Edwin Dande, Cytonn’s chief executive. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Cytonn Investment is set to launch its asset management arm in
Nairobi on Monday, following approval by the Capital Markets Authority
(CMA) as a licensed Real Estate Investment Trust manager.
The
move will see it increase its asset management portfolio, which stands
at Sh21 billion, when it officially launches Cytonn Asset Managers.
The new company is eyeing Sh1.2 trillion assets held by retirement benefit schemes to drive its business to the next level.
“In addition to traditional investments and high-yielding
products such as bond funds, equities and real estate that have returned
about 18 per cent per annum to our clients, we feel this is one of our
compelling offerings and creating development opportunities in the fluid
money market,” said Edwin Dande, Cytonn’s chief executive.
The
company, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary since it was
founded, hopes to ride on its diversified real estate portfolio and
high-yielding investment solutions to deliver robust performance in the
asset management segment.
“Being a real estate and
private equity firm, our strategy is to focus on this attractive
investment segment and develop it by spearheading the digitisation of
the money market fund where clients would be able to access their money
right on their digital devices,” said Mr Dande.
He said
due to a widening gap in the fund managers’ knowledge and expertise in
packaging and offering alternative investments, many clients were faced
with superior risks adjustment returns than traditional investments.
“We
seek to use our expertise to offer this to a wider pool of investors,
who may not have been able to access these investments previously as
they could only be accessed through private market offers,” said Mr
Dande.
Digitisation
He added plans were at an advanced stage to digitise the unit trust funds processes before the end of the year.
“We
want to make use of our high-end expertise in offering alternative
investments to give our clients value for money, including pensions, as
we want to offer them highly de-risked real estate investments in well
researched areas,” said Mr Dande.
According to experts, lack of well-grounded asset managers in the fluid money markets has led to poor performance.
“This
has dampened the growth of the property market as pension schemes were
not getting value for their money as their returns were oscillating
between five and nine per cent annually,” said Cytonn head of Unit
Trusts Victor Odendo.
Mr Odendo said there are many
advantages of having a qualified asset manager as they help clients come
up with investment plans that suit their specific investments needs.
“A
qualified asset manager is regulated by the relevant authorities,
ensuring extra oversight on clients investments, and the firm,” said Mr
Odendo.
Cytonn says in a bid to penetrate the market at
the counties, it plans to spread its wings to major commercial centres
in the country including Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nyeri, Meru and
Nakuru.
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