Over the past 10 days I have listened to quite a few investment managers.
Last week Wednesday and Thursday, Allan Gray hosted their annual 4 hours-a-day, two-day online thing that I ‘attended’. They had their own investment gurus talk, plus they always bring in managers from other houses to present as well: we had Ninety One, M&G, Coronation, plus one or two others.
They began the first day with one of their own guys talking, but he was given the topic of speaking about where South Africa had come over the past year, both politically and economically.
Then yesterday I attended – in body and spirit this time – a presentation by Marriott. A guy spoke about how they (Marriott) are incorporating AI in their research on companies they own. Very interesting. He is a Scotsman, with a strong accent, you have to concentrate hard to hear the words properly. But extremely bright. Also waiting to hear if he is selected for the SA Masters Hockey Team. A good chap.
Both last week and yesterday, all the investment teams were all pretty positive about South Africa, for both the past year and the year ahead. Some points that came up by various speakers:
• Most felt that the GNU is pretty stable
• No loadshedding
• A tiny drop in the interest rate
• We’re off the Greylist
• Improved credit rating
• Inflation target of 3% (yes, the real ‘basket’ inflation is still higher than that)
• High resource prices
Let’s hope this coming year keeps some positive things going forward.