The man who steered Sigma Unit Trust to the number one position, vice president and general manager of Pan Caribbean Asset Management Limited, Rezworth Burchenson, has a lot to smile about these days.
- Ian Allen photo
Ashford W. Meikle, Staff Reporter
THE COUNTRY'S largest unit trust body, Sigma Unit Trust, continues to consolidate and maintain its dominance in the market by being the top performer (in equities and fixed income) in 2004, ahead of its three competitors. Managed by Pan Caribbean Asset Management Limited, Sigma has almost $5.5 billion under management.
Its nearest competitor's portfolio stands at about $3 billion.
While there was a small decline in the real estate fund of the portfolio, the equities fund (Sigma Optima) and the fixed income (Sigma Solution) achieved significant year to date growth of 18 per cent and 102 per cent, respectively. Sigma Solution, which is targeted towards conservative investors concentrates investments predominantly in GoJ instruments, debentures, fixed and variable rate LRS, BoJ Repos as well as short term Repos (between 30 and 180 days). Sigma Optima consists of investments in about 25 blue chip Jamaican companies on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE). The fund outperformed the JSE last year which had a year to date appreciation of 66 per cent.
The achievement of being number one fulfils the mandate of the president, Donovan H. Perkins, who made that commitment on behalf of the board to shareholders at last July's annual general meeting.
ENSURE THAT CLIENTS ARE SATISFIED
"Obviously we are pleased with [being] number one in 2004 and as much as possible we will leverage that achievement," said vice president and general manager of Pan Caribbean Asset Management Limited, Rezworth Burchenson, in an interview with Sunday Business. However, he emphasised that the company will not rest on its laurels. "The way I look at it... 2004 is behind me. We are now into 2005. My focus is how I can position [our] funds to not necessarily be number one [but] what strategies we can employ to ensure that our clients are satisfied."
It is that strategy ensuring unit holders are satisfied the risks undertaken which pushed Sigma ahead of the competition. "We know the size of our competitors we know how they are doing but our job is not to look at our competitors. It is to attempt to maximise as much as possible the returns to our clients. We have to be focused on how well we are doing what strategies we can employ to provide our unit holders with an adequate return on capital for the risk undertaken."
He did acknowledge that competition is good since it brings more investors into the market. Investment on the Jamaican stock market, he argued, "is low... more people need to include it in their portfolio. Most people when they think of stocks... believe they need to have a lot of money. But it's quite the contrary. Unit trusts are ideal because they are there for small and large individuals to have a portfolio."
Mr. Burchenson elaborated on the strategies employed by Pan Caribbean. "Our board's investment philosophy is research driven. It's research, research, research. We invest only in companies in which we have done thorough research, companies where the earnings are growing faster than their peers." He explained further that, "each stock we buy has to meet particular criteria. There has to be depth of management, the board must be of integrity and earnings must be growing."
In summing up Sigma's achievement, Mr. Burchenson is modest in his contribution, preferring to emphasise teamwork and Pan Caribbean's management team. "The guidance provided by the board is very instrumental in our performance," he shared. With the typical banker's gravitas, he revealed "I have been monitoring the stock market for the past 10 years. I have had the privilege of working at the board level with some of the brightest minds in Jamaica... I must mention the guidance of our current chairman Colin Steele and (former director) Joseph M. Matalon."
Having listened to its clients, Pan Caribbean is exploring the possibility of launching a US$ fund in the near future. "It's one of our initiatives we're attempting to bring to the market in 2005," revealed Mr. Burchenson. Such a fund is, however, subject to local regulatory and trustee approvals as well as in-house systems and procedures.
