An initial analysis of African Mutual Fund Fees and expenses

Wright, Graysen Gordon

An initial analysis of African Mutual Fund Fees and expenses

Master Thesis

2015

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Finance and Tax

Faculty

Faculty of Commerce

Abstract

The core objective of this study is to compile an African Mutual Fund database with a focus on fees charged, expenses borne and fund sizes. Until now, no consolidated database of African Mutual Fund expenses exists. The ancillary goal of the paper is to arrange the dataset in order to perform basic statistical analysis; and to test for the existence or non-existence of a number of internationally established relationships between fund fees, expenses and other variables in an African context. The paper aims to establish both similarities and abnormalities relating to the efficiency of African Mutual Funds in comparison with their international counterparts. No prior work has been produced in the context of African Mutual Funds as the industry has been overlooked, until recently, due to the growing perception of Africa representing the final frontier for investors seeking abnormal returns. The fundamental data utilized in this research paper includes African Mutual Fund Total Expense Ratios, Net Asset Values (NAVs), and mean Total Expense Ratios (TERs) for international mutual funds with no particular geographical limitations. This paper achieves its objective of collating a comprehensive database of African Mutual Fund fees, expenses, size and other variables. Findings include weak evidence confirming the inverse relationship between the level of financial market development and mutual fund expense ratios, the inverse relationship between mean expense ratios per country and the strength of investor protection in the related country, and a positive relationship between fund family size and mean TERs - indicating the presence of scale economies in African Mutual Fund families. All such findings are in line with empirical evidence presented by international studies. Consistent with other exploratory research, the paper includes a number of unexpected findings and observations regarding the general disarray of corporate governance in the African Mutual Fund industry. A foundation for the research of African funds has been built, and is intended to serve as a platform for future research as African financial markets continue to develop.

Description

Includes bibliographical references

Keywords

Financial and Risk Management

Reference:

Collections

Masters

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