Written by Janice Kew and Franz Wild | From Bloomberg

Maintaining local ownership of South African companies is the best way to boost economic growth, said Elias Masilela, who heads a fund manager that holds shares worth 11 percent of the market value of stocks traded in Johannesburg.

Masilela’s state-owned Public Investment Corp. drew criticism last year when it opposed CFR Pharmaceuticals SA (CFR)’s 12.8 billion rand ($1.2 billion) offer for Johannesburg-based Adcock Ingram Holdings Ltd. (AIP) CFR, Chile’s largest drugmaker, said Dec. 17 that the PIC’s opposition to its takeover was for nationalist reasons.

“When you talk of growing an economy and empowering your people it is important that as you grow the economy you keep your people in control of the economy,” said Masilela, 49, in an April 1 interview in Johannesburg. “The logic is, you’ve built up this investment and if you can run it, why don’t you run it yourself.”

The Pretoria-based Public Investment Corp. manages 1.6 trillion rand, almost all of which is South African government workers’ pensions. The company, of which Masilela is chief executive officer, has also intervened in companies to further black economic empowerment aims and to express discontent over management pay.

The state-owned PIC wants increased competition and has not deterred investors, Masilela said.

Even so, foreign direct investment into South Africa fell to $4.6 billion in 2012 from $6 billion in the previous year, according to data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. That compares with inflows of $30.3 billion in Chile, $65.3 billion in Brazil and $12.4 billion in Turkey in the same period.

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