Sun, Jul 5, 2026
A A A
Welcome Guest
Free Trial RSS pod
Get FREE trial access to our award winning publications
Alternative Market Briefing

South African hedge fund managers see great opportunity in African consumer theme

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

amb
James Faircliff
Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva:

James Faircliff and Richard Böttger, two young South African hedge fund managers, are passionate about the stock market and about investing: you’d have to be if you started trading stocks at the age of 13 – which they did. As grown-ups, they began their professional career in private equity, and then moved into the listed space. Together they eventually formed Tower Capital in 2009.

Tower Capital a Johannesburg-based firm; it runs a long/short equity hedge fund that is mainly focused on the South African stock market. After 52 months of trading, the annualized track record stands at 22% (net) with a standard deviation of 7%.

Faircliff and Böttger believe their strategy is a perfect fit for the continent.

"Africa is the last bastion of frontier investing," Böttger tells Matthias Knab during a recent Opalesque TV interview. "Everybody seems to want a piece of it, it's very topical, and certainly our strategy provides a very liquid access point into the African success story... we have the ability to be long liquid mid-market companies, and obviously for the downside protection given that we are an equity long/short fund. We are short the very high beta big market capitalization stocks."

Long lower beta stocks, short higher beta stocks They stu......................

To view our full article Click here

Previous Opalesque Exclusives                                  
Previous Other Voices                                               
Access Alternative Market Briefing

 



  • Top Forwarded
  • Top Tracked
  • Top Searched
  1. Other Voices: Nvidia extraordinary growth and the challenge of sustaining demanding valuations over time[more]

    Antonio Di Giacomo, Senior Market Analyst at XS.com, writes: Nvidia has established itself as one of the most extraordinary growth companies in the global technology sector. Over the past two fiscal years, its revenues have risen from levels close to $60 billion annually to well above $120 billi

  2. Secondaries take center stage: What the 2026 PE landscape means for GPs and investors[more]

    Matthias Knab, Opalesque for New Managers: The 2026 edition of Dechert's Global Private Equity Outlook - "Signs of a Gradual Thaw" - marks a notable shift in industry sentiment. After years of compr

  3. And, finally: Time to share it with the people[more]

    From Newsoftheweird: Leavenworth, Washington, has become a tourist destination because of the Bavarian theme businesses have adopted there, NPR reported. One shop, the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum, houses the world's largest nutcracker collection, thanks to 101-year-old Arlene Wagner. Wagner sta

  4. Opalesque Exclusive: Private Markets Evergreen Funds - An Insider's View[more]

    Matthias Knab, Opalesque for New Managers: Private Markets Evergreen Funds: What Investors Need to Know Before They Dive In The democratization of private markets is well underway. Structural barriers t

  5. Opalesque Exclusive: Governance, Scale, and Boutique Resilience in a Consolidating Hedge Fund Industry[more]

    Matthias Knab, Opalesque for New Managers: The hedge fund industry has undergone significant consolidation in recent years, with capital increasingly concentrated among large multi-strategy platforms. Yet boutique m