Sasfin Wealth Q1 Newsletter

With the local General Elections fast approaching, professional and lay investors alike are under pressure to hedge their portfolios against any number of scenarios that could arise. The JSE All Share Index lost 11.4% in 2018 – a devastating indictment on the local equity market, as well as the local economy. Although we are global investors, one cannot at best underplay, or at worst ignore, the local equity, bond and money markets in constructing a truly diverse portfolio.

Our regular Q&A feature in this edition showcases Philip Bradford, Manager of the Sasfin BCI Flexible Income Fund, whereby he unpacks the various asset allocation strategies that were employed in delivering the award-winning returns to the Fund’s investors.

Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, delivered a highly sobering Budget speech in February. With Eskom having reached its nadir and the associated energy and fuel prices approaching all time highs, South African consumers are under greater pressure, arguably, than ever before. This edition addresses some of these challenges and speaks out some of the implications for investors in our regular Global Macro Review feature, together with a piece from Veenesh Dhayalam, Sasfin Wealth’s Head of Asset Manager Research. Veenesh argues that during a period of low growth and low returns (also referred to as a ‘low growth environment’), it is critical to stay invested. Says Veenesh: “Investors must carefully contemplate the opportunity cost of not staying invested, even in tough market conditions. When investors sell in downturns, they are potentially selling at a lower price and could realise absolute losses.”

We also introduce readers to the recently-launched Sasfin Wealth Investment Platform (SWIP). As Sasfin Wealth’s Head of Digital Solutions, Cobus du Preez articulates, a global study by EY concluded that the majority (59%) of wealth clients state that digital will be their preferred channel for receiving advice in the coming years.

The launch of SWIP, a technology-driven solution with online retirement savings and investment portfolio tools, calculators and products, strategically positions Sasfin Wealth in this burgeoning market. Sean Young, one of our Cape Town-based Portfolio Managers, writes on the opportunities that exist globally in the infrastructure sector and argues cogently for the need to consider the inclusion of infrastructure – the asset class – in balanced, multi-asset strategy.

We are grateful to all those readers who entered our competition in the last newsletter to win 1 of 3 Rocketbook notebooks. Congratulations to: Lawson Cairns, Manjula Naidoo and Leon Christiaan Krynauw, who provided the correct answer of Sirius Real Estate. Your Rocketbooks will be delivered to you shortly.

On a final note, we bid farewell to Roland Sassoon, after nearly five decades of service to Sasfin. We will pay further tribute to Roland in our forthcoming second quarter edition.