Insights

Lonwabo Maqubela, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, and Jeremy Gorven, Senior Investment Analyst, recently returned from a week-long research trip to Japan, where they attended the Daiwa Securities 2025 Japan Investment Conference. This annual event brings together investors and corporate leaders to discuss industry trends, economic developments, and investment opportunities. Conferences like these provide a valuable and productive platform for investors like us to engage directly with company management, gaining critical insights into investee companies, their performance, strategic initiatives, and future plans.
In this article, Lonwabo and Jeremy share key takeaways from the conference, offering a first-hand perspective on Japan’s evolving market landscape and the implications for investors.

In an investment landscape often marked by uncertainty and volatility, the “boring” balanced fund still remains a compelling choice for investors seeking both growth and risk management. According to the Alexforbes Large Manager Watch survey, approximately R1trillion of institutional clients’ assets find a home in these solutions which provide investors with access to dynamic asset allocation and security selection expertise of fund managers. The Association of Savings South Africa (ASISA) recently reported that 50% of unit trust savings are in multi-asset funds, further underlining their popularity amongst investors and advisers.

The South African listed credit is a c. 1.1trn nominal market (excluding government paper), consisting of c. 2 484 listed debt instruments issued by 103 issuers. The market is dominated by bank and financial issuers who account for c. R407bn (37% of the issuance), while State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) account for R246bn (22%) followed by the corporate sector of R158bn (14%). The rest of our market consists of credit-linked notes (CLNs) at R120bn (11%), structured notes at R105bn (9.7%), securitisations at R46bn (4.2%), municipal bonds at R7.9bn (0.7%), and issuers of asset-backed commercial paper at R2.8bn (0.2%). Listed credit instruments are a widely deployed investment instrument in many specialist fixed income portfolios, and corporate debt funding plays a vital role in the capital structure of a firm, especially in the funding structure of South African banks.

The South African listed hospital sector was a disappointing hunting ground for investors over the last decade. An investment in Netcare (NTC) and Life Healthcare (LHC) from the beginning of 2015 to the end of 2023 resulted in a total shareholder return of -48% and -40%, respectively.

Macau is known as the “Las Vegas of the East” due to the large number of casinos in the region. It is technically a special administrative region (SAR) of China located on its southern coast and neighbours its other SAR, Hong Kong [Figure 1]. Macau is a US$51bn economy with a population of 695k giving it one of the highest GDPs per capita globally.

Recently, I attended a global financials conference where I had the opportunity to meet with leaders from both listed and unlisted UK financial institutions. The event was filled with many intriguing anecdotes, such as how the introduction of deposit insurance[1] (recently introduced in South Africa) has stimulated the emergence of challenger banks like UK-based Starling Bank. This newfound confidence boost has also fuelled lending activity in the UK mortgage market, especially in the buy-to-let segment. During our discussions, we engaged with several mid-tier banks and financial institutions primarily focused on the buy-to-let market.

How an $885 billion financial behemoth continues to grow : a review of Berkshire Hathaway’s 2023 annual results and shareholder letter Go back to Master insights

Don’t risk missing out on value. Lonwabo Maqubela, Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Perpetua, expands on the misperceptions regarding this approach to investing and the benefits it holds for investors and clients who utilise it.

Reflecting on the year that was…

Despite receiving 13% of the national budget(R298 billion in 2022/23 ), South Africa’s primary and secondary education system is characterised by crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, and poor education outcomes – all of which perpetuate inequality and fail many of the country’s children.

Fast fashion describes the extremely quick turnaround times of designs that move from the latest fashion shows or celebrity culture to retail stores.