Global recognition for local investment firm

An independent quantitative investment management house, EMH Prescient Investment Management shrugged off competition when they recently won the award for best investment management company in its region for 2014 as announced by leading financial magazine, World Finance, head-quartered in London.
The specific award they received is on a per country basis recognising the best investment management company based on a number of criteria including performance, service, leadership, consistency, targets and objectives.
Melanie Allen, Chief Executive Officer of EMH Prescient Investment Management, said they are thrilled to receive this global recognition.
“As a start-up company that was established in 2011 their objective first and foremost was to create awareness of their unique offering and process amongst the investment community and this acknowledgement puts them on the map locally and internationally,” she explained.

“Key areas the judging panel looked at when choosing a winner included reviewing our investment philosophy, procedures for calculating and reporting investment performance, how we ensure transparency and best practice with regard to risk disclosure and meeting our key objectives. I think we really stood out and shone in all these areas and that’s why we ultimately came out tops,” she said. The voting for the awards was open from August 2013 to January 2014 and all investment management companies that operate in their respective countries were entitled to enter. The four companies who record the highest count of votes qualify as the finalists with voting carried out predominantly by the World Finance audience. The winners in each country are then decided by the magazine’s internal adjudication panel.
Allen said,“At EMH Prescient Investment Management the core of our philosophy is capital preservation and the management of downside risk. Our challenge is therefore to construct a portfolio with superior risk/return achievements relative to the benchmark against which it is measured.”
“Every client taken on board is also made aware of the risk involved in the stock markets and the management of assets upfront. The client has to acknowledge that they have been made aware of the risks by signing the PMA (Performance Management Agreement),” she said.
“Over and above excelling in those areas we delivered good risk adjusted returns to clients and our target for December 2013 was also set at reaching the N$100 million mark for assets under management.” EMH Prescient came very close to this target missing it by a mere N$3 million.
“Finally we submitted our ambitious vision for the company and how it can support and contribute to the future growth of the African continent, which we hoped would be the cherry on the top to secure the award,” said Allen.