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Johannesburg - The fallout from the financial crisis has taught many investors to be more cautious about whose advice they follow for their investment decisions.
Some so-called investment experts have recently come under fire from within their own ranks after Adrian Saville, chief investment officer at Cannon Asset Managers, slammed the "popular opinions" of some investment gurus.
Asset managers and other specialists usually punt their choices for the new year in December, so now is a good time to reflect on whose investment advice served their clients well during the past year.
The good
Kokkie Kooyman
The head of Sanlam's Global Fund was one of the few managers to boldly call the stock market a screaming buy in early March 2009. His punts included a huge bet on insurer Old Mutual, at a time when other market commentators were concerned it could be on the brink of failure.
The trade has paid off handsomely for Kooyman, with Old Mutual bouncing back from a low of 461c to trade above 1 400 cents per share in November.
Stephen Brown
While one year is not sufficient to judge performance, the best-performing unit trust over the last 12 months has been the Rand Merchant Bank resources fund, managed by Stephen Brown, which returned 47%. Top holdings in the fund include Anglo American (16.47%) and BHPBilliton (14.91%).
David Sylvester
Sylvester, stockbroker and chairperson of the Shareholders' Association of South Africa, was bearish in his outlook on 2009, advising investors to rather settle debt than get into the market.
However, his "conservative" stock picks for 2009 still returned a comfortable 31% from January 2, excluding dividends.
The bad
Stanlib
The past two years have been grim for the asset management unit of Liberty Holdings. A performance assessment of unit trusts over the last three years shows that no Stanlib equity fund featured in the top 30. The group's industrial fund - its best performer - came in 32nd place. Investors and clients will be hoping that the appointment of Thabo Dloti as head of Stanlib will see a reversal in its fortunes.
Imara SP Reid
While Imara SP Reid may have made a lot of other good calls this year, its "buy" recommendations on microlenders African Dawn (Afdawn) and Blue Financial Services in June 2009 have come back to haunt the firm. Barely six months later, both firms are fighting for their corporate lives and investors have seen deep value knocked off.
Watermark Securities
Things went horribly wrong for the directors of Afdawn, after Watermark Securities brokered a single stock future (SSF) contract based on the continued growth of the microlender's share price.
After Afdawn's share price took a turn for the worse in line with the market, Watermark allowed these directors to accumulate exposure exceeding R100m. The brokerage also punted the share to its other clients.
Afdawn's share price dropped from a high of 555c in November 2007 to its present 35c.
Telecommunications firm Huge Group also blames Watermark for suggesting SSFs as a way to raise capital for the business. Directors James Herbst and Anton Potgieter lost R14m each after Huge's share price dropped in line with the market.
- Fin24.com
