FUNDSDATA™ is the brand name for the research database on unit trusts and collective investment schemes maintained by ProfileData.

FUNDSDATA™ aims to provide data clients with a one-stop data solution, and the Profile research team endeavour to capture and store every piece of relevant information for every fund and every management company.

FUNDSDATA™ is a fully relational database structure designed to facilitate manipulation of the data content. Descriptive content is, wherever possible, backed by field-defined data, allowing filtering, searches, date calculations and complex reporting.

Delivery

Standard delivery of the FUNDSDATA™ database is in Sequel format. Data is usually updated once a day after market close.

The FUNDSDATA™ datafeed is often customised to suit particular client requirements, and Profile's IT team is able to meet most technical requirements. All or part of FundsData™ is currently delivered to different clients in Access (mdb) format, XML, CSV (delimited) format, and in many cases as fully articulated HTML pages suitable for use as includes.

Scope of Database

The main content areas are as follows:

Management Company information

• Physical and postal addresses; telephone, fax and call centre numbers; email and web addresses; statutory information such as directors, trustees, sponsor and investment advisors; and branch information where applicable.

Fees and commissions

• Initial charges (full sliding scales where applicable); switching charges; commission payable to intermediaries; annual fees; compulsory charges; and performance fees or exit fees where applicable.

Fund details

• Sector, benchmark, formation date, minimum lump sum, minimum monthly, income declaration dates, distribution dates, original price, number of holdings, closed or open, type (tracker fund, fund of fund), number of unitholders, and so on.
• Relevant data varies from fund to fund, and some fields apply only to money market funds or bond funds.

Other management and mandate information

• This includes details on the fund manager(s) and each fund's objectives and focus.

Portfolio data

• Full portfolios are captured every quarter for all domestic funds (subject to ManCo availability).
• Securities are identified via a single reference table, allowing shares and bonds to be tracked across funds or analysed from one period to another.
• Every security is categorised according to sector, allowing portfolios structures to be analysed individually or across groups.
• Asset allocation can be calculated at a gross or detailed level.
• Holdings of particular securities or classes across the whole industry can easily be calculated.

Performance figures

• The database includes pre-calculated performance statistics for all annual periods up to the latest month end, both for lump sum and annuity investments.
• Profile is an ACI authorised source of performance statistics, and these performance figures can (subject to ACI regulations) be used in marketing literature.
• Performance figures for other periods or broken periods can be calculated from the underlying data supplied, but the pre-calculated figures provide quick access to a wide range of frequently used statistics. These include a wide range of benchmarks and various measures of inflation.
• ProfileData calculates both NAV-to-NAV performance figures as per the ACI standard, and after-costs stats where requested.
• Treatment of distributions on either ex-div or correct reinvestment date

TRIs (Total Return Indices)

• Profile's TRIs are calculated daily. TRIs include both the effect of capital movements are income (dividends / distributions).
• TRIs allow for publication of daily performance figures.
• TRIs facilitate charting of performance.

Daily price data

• Daily prices are available as an unconfirmed data set (same evening delivery) and a confirmed data set (following morning).
• Benchmark data can be supplied with these data sets.

Month-end price data

• Official month-end prices to inception are available for all SA domiciled funds.
• Benchmark data for comparable periods is included in this data set.

Dividend data

• Complete dividend data to inception is available for all SA domiciled funds.

Unit classes

• Unit class information is stored for all funds (ie, A, R and institutional unit classes)

Industry news

• The industry news section provides a summary of press releases and comment from each management company, allowing data clients to see at a glance a history of fund launches, market views, staff movements, etc.

Pricing and Usage

FUNDSDATA™ is a wholesale data service aimed at closed user groups (CUGs). Pricing is dependent on the size of the CUG, the number of data modules included in the package, and the delivery mechanism.

For enquiries and further pricing information, please call +27-11-728-5510 or email sales@profile.co.za