The Allan Gray Podcast

Global markets are navigating a challenging mix of persistent conflict, energy insecurity and volatile inflation, stoking fear among investors. In frontier and smaller emerging markets, that fear weighs heavily on asset prices, often sending them well below what the underlying business fundamentals suggest. Horacia Naidoo-McCarthy, a manager in the Institutional Clients team, is joined by portfoli...

Last year’s strong market returns renewed optimism in South Africa after years of sluggish growth, but many investors are wondering whether the country has truly reached a turning point or is merely in the midst of a false dawn. Allan Gray portfolio managers Thalia Petousis and Sandy McGregor are joined by ESG analyst Raine Adams to discuss whether the country’s reform narrative is on track. They...

For many investors, 2025 intensified the behavioural pressures that shape investment decisions. Markets reached record highs, even as global growth slowed and political tides turned across major economies. Amid these contrasts, investors and advisers were reminded just how crucial it is to manage behaviour. Falling prey to inherent behavioural biases and knee-jerk reactions when markets shift are...

Is perfectionism costing us more than we realise in mental health, life and investment decision-making? Our head of Group Savings and Investments, Shaheed Mohamed, and Dr Thomas Curran, a leading academic on perfectionism and bestselling author, explore how striving for perfection can undermine long-term outcomes. Their conversation ranges from burnout and analysis paralysis to the hidden cost of...

While what worked for the last 40 years of investing may not work for the next 40, history offers valuable lessons for the path ahead. Chief investment officer Duncan Artus and renowned author and publisher Grant Williams unpick past events and explore future opportunities. From Japan’s decades-long battle with deflation and the unique opportunities in its bond market to the rise of gold as a coun...

There is often a great disparity between a stock’s market value and what it is fundamentally worth. In conversation with portfolio manager Rory Kutisker-Jacobson, Mark Dunley-Owen, portfolio manager from our offshore partner, Orbis, explores global investment opportunities beyond those currently in vogue. They delve into high-conviction picks in China, standout businesses in frontier and emerging...

With government debt levels at historic highs and inflationary pressures lingering, fiscal dominance is reshaping the global monetary landscape. Central banks are increasingly caught in a delicate balancing act – controlling inflation, while also managing the burden of sovereign debt and excess liquidity. At the same time, the US dollar’s role as the world’s primary reserve currency is facing grow...

Shifting consumer patterns and behaviour. Disruptive innovations. Generational changes. These are not simply headlines; they are real challenges being navigated by investors. However, that is not all they are. They are also opportunity creators for investors who have done their homework and are deeply focused on fundamentals. Allan Gray portfolio managers Rory Kutisker-Jacobson, Jithen Pillay and...

Global investors have been on a rollercoaster ride in the wake of President Trump’s announcement of an array of reciprocal tariffs which rocked global stock markets, initially sending US shares tumbling and then rebounding as investors hung onto news headlines as a key determinant of prices. But prices shouldn’t be confused with value, and the extreme volatility serves as a stark reminder to inves...

South African listed property has shifted from being a leading wealth creator in the early 2000s to one of the weakest performers over the past decade on the back of sluggish economic growth, ongoing infrastructure challenges and the impact of COVID-19 on retail and office space demand. Over the last year, the sector has shown signs of recovery. Is it time to cement the opportunity, or should it b...

Many investors focus on trying to figure out how new technologies might change the world so that they can identify and back the likely winners. But according to renowned Irish economist and bestselling author David McWilliams, the greatest, enduring technological innovation of modern civilisation is not artificial intelligence or the internet – it is money. In conversation with Allan Gray chief in...

The US has dominated global news flow in the wake of the presidential election, and market-moving headlines continue to present the temptation to act on impulse. As investors who focus on the fundamentals, the “great election year” has challenged Allan Gray and our offshore partner, Orbis, to continue to filter the signals from the noise to identify compelling long-term opportunities. In this epis...

