By Ruan Jooste, editor of Citywire South Africa.
Original Article: Read Here
Over 20 years, the Centaur BCI Flexible Fund has delivered an extraordinary return to retail investors, outperforming many of its peers.
Founded in 2004 by Roger Williams, Centaur Asset Management has grown into a power player in South Africa’s retail investment landscape.
And as the founder, managing director, and chief investment officer, Williams has steered the firm with a disciplined, research-driven approach that has delivered results over the past two decades.
His entrepreneurial spirit, combined with his deep expertise in financial markets, has shaped Centaur into a boutique investment powerhouse focused on delivering long-term returns for retail investors.
Williams displayed entrepreneurial flair from a young age, beginning his investment journey in the stock market at just 15 years old. While studying actuarial science, he honed his analytical skills and developed an interest in probability. He later became a professional blackjack player for a while before travelling internationally to broaden his horizons.
He commenced his formal investment career at Liberty Asset Management in 1995, initially as an equity analyst before progressing to a key role within a four-member team responsible for managing R30bn in assets.
This experience laid the foundation for his investment philosophy and analytical rigour. At the age of 29, Williams set up Centaur Asset Management, determined to create a firm that prioritised performance, integrity and client-first service.
With over 35 years of investment experience, he has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and has been instrumental in developing Centaur’s proprietary methodologies. These structured, research-based processes, he said, underpin the firm’s ability to consistently outperform market benchmarks.
His remarks are not without substance: the Centaur BCI Flexible fund has achieved 20 years of strong, consistent performance, with a total return exceeding 1,000% since inception, outperforming its peers and benchmarks.
The fund’s benchmark is a composite of 60% of the FTSE/JSE Capped Shareholder Weighted All Share index, 20% of the MSCI World index, and 20% of the SteFI.
It is structured to provide high long-term capital growth through investing in a mix of global and local equities, government and corporate bonds, inflation-linked bonds, property stocks, preference shares, interest-bearing instruments, and money market instruments.
This flexibility has allowed the fund to dynamically allocate capital based on prevailing market conditions, ensuring resilience across different economic cycles. As of December 2024, the fund has tallied a cumulative return of 1,781.6% since inception, which translates to an annual return of 15.73% over the same period. It outperformed its benchmark over several periods.
The fund ranks 16th out of 173 funds listed in the Association for Savings and Investment SA’s (Asisa) category for mixed assets, flexible over five years, and ninth out of 89 over the past decade.
The fund’s investment strategy is rooted in identifying high-quality businesses with strong profit-protecting characteristics, Williams told Citywire South Africa.
He and his team employ a proprietary framework to assess companies based on their ability to maintain pricing power, generate sustainable returns, and adapt to industry shifts.
‘This long-term approach has resulted in holdings such as FirstRand [rated A by Citywire Elite Companies], which Centaur has held for over a decade due to its consistent ability to compound returns.’
Beyond equities, Centaur’s flexible mandate allows for allocation across asset classes – including bonds and cash – to manage risk and capitalise on market inefficiencies.
Notably, the firm has also leveraged opportunities in income funds, such as its allocation to Fairtree’s BCI Income Plus fund, to optimise liquidity and enhance cash returns.
The investment philosophy
A key differentiator for Centaur is its ability to balance long-term fundamental investing with quantitative modelling, according to Williams. He developed a proprietary stock selection system called ‘Top Seg’– a structured approach that ranks investment opportunities based on expected return and risk.
This framework, born out of the lessons from the 1998 Asia financial crisis, has provided a systematic method for identifying and capitalising on market inefficiencies.
Centaur’s investment strategy also draws inspiration from Warren Buffett’s philosophy of quality investing. However, Williams said they ‘integrated quantitative analysis with behavioural insights, ensuring the firm remains nimble in navigating market cycles’.
‘Our conviction-driven approach enables the firm to make bold investment decisions, such as taking concentrated positions in high-conviction stocks when the opportunity arises.’
Offshore and future growth
While Centaur has predominantly focused on the South African market, Williams has identified offshore expansion as the next frontier for growth.
The firm has successfully incubated global investment ideas and plans to launch an offshore equity fund within the next 18 months, with the goal of becoming one of the top-performing international investment firms.
Despite its success, Centaur remains committed to its boutique structure, prioritising alpha generation over asset accumulation. With R11bn in assets under management, Williams has deliberately avoided institutional mandates to maintain the agility needed for superior returns.
By keeping the firm’s focus on high-net-worth individuals and financial advisers, Centaur ensures that its investment strategy remains performance-driven rather than asset-gathering.