A raging start to 2016

2016 began with a bang! At this year’s Raging Bull awards held at the end of January in Cape Town, Nedgroup Investments was named both the best South African Management Company and the best Offshore (FSB-approved) Management Company of the year. This has only ever been achieved (winning both awards in one year) by one other investment manager.

While the most recent recognition is particularly special and rewarding, what is much more important is the consistency of the range’s performance over the past decade. Nedgroup Investments has been among the top three managers for the each of the past seven years. While these awards do provide some comfort that our philosophy is working, we are committed to work flat-out to refine the process and philosophy and to continually learn from our mistakes.

2015 ended with negative news dominating global and local headlines from an economic, political and social perspective. So, it is natural for investors to feel concerned and despondent at such times but our experience is that the best advice remains to stick to your plan, focus on the long-term and avoid emotions getting in the way.

There are few ‘no-brainers’ in investing and the tax-free savings vehicle introduced by Treasury at the time of the 2015 budget is an opportunity that most investors should take advantage of. The vehicle allows investors to invest up to R30 000 per annum tax-free (no income, dividend or capital gains tax). Our offering is simple and provides investors access to our range of funds at no extra cost. The deadline for the current year is 29 February and investors are reminded that they are able to invest on behalf of their spouses and children to maximise the benefit.

Nedgroup Investments’ business proposition is to help you achieve your investment goals by delivering good long-term performance and making it easy and simple to do business with us. A key component of this proposition is our Best of Breed™ philosophy which sees us identify and partner with managers who we believe have a sustainable edge in their area of expertise.

We continually look to refine and improve our offering. An area that we have enhanced is our low-cost multi-asset ‘Core’ range which has attracted significant assets, doubling in size each of the past four years. We have extended this range by appointing BlackRock Asset Management to manage a global multi-asset low cost fund, the Nedgroup Investments Core Global Fund. The fund is available both as a rand feeder fund where investors use our offshore allowance or directly into a Dublin based UCITS vehicle where investors use their own allowance. The annual management fee at 0.35% is among the lowest in the industry and we believe the fund combines well with active managers both to reduce costs and to provide diversification benefits.

Investors would have received our new look investment statements at the end last of year. Thank you for all the positive feedback and please feel free to comment on how we can improve further.

Our online transacting facility has gained traction and existing investors will confirm how quick and easy it now is to add, switch and withdraw from your investments with no forms or signatures required. If you have not yet registered for our secure site, I encourage you to sign-up at www.nedgroupinvestments.com. Again the process is a quick and simple one.

Thank you for your continued support and best wishes for a successful 2016.