lose money [some of these instruments are under liquidation], the fund took a decision to say that we are not going to invest further in these unlisted investments. We are going to put a hold on those and only service the ones that are now performing. However, we are also looking at a strategy of exiting these instruments.”

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)


Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page