As sentiment towards the South African economy improves following the formation of the government of national unity, some of the major retailers are seeing improved share performance. Lower oil prices, extended periods of uninterrupted power supply and the recent interest rate cut, which heralds a shift in policy, are notable short-term tailwinds to the sector. However, the longer-term prospects f...

Global elections have been a dominant force this year, with sentiment around polling and election results driving volatility in many markets. The ANC’s drastic decline at the polls and the formation of a government of national unity have been of keen interest to investors in SA Inc. Abroad, we have seen Labour take the lead by a landslide in the UK general election and the US presidential race hea...

The new two-pot retirement system has been designed to improve retirement outcomes for South Africans, while allowing some access to retirement savings in case of severe financial stress. However, there are some hidden risks that investors should be aware of to ensure they don’t inadvertently offset its intended benefits. Richard Carter, head of Assurance, is joined by Shaun Duddy, head of Product...

Periods of heightened uncertainty are inevitable when you are investing over the long term. And when it is not clear when or how things might change, multi-asset portfolio construction becomes an increasingly complex task. For some time, our offshore partner, Orbis, has warned that the environment appears to be changing, noting stickier global inflation, a shifting geopolitical landscape and highe...

Investing in frontier markets is not for the faint-hearted. But for those brave enough to look beyond material risks, such as political instability, currency fluctuations and poor liquidity, many of these smaller markets provide fertile hunting ground for compelling ideas and exposure to sectors that are not available in South Africa. In conversation with Grant Pitt, head of Institutional, portfol...

The commonly accepted wisdom is that if we want a glimpse into the future of South Africa’s financial services sector, we should take a look at the United Kingdom’s financial landscape and delay the experience by a few years. In this conversation, Dan Brocklebank, UK head of our offshore partner, Orbis, joins portfolio manager Jithen Pillay to explain how key themes, such as tighter regulation, ar...

With 2024 set to be a news-heavy year, investors are speculating about everything from what interest rates might do next, to the outcome of elections around the world. Given the levels of uncertainty, many are finding it hard to avoid panicking and making rash decisions based on emotions. Allan Gray portfolio manager Tim Acker is joined by renowned behavioural psychology expert and bestselling aut...

The Investment teams at Allan Gray and Orbis have both been talking about the huge disparities in global valuations for some time. There are pockets of the market that are incredibly cheap, but many of the most popular regions and sectors are eye-wateringly expensive. For a moment last year, it seemed as though these disparities were beginning to narrow amid rising inflation and subsequent interes...

When it comes to investing, marginal improvements can make a significant difference to investment returns over time. James Aitken, the founder of Aitken Advisors, has spent three decades gaining a deep understanding of the global financial system’s plumbing. He has carefully studied markets and investors to identify the subtle differences that can help us become “a little less wrong” and produce m...

Buoyed by the ongoing excitement around artificial intelligence, the so-called “magnificent seven” (Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, MSFT, Nvidia and Tesla) have been able to count themselves among this year’s biggest winners. And it is easy to understand why: They are great businesses at the forefront of the latest tech developments, and they are expected to deliver exceptional growth. That said, his...

Over the last five years, deteriorating domestic conditions and rapidly developing global trends have seen some well-known stocks, and even entire industries and markets, fall in and out of favour. From Ramaphoria and the COVID-19 pandemic, to the collapse of Steinhoff and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, investors have been tasked with figuring out who the winners might be in a very complex environm...

Companies, and their shareholders, are facing increasing levels of scrutiny from the media, activists and the public for the impact they have on the environment and society. As we consider many of the recent headline-grabbing corporate failures, it becomes clear that companies that fail to consider and manage environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors often prove to be poor investments and...

In conversation with portfolio manager Rory Kutisker-Jacobson, Matthew Spencer from our offshore partner, Orbis, explains why the investment team believes that the stock market boom over the last few years is making way for a global stockpicker’s paradise. As the deflation of the “Everything Bubble” continues, long-term investors who remain focused on understanding the fundamentals of the companie...