McNaughton takes over at CUMax
Published:Sunday | June 27, 2021 | 12:10 AM
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Eighteen months after leaving Barita Investments Limited, Ian McNaughton is running another investment company, having tried his hand at independent consulting and nixing it in favour of a new corporate chair. Barita’s former managing director is...
Eighteen months after leaving Barita Investments Limited, Ian McNaughton is running another investment company, having tried his hand at independent consulting and nixing it in favour of a new corporate chair.
Barita’s former managing director is now CEO of CUMax Wealth Management Limited, which was formerly known as Credit Union Funds Management Company and is owned by the Jamaica Cooperative Credit Union League.
The new assignment comes at a time when the funds management arm of Jamaica’s credit union movement is undergoing changes to comply with impending Bank of Jamaica oversight of the sector.
“It has a lot to do with the regulatory changes in that you cannot have ‘credit union’ in the name of an entity that is not a credit union. The credit union league is the majority owner with the other more than 20 credit unions part owners,” McNaughton said.
His next step is reforming CUMax’s business model.
The company was formed to manage JCCUL’s stabilisation fund, from which credit unions received cash-flow support when needed. McNaughton wants to transform it from a fund-management operation to a wealth-management company, targeting corporate clients and the credit unions as potential sources of business.
“That was always the intention. The expectation is that you will try to balance the needs of both. Credit unions have to be afforded the opportunity to participate properly and effectively in the investment industry. CUMax is slated to do that,” he said.
“It’s a big challenge. The fact is that CUMax is very small in terms of funds under management. The imperative is for us to grow funds under management, which will, in turn, grow the bottom line.”
CUMax has $23-$24 billion under management. Its earnings have ranged between $100 million and $160 million over the past years, said McNaughton.
“Put within the context of return on investment, it is not bad, but the growth imperatives dictate that CUMax grow funds under management in order to grow that bottom line,” he said.
“We need to be three or four times what we’ve been at in another three years. We want to take it incrementally, but we have to get there, not up and down, but rather sustained results,” he added.
McNaughton is not only targeting new client segments, but is looking to invest in technology infrastructure and product innovations. The staff corps of 25 will remains intact and is likely to grow.
“The intention is not to fill up the place with human resources for its own sake, but rather to use technology to navigate our environment,” he said.
McNaughton departed Barita Investments after 13 years, shortly after company founder Rita Humphries-Lewin sold her pioneering business to private-equity firm Cornerstone. He previously worked with Berger Paints Jamaica as chief financial officer and company secretary before joining Humphries-Lewin at Barita.
“At some time in a man’s life you pivot, and the upshot is that I landed in an industry that was entirely foreign to me, and although I had no real experience, it attracted me, and the legendary status of Rita Humphries-Lewin was too attractive to resist,” McNaughton said.