Coronation has been committed to real transformation since we first opened for business in 1993.

Today, the majority of our employees are black. Together they own a direct and broad-based stake of more than 20% in the business (as measured in terms of the Financial Sector Code).

In addition, we pioneered a number of corporate initiatives that have contributed to transformation and the development of skills in the asset management and financial services industry in Southern Africa. This includes our deliberate intervention in the local black stockbroking industry over the past decade, which has created sustainable stockbroking houses servicing the investment community as a whole, as well as the more recent cosponsorship of an independent financial adviser development programme.

TRANSFORMING FROM WITHIN

Coronation is a meritocracy. Every employee has a meaningful and measurable contribution to make in ensuring the continued success of our business.

By following a disciplined recruitment and selection process, we have successfully recruited, trained and retained exceptional black talent, some of whom now hold critical management roles within the business. A key measure of the success we have achieved over the past 16 years is illustrated in the previous graph.

Highlights as at the end of September include:

• Three out of four executive committee members are black.
   
• Four out of seven board members are black.
   
• Close to 60% of our total SA staff complement are black, and more than half are female.
   
• Within the SA investment team of 47 individuals, 20 (more than 40%) investment professionals are black.
   
• 75% of the senior managers within the SA investment team are black.
   
• 50% of the portfolio managers within the SA investment team are black, two of whom are black females.

We continue to invest in black talent in the investment industry through a number of internship programmes and we also have dedicated black trainee analyst roles within our investment team.

TRANSFORMING THROUGH OWNERSHIP

Staff ownership is an integral part of our culture. We believe that being part-owners in our business, our people can make the right decisions for the long-term benefit of our clients and the business as a whole. In 2005, we created SA’s first staff-only black economic empowerment deal, the Imvula Trust (Imvula). Today, more than 20% of our business is directly owned by our black staff (comprising their holdings via Imvula as well as direct holdings in Coronation).​

TRANSFORMING AND GROWING OUR INDUSTRY

We believe we can have a great impact on transformation by focusing on upstream and downstream activity in the local investment industry.

As an asset management company, we are responsible for the procurement of stockbroking services on behalf of many of our clients. In 2006, we used this ‘purchasing power’ to launch the Coronation Business Support Programme. Over the past decade, the programme has proven to be a sustainable and effective intervention to grow niche black stockbrokers. Since inception, the programme’s allocation to participants has grown consistently, amounting to more than R200 million (in terms of new business).

Were it not for the insights and hands-on support by Coronation management and staff as part of the programme, many of these stockbroking businesses would not be in existence today.

The transformation enabled by the programme has been both material and meaningful. More recently, it has inspired the launch of a broader industry programme with the aim of further transforming and strengthening the black stockbroking community. In collaboration with the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (Asisa), four leading industry participants (sponsors), of which we are one, launched this new and exciting programme on 1 August 2016.

We have followed a similar cooperative approach to assist with the development of independently-minded black professionals in the financial planning industry. Since 2015, we have been a cosponsor of Asisa’s Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) Development Programme. The aim of this programme is to provide business development support to existing black IFAs by equipping them with practical practice management skills and knowledge. The programme also includes an IFA internship programme for talented black graduates to gain theoretical knowledge and practical work experience at some of the country’s top IFA practices.

We believe the success of our approach to transformation rests with the fact that its principles have been consistent with our key values of owner-management, being performance-driven and a meritocracy. Our commitment to real transformation has also been embedded in our culture and how we do things on a day-to-day basis.