Citywire Independent Wealth Retreat 2026

This session explores how the scale and depth of one of the world’s largest investment multi-manager, Mercer Investments, can help wealth managers navigate complexity, interpret global market intelligence, and convert insight into practical portfolio action.

Workshop Objective: Equip wealth managers to turn global market insights into practical portfolio decisions, with clear application into client portfolios through a structured, multi-manager lens.

Company Profile: Alexforbes is a leading South African financial services group with a long-standing track record across investments, retirement solutions and administration. Independent of asset managers, Alexforbes brings together deep local expertise and global research capabilities to support informed, objective investment decision-making.
Through its Retail IFA offering, we partner with independent financial advisers to support both discretionary and compulsory client needs. The proposition combines a multi-manager DFM capability for model portfolios and bespoke mandates, access to global manager research and asset-allocation insights through a global partner, administration of employer-sponsored retirement solutions, and a digital investment platform designed to enable scalable advice delivery.
Together, these capabilities help advisers navigate investment complexity, improve operational efficiency and deliver better client outcomes through enduring, long-term partnerships.

Contrarius is a bottom-up, valuation-based, contrarian active manager taking advantage of opportunities in global markets.  

We are in a period of disruption likely to transcend any seen in generations. The disruption from real-world AI (autonomous driving and robotics) and – ultimately – artificial general intelligence is expected to reshape most facets of society. 

Our presentation outlines our approach to the current market with the total universe of listed shares seen as falling into three broad buckets: AI winners, AI-proof and AI-threatened. 

Our very different portfolio offers investors an opportunity to invest in a Fund which is truly different from conventional offerings and which has outperformed the benchmark MSCI World Index since its inception over 17 years ago.

Workshop Objective: To introduce delegates to Contrarius’ contrarian investment philosophy and the areas of the market where we are currently finding value in a world of profound AI disruption.

Company Profile: Contrarius’ objective is to create long-term wealth for our investors through superior long-term investment performance. Our portfolios are typically very different from our peers demonstrating our contrarian approach.

Our largest fund, Contrarius Global Equity Fund, has outperformed the benchmark MSCI World Index, the average manager, the MSCI World Value Index and the MSCI World Growth Index since its inception on 1 January 2009.

We believe that long-term performance is driven by the consistent application of a sound investment philosophy. The key characteristics of our investment philosophy are that it is contrarian, valuation based, long-term and based on proprietary fundamental research. For more information, visit www.contrarius.com.

Contrarius offers a global equity and global balanced strategy available to South African investors through:
-    Contrarius ICAV, an Irish UCITS approved for marketing in South Africa
-    BCI Contrarius rand-based feeder funds
-    Contrarius BCI South African funds with up to 45% offshore exposure 

Most SA balanced funds are heavily exposed to the same local risk factors, leading to high peer correlation and limited differentiation, despite differences in manager skill. The High Street Balanced Prescient Fund breaks this mould by offering a global-like local balanced fund, utilising offshore and Rand-hedge investments to achieve a 90%+ Rand-hedge bias. Supported by a robust proprietary research process, it delivers industry-low peer correlation, and consistent long-term alpha since inception, creating a truly differentiated Reg. 28 solution with strong diversification benefits in a portfolio of funds.

With an established track record, especially during bouts of Rand weakness, we will demonstrate how allocators are using the Fund as a theoretical geographic building block to differentiate their Reg. 28 portfolios.

Workshop Objective: To discuss how High Street differs from other SA multi-asset funds, many of which are highly correlated. While managers often claim differentiation, we will quantify it by illustrating how the Fund benefits a typical Reg. 28 portfolio.

Company Profile: Founded in 2011, High Street is an independent, owner-managed investment firm with a strong offshore focus, managing both local and offshore funds. We take a genuinely active approach to investing, aiming to enhance diversification and deliver consistent outperformance through a unified, proven process.

Our range of equity and multi-asset funds is designed to capture structural market opportunities, with portfolios constructed based on conviction and contribution to overall fund objectives. As a result, our funds rarely move in tandem with others, offering meaningful diversification. Differentiation is central to our philosophy, with the HighWay™ investment process driving our goal of consistently generating superior returns relative to both active and passive peers over recommended investment horizons.

