When attending a Cap Intro event in South Africa, which I have been doing each year for many years now, I can see first hand that attendees and investors from overseas are often not prepared for the high level of returns when local hedge fund managers are coming up with 20%, 30% or 35% cumulative annual returns that can easily extend over periods of ten years or longer. The first assumption is sometimes that derivatives would play a big role in achieving those returns, when in fact they are a result of the skill-based exploitation of idiosyncratic opportunities offered by the South African equity market.
One is the growth opportunity, which is accessing not only the growth of the South African market, but also the rest of Africa, as a lot of South Africa listed stocks actual expand into the African continent and access that growth. The other is a relative value opportunity, which is still strong and persistent. South Africa’s equity market capitalisation is two times the GDP of South Africa. The only other country in the world where the equity market is larger than GDP is Switzerland. In every other market, developed or emerging market, the capital markets are more representative of GDP.
South Africa’s capital markets are large, well developed and well regulated. Already since about 2006 or 2007, South African hedge funds have offered daily position-level transparency, third party administrators, valuation agents, and third party risk managers.The World Economic Forum’s Competitiveness Study has found that South Africa’s regulation of markets, the efficacy of boards, accounting and reporting standards are word class and actually rank among the top three in the world. The unit trust industry in South Africa has now over R1 trillion in assets while local hedge funds reached ca. R60 billion and are poised for further growth.
New regulatory framework heralds new era for South African hedge funds
In 2015, the South African Ministry of Finance declared hedge funds collective investment schemes under the Collective Investment Schemes Control Act (CISCA). All existing South African hedge funds were requested to register with the Registrar of Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) before the end of September. Now, Retail Investor Hedge Funds (RIHFs) and Qualified Investor Hedge Funds (QIHFs) portfolios can either be housed in traditional Trust format, or in En Commandite Partnership format, both under a CISCA approved Management Company (ManCo). The product is regulated, the managers are regulated, and the ManCos are regulated: South African managers now have a product that they can widely distribute.
This Roundtable, which includes Udesh Naicker, the head of the hedge fund departments for the FSB (Financial Services Board, the South African regulator of the non-banking financial services industry) examines the growth perspectives, challenges and opportunities of alternative investments in South Africa.
The Opalesque 2016 South Africa Roundtable, sponsored by IDS Fund Services and Eurex, took place in November 2015 in Cape Town with:
Udesh Naicker, Financial Services Board
Nelia de Beer, Trustee Services, Rand Merchant Bank
Bradley Anthony, Fairtree Capital
Lee Dalley, Skybound Capital
Holly Rudman: Skybound Capital
Eugene Visagie, Novare Investments
Jamie Kent, Steyn Capital
Andy Pfaff, MitonOptimal Commodities
Markus-Alexander Flesch, Eurex
Tony Christien, IDS Fund Services
The group also discussed:
Why, despite of their outperformance, is the South African (SA) hedge fund industry already relatively conservative compared to hedge funds abroad?
The history and path to regulation of hedge funds in South Africa. Why the timing for this change in regulations couldn’t be better.
What’s the difference between a Qualified Investor Hedge fund and a Retail Investor Hedge Fund? Why will the characterisation of a hedge fund as retail or qualified not necessarily define the risk profile of a fund?
How will the future SA hedge fund industry look like? Will many smaller funds open, or will a number of funds just get very big?
What if the “CIA” (large financial services groups like Coronation, Investec, Allan Gray) will enter the market? Which advantages do the current operators have?
How will SA managers deal with capacity going forward? Will SA hedge funds have different payoff profiles?
Which protection mechanisms are built into the new regulations?
How will South African managers tackle the educational challenge?
How will typical SA retail hedge funds look like? And how to market them?
What is the role and value of a Trustee in the new hedge fund regulations?
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