Worth a weighting to Gold?
“In truth, the gold standard is already a barbarous relic.” -John Maynard Keynes, A Tract on Monetary Reform, 1923 “Gold … has two significant shortcomings, being neither of much use nor procreative.” – Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway letter to shareholders, 2011 No investment evokes more passion in its supporters and detractors than gold (okay, possibly […]
Positive investment case for renewable energy lifts capital spending by private sector
The positive investment case for renewable energy. In this article in Daily Maverick, Neesa Moodley looks at the role the private sector can play in alleviating the energy crisis. Quoting Mergence CIO, Brad Preston, she also looks at the potential contribution by Eskom and Transnet, emphasising that the performance of both utilities remains critical to […]
What a difference 20 years makes!
Mergence was founded in August 2004, and as the 20-year anniversary of our founding approaches, we look back at how the JSE equity market has changed over the past two decades. The two charts below show the largest 20 stocks in the JSE All Share Index (ALSI) currently, compared to what they looked like in […]
War over control of R7bn of municipal pension fund gets nasty
An intensified dispute over control of two municipal pension fund investment mandates has escalated. The fund terminated its investment management mandates with Mergence Investment Managers, a Cape Town-based asset management company, citing material discrepancies. Legal actions and calls for a class action lawsuit have followed, with accusations of an improperly constituted Board and irregularities in […]
Global factor performance and the Mergence Global Quant Equity Portfolio
Factor investing is the practice of investing based on exposure to a range of quantitative factors that have been shown to predict cross-sectional stock returns. Over the past year, we have developed a global quant equity process based on three broad factor groups, namely value, quality, and sentiment. The table below shows the performance of […]
Multichoice consultancy fees likely to be scrapped, says Chair
Peter Takaendesa, Head: Equities at Mergence Investment Managers, commented on the MultiChoice Canal+ deal in this Business Times article which also dealt with the fee structure for non-executive directors and the standing down of former Chair, Imtiaz Patel. Peter said it made sense for Canal+ to continue buying up MultiChoice shares to as much as […]
Monitoring operational performance at Eskom and Transnet
South Africans are currently experiencing the longest stretch of uninterrupted electricity supply in two years. While the lack of loadshedding is encouraging, Eskom still faces challenges within its legacy coal fleet and higher demand over the coming winter months, which means that loadshedding may not be behind us entirely. Another major utility impacting the economy […]
Monitoring operational performance at Eskom and Transnet
South Africa is currently experiencing its longest stretch of continuous electricity provision in two years. While the lack of load shedding is encouraging, Eskom still faces challenges within its legacy coal fleet and higher demand over the winter months, which means that load shedding may not be behind us entirely. Either way, the performance of […]
Benefits of JSE index harmonisation
Bradley Preston, Chief Investment Officer at Mergence Investment Managers, says one of the issues that the harmonisation of varius JSE indices will fix is the mismatch that resulted as the majority of institutional fund managers used the Capped SWIX and SWIX indices as their benchmarks while the liquid derivatives markets in South Africa are based […]
A different approach to investing.
Ultimately if you don’t have a good grasp of the risk, you are setting yourself up for failure. Moneyweb’s Be a Better Investor podcast series allows people to meet the faces behind some of the country‘s most successful investors. Mohamed Ismail, Head: Fixed Income at Mergence Investment Managers, spoke to Moneyweb editor Ryk van Niekerk […]
Will an acceleration in growth lead to a pick-up in inflation?
As the fall in US inflation slows and economic growth starts to rebound, the question arises: can inflation continue to cool as growth rebounds? The March US Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) reading moved above 50, indicating expansion. With inflation not yet at the Fed’s target and the economy already reaccelerating, rate cuts could further […]
What are opinion polls telling us about the SA general election?
What election poll trends are emerging and how might markets react to various outcomes? FMR Classic Business presenter Michael Avery chatted to Mergence CIO, Brad Preston, based on some analysis Brad has done recently.
