Press Release
This week, Cape Town-based wealth and capital management firm Carrick Wealth celebrated three years in the business.
From a start-up comprising a handful of colleagues in a small office in Cape Town, Carrick has become a respected, full-fledged specialist financial institution employing more than 150 people in offices in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mauritius, with Malawi and Kenya to be operational by the end of 2017.
Carrick Wealth Chief Executive Officer Craig Featherby said the company currently had US$250-million under management offshore and ZAR150-million onshore.
“I am very, very proud of my team and their accomplishments over the last three years,” said Featherby. “From day one, we embraced the paradigm shift that had disrupted the business of asset and wealth management.
“We focused on key challenges including customer expectation, promoting integrity, transparency, and sustainability in the industry, and operational efficiency in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. The effort has paid off.”
The soon to be opened offices in Kenya and Malawi are part of Carrick Wealth’s strategy of tapping into the opportunity, growth, and entrepreneurship of the continent.
“We are also looking to establish ourselves in Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast),” he explained Featherby, adding that they fell within a group of African countries that have consistently shown positive GDP growth over the last five years.
“By 2034 the working-age population in Africa is expected to be more than 1.1-billion — larger than either India or China, and that’s less than 20 years from today,” said Featherby. “Years which Carrick see as opportunities for growth.”
He pointed out that Africa is also experiencing the fastest urbanisation of any region in the world, and that cities are key to capturing Africa’s consumer opportunity. In Nairobi, Kenya, for example, per capita consumption is more than double the national average, while the top three cities in Ghana account for more than 65 percent of national consumption. He said Carrick Wealth wanted to be at the vanguard of this exciting growth and development.
Adding to the anniversary celebration was the news that Carrick had just taken home two prestigious 2017 International Adviser Best Practice Adviser Awards. Significantly, this year’s awards were for Excellence in Client Service and for Excellence in Marketing and Client Engagement. The awards recognise financial advisory firms that are making, or have made, the transition towards best practice in six global regions, and an independent panel of industry judges decides the winners. Featherby said that the recognition and honour from industry peers was a reflection of Carrick Wealth’s focus on service excellence and its mission to transform and establish new benchmarks for the industry.
“We have been an International Advisor award winner for two out of three of those years. To do this in an extremely competitive environment and against competition from many other companies that have been established in the industry much longer than us, speaks volumes for our company, its people, and our commitment to providing our clients with the best possible service.”
He added that while it was “an absolute honour” to win the awards, Carrick Wealth remained focused on winning the support, respect, and trust of its clients.
“Without our clients, we would not be here,” said Featherby. “All of us at Carrick Wealth recognise that we have made this anniversary due to a strong focus on service excellence, hard work and professionalism, and a sincere mission to help people grow, protect, and preserve their wealth.
The company, no doubt, will look to celebrate many more anniversaries across the continent.
