The Road to Retirement
Your retirement journey starts now As at July 2017, RisCura compiled information on how much South Africans need to save, when they need to start saving, and how long they need to save to ensure they can maintain their standard of living. The following scenarios are based on this information and a retirement age of...
Lessons learnt – seven ways PE managers can ride the current tough wave
The current muted growth environment in Africa presents a unique opportunity for private equity (PE) managers to demonstrate their expertise and generate value-add without the momentum of a commodity upswing, or a booming Chinese, investment-driven growth trend. Tough economic times call for cost-cutting and, in the investment sector, bigger cuts are...
Investing in SA’s hedge fund market
With hedge funds slowly starting to make their way onto investment platforms, the general South African public can now invest in hedge funds — for the first time ever. Previously, only high net worth individuals and qualified investors were able to invest in hedge funds. However, the 2015 amendments to the Collective Investment Schemes Control...
Trustees said Moody’s would downgrade, Rand will depreciate
At the recent Batseta conference in Sun City, 61% of attendees at a RisCura presentation said, in answer to a spot survey, that Moody’s Investor Service would join Fitch and S&P in downgrading South Africa to ‘junk’ status. RisCura’s managing director, Malcolm Fair, was speaking at the Batseta – Council of Retirement Funds for South...
Africa patients offered online helping hand
A recent report found that seven of the 10 fastest-growing internet populations are in Africa Mobile technology is rapidly transforming the way business is being conducted in Africa, particularly in the healthcare industry, as a result of the growth in internet connectivity. With patients in Africa having to wait in long queues, travel vast distances...
Progress on hold as trade barriers constrain Africa
African leaders frequently pay lip service to the virtues of regional integration, but have yet to implement any meaningful change. One small positive step that a number of countries are slowly implementing is the one-stop border post concept, in which two countries jointly operate a border crossing to remove the usual two-step process. Supported...
Structure is business-friendly, but new laws are not
The government continues to pursue legislation that is not friendly towards investors On Friday, 17 March 2017, President Jacob Zuma launched Invest SA, a one-stop shop service for foreign investors. An initiative of the Department of Trade and Industry, Invest SA is tasked with promoting investment in SA. It was mentioned in the state...
Changing the retirement landscape
If followed faithfully by trustees, the revised OECD Core Principles of Private Pension Regulation, introduced late last year, will go some way to restoring public confidence in private pension funds in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). “The lingering atmosphere of general distrust the average person has towards the integrity and...
African fixed income investments coming into their own
Given the continued global search for yield and growth in an increasingly low-yield world, debt markets in Africa should and will attract increasing attention from institutional investors. Pensions and savings institutions around the globe are facing rising liabilities because of low interest rates. Coupled with the effect of volatile markets and low...