History was made on 13 November 2025 as the PortfolioMetrix Active Income Prescient Actively Managed ETF (AMETF) – JSE share code PMXINC – became the first non-transparent AMETF to reach R1bn in Assets Under Management (AUM).
Non-transparent AMETFs, unlike transparent ETFs and AMETFs, only publish their fund composition files on a quarterly basis and trade on the JSE based on their published intra-day Net Asset Value (iNAV).
AMETFS are becoming an increasingly important tool in the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) ecosystem and are being supported by the adoption of these tools by some of South Africa’s largest active asset managers who recognise the efficiency and innovative structuring these vehicles offer.
“We continue to see strong demand from investors looking for a high level of income. The PMXINC AMETF provides these investors an easy way to access a sector of the JSE that has historically only been available to institutional investors,” says Philip Bradford, Chief Investment Officer at PortfolioMetrix adding: “We are incredibly proud of achieving this milestone on the back of the strong returns our investors have experienced since inception.”
Ben Meyer, Head of Capital Markets for Prescient Fund Services concurs pointing to the Prescient Income Provider Feeder AMETF which is the second largest Fund in the non-transparent local universe with R809m in AUM at the end of October 2025.
“As somebody who has been part of the ETF market since inception, you can clearly see the trend with more than 30 AMETFs now operating and a meaningful increase in the trading activity of these funds over the past 6 months,” says Meyer.
Prescient Fund Services have been instrumental in creating an enabling environment in the South African market – not only providing the back-end infrastructure and insights around cashflow and trading behaviour of AMETFs – but also through the release of its recent 2025 ETF Evolution Report which documents the development of ETFs from humble beginnings in 2000. This report is viewed as a powerful education tool for industry participants and subsequent to its release, it has stimulated further discussions with other asset managers weighing up the best structures for their Collective Investment Schemes (CIS).
Meyer concludes: “One of our core beliefs as a business is to empower investing success – we have championed AMETF’s in the South African market and we look forward to celebrating further milestones as adoption of these instruments accelerates.”