Outgoing PIC boss to join New York firm

11/05/2010 Elias Masilela during the National Planning Commission's inaugural meeting. Picture: Phill Magakoe

11/05/2010 Elias Masilela during the National Planning Commission's inaugural meeting. Picture: Phill Magakoe

Published Jun 16, 2014

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Johannesburg - Elias Masilela, who resigned last month as the chief executive of the Public Investment Corporation, Africa’s biggest fund manager, has joined DaMina Advisors, a frontier-markets consultancy.

“Masilela will provide high-level, unique insights on major untapped African capital markets opportunities to DaMina’s clients,” the New York-based company said in an e-mailed statement.

He will officially step down from the Pretoria-based PIC, which manages 1.6 trillion rand of assets, at the end of this month.

As well as increasing the PIC’s assets by 60 percent since 2010, Masilela sought to back development projects to underpin economic growth and fought for domestic control of companies.

His resignation raised questions about the reasons for his departure, David Couldridge, an investment analyst at Element Investment Managers in Cape Town, said in a phone interview May 30, when Masilela quit PIC.

“There must be transparency as soon as possible as to why he’s moving,” Couldridge said.

Ex-Guinean Prime Minister H.A. Kabine Komara, former UK High Commissioner to South Africa Lord Paul Boateng and former African Development Bank President Babacar Ndiaye are also senior global advisers at DaMina.

The PIC is the largest shareholder on the Johannesburg stock exchange. - Bloomberg News

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