Johannesburg - The Land Bank emphasised on Friday that its programmes to help farmers in the country would not be jeopardised by asset manager Futuregrowth’s decision to suspend its lending activities to state-owned entities, including the Land Bank.
“We respect the decision taken by Futuregrowth and there is nothing we can do about it. Land Bank doesn’t take deposits like other banks and it depends on its own capital and money from fund managers to keep their projects going,” chief financial officer Bennie van Rooy said.
“Any pending decisions about financing we had with Futuregrowth are immediately suspended at this stage. I am not at liberty to disclose how much we were receiving from Futuregrowth, but we have other institutions like the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) that are proving us with loan facilities,” Van Rooy said.
In June the bank said it had managed to grow its loan book from R14bn to R40bn in just six years, with 10 percent going to support emerging farmers.
Van Rooy said: “We are still going to continue with the programmes we had with the farmers because they are very important to the country as they ensure we have enough food.”
Investment decision
Meanwhile, the Association for Savings and Investment SA (Asisa) said recently that Futuregrowth had the liberty to make its own investment decision.
Leon Campher, the chief executive of Asisa, said: “Investment managers must make their own investment decisions.”
Asisa is an industry body mandated by its members to deal with industry issues, which include policy, regulatory and legislative matters.
“The association cannot dictate where members invest and where not. That would be considered collusive behaviour, which is not only undesirable, but also illegal.”
Campher added: “It is therefore the fiduciary duty of individual investment managers to invest this money where, based on their perception and research, the expected returns come at an acceptable level of risk.”
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