Global markets are navigating a landscape of elevated uncertainty. Against this backdrop, global fixed income stands apart as one of the few asset classes offering both genuine opportunity, breadth, and predictability that is increasingly rare. In such a world, capturing opportunity demands an actively managed, fully flexible approach - one that can move quickly and nimbly across global regions, all sectors, and the full yield curve.   We discuss how to capture clear returns in an increasingly complex world.

Company Profile: Morgan Stanley Investment Management offers a broad range of specialized solutions to a diverse client base that includes governments, institutions, corporations and individuals worldwide. Our independent investment teams are empowered to think differently and strive to provide investment excellence, diversity of perspective and a comprehensive suite of specialized investment solutions. With a focus on serving clients, these teams have access to deep resources to provide value-added services and support. Established in 1975 as a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Group Inc., Morgan Stanley Investment Management has provided client-centric and risk management solutions to investors and institutions for more than 45 years.

South African advisers face a more complex asset allocation environment shaped by global uncertainty, shifting interest-rate cycles, and local structural pressures. This presentation explores how to interpret global economic and market signals while applying disciplined local judgement to client portfolios. It examines diversification beyond home bias, the role of offshore assets, managing currency risk, and balancing growth with downside protection, while also considering the increasing range of available asset classes, including hedge funds and alternative investments. As these instruments introduce different return drivers, liquidity profiles, and risk characteristics, a robust and well-governed investment process becomes essential to integrate them effectively within a holistic asset allocation framework. By combining global insight with South Africa–specific realities, advisers can build more resilient, outcome focused portfolios that support long term client goals in an evolving investment landscape.

Workshop Objective: Equip advisers to make informed asset allocation decisions by combining global market insights with local context to improve portfolio resilience and client outcomes.

Lloyd will give his thoughts on the global economy and fixed income market. He will consider what he believes to be the key risks for bond investors and whether duration still offers the same diversification benefits that it once did against equities. He will outline how our unique process is able to deliver consistent and attractive returns in the current environment of historically tight credit spreads without taking on excessive credit risk.

Company Profile: Premier Miton Investors is a genuinely active investment manager offering a comprehensive range of UK and Ireland-domiciled funds, covering equity, fixed income, multi asset and absolute return investment strategies, as well as portfolio management services. Our clients' investments are actively managed by our specialist investment teams, who are empowered to employ their own proven and distinctive investment approaches, with the aim of generating strong investment outcomes for our clients. We pride ourselves on transparency, expertise and original thinking. In total, we are responsible for $13bn of client assets under management, as of 31st December 2025.

We are not a typical value investor. The first thing we want people to know about us is that we do things differently: our approach is different; our methodology is different; and the companies we invest in tend to be different. We were founded on a novel idea—a new way to invest in public equities over the long term—with a focus on seeking to lower risk. Some may wonder if our obsession with mitigating risk translates into unimpressive returns. To the contrary: we believe risk and return can be inversely correlated.

Company Profile: We are a Canadian independent investment management firm, with a 27-year history and US$3 billion under management, that is focused on long-term capital growth for a clientele of high-net-worth families, institutions and wealth advisors. In our one high conviction, public equity strategy we seek to minimize risk through a deep and thorough understanding of each of our investments and a unique process that enables us to continuously optimize our portfolios. Furthermore, our three co-founding partners are aligned to a degree that few other firms can match—all of their investable wealth is invested alongside our clients’. For more information, please visit www.turtlecreek.ca.

The Investec Structured Products team will dive into how structured products work, including the building blocks which create the payoff, the rationale when designing a product, and where the opportunity sits within a client’s portfolio. 

Workshop Objective: For everyone to gain knowledge on how structured products work, where they fit into a client’s portfolio, and the benefits of diversification, capital protection and potential enhanced upside returns.

Company Profile: Investec Structured Products have a long and proven track record. Having started 23 years ago, the team have launched 132 public products, with 96% providing a positive return, 4% returning capital, and 0 products ever incurring a loss.