Growth at a Reasonable Price can mean different things to different people. Some Core/GARP managers rely heavily on one or two sectors for growth but ignore many long-term sustainable trends. A fundamental approach that relies on resilient growth companies around the world can yield substantial benefits to investors. This presentation will showcase several resilient growth themes at work today in the Global Equity strategy that have delivered excess returns over 25 years and will likely continue to do so for many years to come.

Workshop Objective: Present a compelling case for a Resilient Growth Strategy for Global Equity investors 

Company Profile: Artisan Partners was founded in 1994 and has always aimed to produce differentiated investment outcomes for sophisticated clients around the world by attracting highly talented investment professionals and supporting them with the tools, resources and environment they need to thrive.  We provide the resources of a full-scale, global firm paired with the independence of a boutique. Each of our autonomous investment teams has the freedom to execute its own process based on its original research and creative perspectives. While our teams differ across market capitalizations, geographical regions, investment styles and product offerings, they are all highly incentivized to deliver long-term value for our clients.  A range of Ireland-domiciled UCITS Funds managed by Artisan boutiques are available for investors in South Africa.

Every day we hear about new sources of information and emerging technologies, but it can be difficult to know how to apply them to be useful and practical in one’s own life or profession, and which ones will be more useful than others. We will go through how the systematic active equity team at BlackRock embraces new innovations and applies them across Emerging Markets. We will also focus on certain nuanced differences between markets depending on market dynamics, but also on how to use the availability and scale of information to one’s advantage, particularly for the onshore Chinese market.

Workshop Objective: We will go through how efficient use of new technologies and new types of information can be a powerful tool when applied by investment managers across Emerging equity markets.

Company Profile: BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/za. 

Despite a strong recovery from the pandemic lows, we remain extremely enthusiastic about the return prospects of selected global equities.  We believe that overall valuation disparity within the market remains significant, creating opportunities for contrarian stock pickers like ourselves to outperform the major indices, whether these opportunities are regarded as Growth or Value-oriented shares.
We highlight the valuation disparity between Growth and Value-oriented stocks, the disparity within Value-oriented shares and the more recent disparity within Growth-oriented stocks. 

We discuss opportunities identified within online mobility/delivery and US online sports betting and iGaming stocks; content owning media stocks transitioning to streaming; and offshore oil drillers

We highlight that our portfolio composition is extremely different to the current composition of the MSCI World Index. And that we are truly contrarian.

Workshop Objective: Discuss the current areas of valuation disparity identified within listed global equities using a bottom-up, contrarian, valuation-based investment philosophy.

Company Profile: Contrarius offers a global equity strategy and a 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 takes a long-term approach to investing. Our investment philosophy is valuation based with investments selected following detailed proprietary research undertaken by Contrarius. This 'bottom-up' research seeks to determine the underlying intrinsic value of the investment and to buy stocks that we believe are trading below their underlying intrinsic value and which are considered to be attractive relative to other available opportunities. 

Given the wide-ranging interpretations of ‘value investing’, our investment philosophy is probably best described as ‘contrarian’. Our selection of stocks will typically differ materially from that of a typical performance benchmark index.

The past year has posed important questions for income-seeking investors. Yields have risen significantly in response to the scale and pace of monetary policy tightening. 

For the first time in recent history, cash and other lower-risk asset classes now offer fairly attractive levels of income. 
However, relying on a single asset class for income could provide a false sense of security. 

We believe stable income generation requires flexibility and diversification, as well as an element of capital growth in the context of structurally higher inflation. 

During our discussion we’ll highlight where we’re finding income opportunities in a world of muted economic growth and where stress is emerging in parts of the financial system. 

Workshop Objective: To demonstrate why a flexible multi asset approach remains an attractive proposition for income investors even in a higher yield world.

Company Profile: At Fidelity International, our purpose is to build better financial futures for our clients. 
As a family and management-owned company, we think generationally in terms of the services we build and in the way we invest on our clients’ behalf. 
Our focus is on delivering sustainable investment returns for our clients, while managing our impact on society and the environment. 
We incorporate sustainability into our business operations and our investment process, working with investee companies to help them operate more sustainably to deliver long-term returns and secure a better future for all.

We will be analysing the benefits of Global Equity Income in an investment portfolio. As central banks strive to tame inflation by raising rates, concerns mount over future rate volatility and moderating economic growth. We will discuss the economic backdrop for this hiking cycle, inflation drivers and expectations, and the potential implications for equity investors navigating interest rate risk.

Workshop Objectives: Provide investors with an insight into the opportunities and challenges presented in the current macro environment.

Company Profile: Guinness is independent and focused purely on investment management. Our in-house economic, industry and company research allow us to take an independent view and not be led by the market. Our size and specialist nature also enable us to respond quickly and efficiently to market movements.

At heart Guinness Global Investors is a value (or growth at reasonable value) investor. We combine strategic sector selection with a fundamental screening process to identify stock opportunities.

Whilst direct real estate revaluations will take time to play out, the listed property sector remains one step ahead. We are not out of the woods just yet, but history suggests a more constructive backdrop for property equities from here. 

Dependable income streams, coupled with vastly improved debt structuring in the years post the Global Financial Crisis and undemanding valuations, may position property equities as favourable options in a period of cyclical weakness. Join Guy Barnard, Co-Head Global Property Equities, as he discusses these attributes and which subsectors are best positioned to continue to deliver earnings and dividend growth, even as economies slow.

