Speaker 0:
Joining Me Now at the Betta Winter Conference. Andre Stein, chief executive officer at Stan Capital Management. Welcome, Andre

Speaker 1:
Hilo. It's wonderful to be here, especially at Beta, which is, as you know, one of the unmissable conferences of the year. So

Speaker 0:
Andre, yesterday you hosted a breakaway session, particularly focusing on the opportunities in Africa. Can you take us through some of the highlights

Speaker 0:
of your presentation?

Speaker 1:
Certainly. Thank you. So the idea was that, of course, with the changes in Regulation 28 we see several local pension funds who have exposure to Africa and who have reached the crossroads. Of course, the old Regulation 28 allowed for a 10% additional allocation to Africa, whereas the new Regulation 28 no longer has that distinction.

Speaker 1:
So the purpose of our session was really to educate some of the trustees and principal officers here about what we are seeing in Africa on the ground.

Speaker 1:
We've been investing in Africa over the last 10 years very, very successfully, having delivered double the return of the oil share with a 6% correlation to the oil share, and we definitely think that now is not the time to be exiting Africa. In fact, we would argue for an increased allocation to Africa.

Speaker 0:
Absolutely so the pension funds are specifically driving quite significant investments in infrastructure

Speaker 0:
in South Africa as well as in broader Africa. How does this affect your investment decisions and stay in capital management?

Speaker 1:
So we are a listed equity specialist, but there definitely are listed ways to play infrastructure investment as well. For example, we have investments in a cement company in East Africa, which provides, of course, the tools for this infrastructure boom.

Speaker 1:
And then here locally in South Africa, we have investments into a port and container terminal operating company, so there's definitely ways to play it in a listed space, which of course, provides greater liquidity for investors as well.

Speaker 0:
So, amongst your long only as well as your hedge fund solutions, how would they be appropriate for a large pension fund?

Speaker 1:
Yeah, so So, of course, that's an interesting question as well, given that the regulations there have changed, too. So the R 28 regulation has now changed to allow for a specific 10% maximum allocation into hedge funds.

Speaker 1:
Um, as you noted, we began as a hedge fund manager Um, and our longest running hedge fund has delivered more than 4% points of annualised alpha over 14 years. But again, with an extraordinarily high downside protection, uh, and as well as a very, very low correlation. So our correlation to the market in general is around 12.5%.

Speaker 1:
So I do think that there is opportunity for pension funds to take up that allocation to hedge funds driven by this regulatory change. Um, and so very, very much a proponent proponent of that. And we've been doing our part to help with education in the space

Speaker 0:
and also from all the breakaway sessions and the panel discussions in the plenary. What were some of the highlights for you at this year's conference?

Speaker 1:
Well, I think I think first off the highlight is the calibre and the quality of the people that you meet here. I mean, imagine in a room filled with a tremendous amount of intellect. Uh uh, people, uh, who stand at the forefront of the pension fund industry,

Speaker 1:
and I think that's truly one of the big reasons for making this an unmissable conference. Um, so very much the flow of ideas that we that we experienced here was, uh, you know, one of the big benefits of of being at this year, in fact, at every year's beta event.

Speaker 0:
And I want to thank you for sharing your insights. We appreciate your

Speaker 1:
time. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.