ABOUT
The 6th GIB Investment Summit.
GIB is hosting the 6th Investment Summit with the aim of “challenging-the-norm”, focusing on thought leadership and new trends that are disrupting the investment industry. The intention is to enable the audience to be more aware of the changing times and how they should adapt in order to be financially stable in the future of booming tech and crypto currency trends.
Change is inevitable, and with change lies opportunity. The mood has brightened since last year when we were shaken by political events and as a result, the investing landscape has been disrupted, creating a shift in the industry norms, presenting new and interesting opportunities.
The wealth management industry is at a crossroads, as industry leaders embrace digital transformation. When one writes a narrative or defines an investment industry for over a decade, one needs to sharpen the pencil or rather improve the instrument that provides the detail in order to continue to be relevant. We trust that at the investment summit, you will leave with a better understanding of how the present traditional investment landscape may influence the future and visa versa.
The GIB Investment team lives by the philosophy of being thought leaders in a dynamic industry, yet staying true to traditional values. We are excited to share our latest views and describe our portfolio positioning in the changing context alongside leading asset managers, Coronation, Allan Gray, Orbis, Momentum, Old Mutual, and Fairtree and how these asset houses are adapting to the disruptions in the investment industry.
INSIGHTS & HIGHLIGHTS
The 6th GIB Investment Summit opened up with the usual witty Bruce Whitfield charm. He facilitated a successful event by setting the scene on the current state of the financial markets and the various disruptions and trends that are potentially shaking things up.
Nadia Van Der Merwe, a leading business analyst from Orbis opened up with a powerful presentation on responsible investing highlighting how Orbis prides itself with the responsibility of stewardship on the part of their investors which is clearly illustrated as part of their investment philosophy.
Herman Van Papendorp, head economist from Momentum, followed with an energetic presentation on the state of the SA economy “From Zuma Zag to Ramaphosa Ramp?”. He highlighted the importance of the relationship between the economy and politics and how this has directly impacted economic growth each year. He also provided an interesting outtake of a political revival needed after the near death experience in December 2017 with Ramaphosa camp 51% vs. Zuma camp 49%.
Bruce then electrified the audience as he facilitated the local equity panel with some of the industry’s leading asset managers, with hard hitting questions about their top 10 equity holdings. The panel was made up of Neville Chester (Coronation), Stephen Brown (Fairtree), Duncan Artus (Allan Gray) and Arthur Karas (Old Mutual).
Interesting points made were how China’s economy has increased its influence on the JSE’s direction and China’s obsession with video games and how they are successfully monetizing this niche tech industry. To put this into perspective, the Mission Impossible franchise has made a collective return of $2650m whereas Fortnight, an online game trending globally, grosses over $300m per month!
To top it all off, before Ran Neu Ner from the hit show The Crypto Trader on CNBC made it to the stage, Bruce concluded the panel with one of the most controversial questions of the investment summit “If you had a gun to your head and had to choose between bitcoin and two equities that are dogs, what would you choose? No one selected bitcoin“.
In true Ran fashion, he literally held the audience captive and at the edge of their seats with a thought provoking and edgy presentation on the Cryptocurrency world, leaving everyone spellbound and hungrier than ever to witness the first ever crypto vs traditional investments panel debate. It was like cowboys squaring off at high noon in true wild west style as Ran went head to head with two of the highly respected traditional portfolio managers, Neville Chester of Coronation and Grant Watson of Old Mutual. It is safe to say it got heated real quick as they shared their strong views for and against crypto currency vs traditional investments. It included topics like Artificial Intelligence and big data that are all disrupting and changing the world.
Glenn Gamsy, Managing Director of GIB Financial Services commented on how the GIB Group which was founded 36 years ago is now 40% owned by Herman Mashaba’s Lephatsi Investments and how the company intends on continuing its consistent but steady growth. He concluded the energetic and thought provoking summit by highlighting GIB’s philosophy of blending active and passive investment strategies as well as GIB’s commitment to transparency and high levels of service.
