News & Insights

Naspers has tasked its executives to look for investment opportunities in South Africa by the end of its 2026 financial year for its next cycle of investment, with a focus on Latin America, India and Europe where Prosus will roll out a top-lifestyle e-commerce eco-system driven by AI. The group owns Takealot, Mr D, Media24, AutoTrader and Property24. Commenting on the group’s annual report with reference to investment in South Africa, Peter Takaendesa, Chief Investment Officer at Mergence Investment Managers, said that the group would not ignore SA although it only makes up effectively less than 1% of Naspers’s valuation. They will continue to optimise their SA portfolio by selling or exiting some assets while investing in key assets such as Takelot. Media assets will likely decline while e-commerce assets continue to grow despite increased competition from Amazon and to some extent Checkers online.

Banks, retirement fund firms, insurance companies and the JSE are sitting on more than R90bn in unclaimed benefits belonging to members of the public, including R4.5bn in unclaimed dividends. They are trying to trace millions of beneficiaries who might not know they are due a payout. Radebe Sipamla, co-portfolio manager at Mergence Investment Managers, outlined some of the challenges of tracing beneficiaries. This has been slow, due in part to the historical migrant labour system, where people would work in the cities and retire in the apartheid-era homelands ignorant of the benefits/funds owing to them or living in areas with limited to non-existent street names or numbering in rural areas and townships making it difficult to correctly identify their addresses.

In discussion with EBnet editor, Nathalie Burrows, Mergence’s Head of Fixed Income, Mohamed Ismail, shares some insights into the intricacies of including ESG factors in fixed income investment portfolios.

South African stocks are heading for their best first-half performance in almost two decades, and precious-metal prices could pave the way for further gains. Commenting on the topic, Peter Takaendesa, Chief Investment Officer at Mergence Investment Managers, said: “If a few stars align such as continued fund flows toward EMs and structural reforms in South Africa pick up some pace at the same time with a continued broader recovery in global commodity prices, then our market could continue to push higher”.

In this thinkpiece in Currency, Fazila Manjoo, Manager of the Mergence Global Quant Equity Portfolio at Mergence Investment Managers, dispels some possible myths about Tesla. The stock, which is the  most contentious of the Magnificent Seven stocks, has hit the headlines since the Trump-Musk Bromance faltered. Are investors who don’t hold the stock in missing out? No, Fazila argues. in fact, putting Tesla through the Mergence quantitative lens, the picture is clear: sagging fundamentals, declining profitability, and volatile price action. Her analysis shows the importance of employing an investment process that cuts through the noise and remains anchored in facts.

South Africa’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the technology sector remains flat amid rising inflation, increased cost of capital and geopolitical uncertainty. Commenting on the situation, Peter Takaendesa, Mergence CIO, says it is quite likely that we will see even higher levels of M&A in the broader TMT sector if structural economic reforms in SA gain momentum that will lead to real GDP growth sustained above 2%, together with political stability.

Public-private partnerships in the water sector: Chito Siame, Head: Private Equity at Mergence Investment Managers, examines the need for private capital to help fix South Africa’s broken water sector. In a wide-ranging thinkpiece in Business Day, Chito also discusses the role of local government and how PPPs can be enablers, not threats, to municipalities. An infographic sets out the various roleplayers in a PPP in the water sector.

Peter Takaendesa, Mergence CIO, comments on Bloomberg on the rally in the FTSE/JSE Alsi Index which was up 7% in May, boosted largely by Naspers/Tencent. According to Peter, whether the rally will continue will depend on the South African coalition government’s commitment to push through economic reforms, metal prices and the “sell America” trade that is driving investment to developing nations.

In the latest issue of Pensions World, Chito Siame, Head: Private Equity at Mergence Investment Managers, provides some useful information for the benefit of trustees on how to access infrastructure as an asset class. He balances some of the challenges with the advantages to be gained from this important and growing alternative asset class, such as non-correlated, steady long-term returns.

How to mitigate the effects of climate change in Africa? In the latest Catalyst Magazine published by Dealmakers, Hubert Gutsa, CEO of Scalar International, and Semoli Mokhanoi, COO of Mergence Investment Managers, unpack the topic drawing on research from a white paper on the topic and discussing the aims of The Africa Decarbonisation Fund I.