Brooks Macdonald International (BMI) has been granted a Category I license to provide advisory and intermediary services in South Africa by the Financial Services Board (FSB).
The license means that BMI can offer its discretionary investment management, security and dealing services to South African investors from its Channel Islands base. Through their professional adviser, South African investors will be able to access BMI’s full range of investment services, including its International Bespoke Portfolio Service, International Managed Portfolio Service, and established segregated equity and bond strategies.
The license follows the hiring of Lindsay Bateman as a Business Development Director in January 2014, as part of a move to target new business opportunities in South Africa and internationally.
Lindsay has been approved as a Key Individual by the FSB, alongside Gary Hill who is a Senior Investment Manager.
Darren Zaman, Chief Executive Officer of Brooks Macdonald International, says: “The granting of the license demonstrates our commitment to growing and servicing BMI’s international professional adviser and wider investor base in South Africa. The number of advisers looking to outsource their investments to an independent discretionary fund manager is rising due to increasing regional and international regulatory change. In addition, investors are increasingly seeking to access offshore investments as a result of the relaxation of exchange controls and benefits of greater asset security and returns.”
Lindsay Bateman, Business Development Director, says: “Our range of segregated, risk-rated portfolios and single strategy solutions, with multi-currency options, caters to a variety of adviser and client needs. We believe our experience of the impact of regulatory change in the UK, which closely mirrors regulatory change in South Africa, will prove invaluable, particularly when working with professional advisers in the region.”
