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joining me Now at the Bait Winter conference. Roslyn Spencer, managing director at Media Advisors. Welcome,

Speaker 1:
Rosslyn. Thank you. Happy to be here. So

Speaker 0:
it's great to be hosting you again. Perhaps you can just give us an update of who media advisors are. And what role do they play in the institutional investing landscape, both locally and offshore.

Speaker 1:
Thank you. Thank you for that question. So Media Advisor is a global

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advisory firm located in Washington DC and we provide transaction advisory services for institutional investors in Africa, other emerging markets, as well as with US pension funds.

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So, specifically, media advisors identify opportunities introduces those opportunities and with their partners who are DFI other banks. Other institutions, including research organisations, provide solutions to opportunities that will entice local pension funds to invest

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in

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conference and the Asset Owners Forum of South Africa. What have been some of the developments with regards to the forum? And what changes are you seeing from media advisors perspective?

Speaker 1:
Yeah, so that's a very good question. So last year, if you recall, with the support from USAID and Prosper Africa Media Advisors provided transaction advisory services to the Asset Owners Forum

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and throughout the year we were successful in raising over $130 million through the development of a pipeline from which the Asset Owners Forum actually selected managers and invested locally here in South Africa. But beyond that, the Asset Owners Forum invested over $500 million

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outside of media support to infrastructure development in South Africa. So we talk about what are the goals of the Asset Owners Forum. One of the key goals is to partner with local government on a major infrastructure project, and we heard some of that this morning from the deputy president who mentioned the need for private sector support and as asset owners. We are a private sector and looking

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forward to engaging with government on bankable projects that the forum can support, and neither role in that is providing that technical assistance to developing those transactions to make them more bankable and suitable for investment by the asset owners for members.

Speaker 0:
Absolutely, there have been quite a few regulatory changes and amendments that have taken place in the pension fund industry, particularly

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the threshold on offshore allocation, has been lifted to 45%. Infrastructure has been classified as its own asset class, so to speak. But alternative assets have also received different thresholds there as well. How is this informing your advisory services and the transactional guidance that you provide for large asset

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owners? As you know, metres are global advisors, right? So we look at we look at the continent and we look at

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at finding the suitable projects and transactions to bring forward whether it's in South Africa or it's in other parts of Africa. We look at it holistically. So for the Asset Owners Forum, it's important that the transactions that we bring in the pipeline for their attention they are bankable. If there's a need for blended finance, we will help to support the blended finance. Need ways to mitigate

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risk so that it's suitable for pension fund investment. These are all transactions and services and Media Advisor bring to the table in working with the Asset Owners Forum. So, for instance, I mentioned looking for the project right sort of a government project that private sector can all crowd into. So going back to your question about the regulations 40 40 45% of abroad,

Speaker 1:
I think it's a good you know, everyone might not agree with it, but in some respect I don't think any one pension fund is going to allocate up to 45%

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overseas. If the liability

Speaker 1:
exactly. It's a high threshold, right? What would be great is to see a definition of what infrastructure is. And if there were a specific allocation to infrastructure, as we see to

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private equity or hedge fund, it would be great for infrastructure to have its own asset class. But it's what it is, and I think we can work with that.

Speaker 0:
So it seems as though now through allocations to infrastructure, which is quite an liquid asset class. Now, with a two part system possibly coming into into the mix here, liquidity requirements are going to be quite a big concern. How is this going to be in direct conflict or possibly indirect

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conflict with the allocations to infrastructure and separate allocation of private equity?

Speaker 1:
Liquidity is very important to pension fund. As you know, pension funds have a liability to pay out retirement when it comes due. I mean two things. Retirement funds must do right. They must protect the existing assets of the pension funds and they must pay retirees when it comes due. So that talks to your liquidity. Question. Investing in long term

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assets have to be measured and has to fit within the asset allocation with advice from your pension funds actuaries, because it's really important that there is sufficient liquidity to meet those those payout needs. So we see that in the US right now, where pension funds in the US have allocated and re up so many times with long term investments that they are now

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skipping some of those re ups or reassessing how far out they have made investment. They have committed to making those investments, and so they are beginning to taper back or to pause on those long term decision making. I see the same thing happening here as media advisors work with the local pension funds. We bring bankable investment opportunities. But at the same time, we

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passion that they speak with their consultant that they consult with the actuaries to make sure that they are not overly exposed to long term investment when they are short term needs to be met

Speaker 0:
absolutely so to close off the session in Rosa win conference, there's quite an exciting lineup of panel discussions ahead of us and some that have already taken place. So what are you looking to take away and what's your outlook for the pension fund industry in South Africa?

Speaker 1:
I'm excited. I'm really excited about the pension for the industry in South Africa, and this is my first conference and I'm so excited about it. I'm going to sign up for next year's conference before I leave. But now you know, starting to write off the

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with the vice, the deputy president expressing what their concerns are for the nation. Some of the challenges that the nation is experiencing in energy, in water and in other sectors

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the Asset Owners Forum could be a partner to government in solving some of those those problems. They cannot solve all the problems all at once, but with their participation, their cooperation with government.

Speaker 1:
And I hear that throughout the conference. I hear it through the discussions. How can we support the energy transition? How can we support a reliable water supply throughout the country? So I think these are topics. This is a transitionary time for South Africa and for the pension fund to step in with government and we will talk with government. I think that's going to happen

Speaker 1:
all excited. And the conference is going great so far and looking forward to my panel right after lunch.

Speaker 0:
So looking forward to that as well. So it seems as though it's quite a collaborative effort to addressing some of the structural challenges, perhaps the short term and long term challenges that South Africa might face. But, Roslyn, I want to thank you for sharing your insights. We appreciate your time. Thank

Speaker 1:
you. Thank you so much.