Imara, Kura merge

Imara, Kura merge
Published: 15 September 2017
Imara Asset Management Limited ('Imara') and Kura Capital Limited ('Kura') are merging to create a pan African fund manager with over USD200m of assets under management.

Kura is a highly respected, award winning, African long only fund manager founded by Craig Bandason, Rainer Orth and Tony Schroenn, with a top quartile track record and a robust institutional investment process. They came together as a team 12 years ago, launching Kura and the Kura Africa fund 8 years ago in 2009.

They will be joining Imara as our portfolio managers and will each be aligned with equity in the merged entity, as well as personally investing in the funds. Bandason and Schroenn will be appointed to the board of directors. The merger and board appointments are subject to the usual regulatory approvals.

Bevin Ngara, a Zimbabwean, has also joined Imara as a senior analyst from the Group's asset management division in Zimbabwe where he was both portfolio manager for our institutional clients in Zimbabwe as well as a senior analyst covering central African equities.

The team has over 45 years combined experience investing in the African equity markets and are CFA, MBA or Accountancy charter holders; they are all African and will be based on the continent.

Kura's investment style, like Imara's, is fundamental, bottom up, driven by deep research on the underlying stocks. This results in an extremely high overlap between our funds and ensures there will be no change to the investment objectives of the Imara funds as a result of this merger.

The Kura team have been undertaking a handover process with our existing team over the last few months and will be assuming full responsibility by October, after which John Legat and Jonathan Chew will resign from Imara to focus on the Group's asset management business in Zimbabwe.

Full biographies of the investment team are attached. Imara's operations and back office teams remain unchanged.

Schroenn: 'We, together with our clients, are delighted to have this opportunity to take Kura to the next stage of its evolution by creating one of the largest pan African fund managers. The handover has been relatively seamless, reflecting our similar investment philosophy and process. I look forward to meeting all the Imara clients over the next few months.'

Wulfsohn: 'John and Jon have left an extraordinary legacy and we wish them all the best for their future endeavours. Their departure allows us to bring on board this next generation of outstanding portfolio managers. Supported by Imara Holding's new shareholders, this deal confirms our commitment to building Imara with Africans in Africa.'

We remain confident in the outlook for African equity markets and in the macro-factors that make Africa home to a number of the fastest growing economies in the world. Schroenn explains this market view in an interview on the Imara website (http://www.imara.com); while in his interview Bandason explains the identification and stock selection process for our portfolios.

We will be hosting a new investor conference call every quarter to update investors on the quarter's performance, as well as our outlook for the remainder of the year. The first call will be on 24th October 2017; full details will be circulated nearer the time.
- Agencies
Tags: Imara, Kura,

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