History
This vision began in 1998 in the form of a financial services company specialising in management consultancy. The dream was to form a company that reflected the realities of the new South Africa by focusing on empowering the emerging black professionals, whilst developing many of tomorrow’s leaders and releasing some.

The vision was originally led by Rob Gerhard, Dorian Wrigley, Phiwayi Mbuyazi and Hazel Shelton, joined soon after by Tendai Musikavanhu and Craig Chambers.

The vision shifted into another gear when a company was founded in November 2001, called Umbono Asset Managers (now more aptly named One Stone Capital) followed soon thereafter by the formation of its main subsidiary, Umbono Fund Managers (“UFM.”), now called OMGXT (or Dibanisa Fund Managers locally).  One Stone’s asset management division started up soon after a deal was concluded between One Stone Capital and Old Mutual Investment Group (SA) (“OMIGSA”) on Thursday, 12 April 2001.

Both held shares in the subsidiary UFM in an 80:20 ratio, with OMIGSA having the right to increase its shareholding to 30% on the second anniversary of the conclusion of the shareholders’ agreement between the two parties. By September 2006, OMIGSA had exercised its option and increased its stake in this company to 30% via two 5% tranches. In line with its broader boutique strategy,

OMIGSA further increased its stake in UFM to 67% in January 2007. Originally focused only on the South African market, the company launched its range of global, emerging market and bond indices tracker solutions in 2009. The local division trades as Dibanisa Fund and has in excess of R40 billion in assets under management.

The injection of funds under management from the Old Mutual Group will be multiples of the R13 billion currently under management. This is a significant vote of confidence in the investment process established by a team of predominantly black investment professionals.

One Stone in Retail Investments
Having entered into a distribution agreement with the South African Post Office, One Stone launched a revolutionary retail investment product, As’investe, in November 2004. This product enables South African savers to access affordable investments and other financial products for as little as R50 a month, via the Post Office branches and other channels.

Through it’s products, One Stone As’Investe hopes to actively partake in the transformation of the financial services sector, to one where more South Africans have access to financial services. To date One Stone has well over 30 000 retail clients.

Stock Broking
UC Securities (“UC Sec”) is a stock broking firm established in 2006, which adds value to clients through its cutting edge research and product development capabilities. Deslin Naidoo (UC Sec’s chief executive) and management team have a combined experience of over 30 years in stock broking and related services.