Equity, as an asset class, has over the medium and long term proved to be fairly reliable at providing inflation beating returns in South Africa. It is, however, a volatile asset class and should not be counted on to provide real, or even positive, returns in the short term.
STANLIB has recognised that equity markets are not efficient at pricing each listed company. This is because of several factors, some of which are as folows:
- The information about a company’s prospects is not uniformly known by all market participants
- Investors have different time horizons, and this affects the value that they are prepared to attach to a share
- Different valuation techniques are used
All of this, amongst other reasons, creates the opportunity to add value in the management of this asset class. STANLIB is, therefore, an active asset manager that looks to use thorough fundamental research to outperform their benchmarks.
Whereas a pure equity investment is not compliant with Regulation 28, our equity portfolios can be used as building blocks for a compliant retirement fund investment.