Workshop Objectives: Discuss the opportunities and risks in the listed property sector today whilst conveying the importance of a selective approach, as property fundamentals continue to reflect divergence across sub sectors.

Company Profile: Connections enable strong relationships with clients based on trust and insight as well as the flow of ideas among our investment teams and our engagement with companies, all of which allow us to make a positive difference. These connections are central to our values as a firm, to what active management stands for and to the outperformance we seek to deliver. 

Janus Henderson is a global asset manager with more than 340 investment professionals* and expertise across all major asset classes. Our individual, intermediary and institutional clients span the globe and entrust us with more than US$287.3bn of their assets*. Our commitment to active management offers clients the opportunity to outperform passive strategies over the course of market cycles. Through times of both market calm and growing uncertainty, our managers apply their experience weighing risk versus reward potential – seeking to ensure clients are on the right side of change.

*Source: Janus Henderson Investors, as at 31 December 2022. AUM data excludes Exchange-Traded Note (‘ETN’) assets.

With the economic outlook uncertain, markets have been characterised recently not only by volatility but also by profound style rotations, for example between value and quality. While many global equity funds are wedded to one style, we believe this carries a risk of inflexibility. We have developed a dynamic approach, in which our investment style is flexed to suit market conditions.  
Matus Mrazik, Investment Manager, Systematic Equities, Jupiter, will explain how a systematic, global equities strategy can navigate markets. He will share the team’s recent research and positioning in the current market environment.

Workshop Objective: To understand the importance of investment styles, such as value, quality, and growth, and which tend to do better in different market environments

Company Profile: Jupiter is a specialist, high conviction, active asset manager. We exist to help our clients achieve their long-term investment objectives. From our origins in 1985, Jupiter now offers a range of actively managed strategies available to UK and international clients including equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternatives. Jupiter is a constituent member of the FTSE 250 Index, and has assets under management of £50.2bn /$60.7bn /€56.7bn as at 31/12/2022.
Independence of thought and individual accountability define us. Our fund managers follow their convictions and seek those investment opportunities that they believe will ensure the best outcome for our clients. They do this through fundamental analysis and research, a clear investment process and risk management framework, with a focus on good stewardship.
www.jupiteram.com

Innovation is the biggest driver of stocks. The companies that can do it win and so do the investors who back them. James will present the evidence of the power of investing in innovation, explain why he focuses on high quality innovative companies with strong barriers to competition, give his view on the best opportunities for the years ahead and explain why he is excited by the current valuations of numerous excellent innovative companies.

Workshop Objective: To showcase why investing in innovative companies is a compelling strategy and provide views on potential opportunities in the future.

Company Profile: Liontrust is a specialist asset manager that takes pride in having a distinct culture and approach to running money. The company launched in 1995 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1999. We are an independent business with no corporate parent. Our purpose is to have a positive impact on our investors, stakeholders and society. 
We believe investment processes are key to long-term performance and effective risk control. Our fund managers are truly active in applying their investment processes. There is no house view - our fund managers have the freedom to manage their portfolios according to their own investment processes and market views.

Following on from our earlier focus on the argument for investing in Quality stocks in global equity portfolios, we will be looking at the theme of targeting a core approach to Quality investing.

Workshop Objective: To engage in a free-flowing discussion regarding the merits of a Core approach to Quality investing

Company Profile: The Nomura Asset Management Group is a leading global investment manager. Headquartered in Tokyo, Nomura has additional investment offices throughout the world including London, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Frankfurt and New York. With a global workforce of nearly 1.400 employees it has been operating in Europe for more than 30 years. Today Nomura Asset Management provides its clients with a wide range of innovative investment strategies including global, regional and single country equities, high yield bonds and global fixed income strategies.

We’ve been through a historic period of distortion on markets, economies, and businesses. This distortion has led many investors to question or even doubt the earnings growth prospects for certain industries and businesses.

While the environment has been fraught with uncertainty, we do think that some certainties remain; certainties that we view as key elements for long-term equity investors: 1) secular change that can underpin above-average earnings growth, 2) the importance of earnings growth for long-term stock returns, and 3) the merits of selectivity.

We’ll discuss where we see opportunity today and tomorrow for growth investors, and how we seek to find businesses that we believe are best positioned to benefit over the long term.

Workshop Objective: Discuss the market environment, key secular growth trends, portfolio construction concepts, and investment ideas.

Company Profile: Sands Capital is an active, long-term investor in leading innovative growth businesses, globally. Our approach combines analytical rigor
and creative thinking to identify high-quality growth businesses that are creating the future. Through an integrated investment platform spanning venture capital, growth equity and public equity, we provide growth capital solutions to institutions and fund sponsors in more than 40 countries.

Sands Capital is independent, staff-owned firm founded in 1992 with offices in the Washington, D.C. area, London, and Singapore. Sands Capital managed $43.8 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2022.

Emerging Markets faced three main headwinds in 2022: China’s zero Covid-19 policy, aggressive monetary policy tightening globally and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We see two out of those three factors turning into tailwinds in 2023. China has already started to reopen its economy and pivoted to a pro-growth, stimulus orientated stance and we see the Fed pausing hikes and potentially pivoting to rate cuts in Q4 2023 leading to a weaker US dollar. A dovish Fed, the reopening of China’s economy and the positive growth dynamics of Emerging Markets over Developed Markets are potential catalysts for Emerging Market equities to outperform. We believe it may be time for investors to reassess their exposure to Emerging Markets, making the most of historically attractive valuations, adding diversification to global equity allocations and tapping into the long term growth opportunities of the asset class.