a bespoke conduit for capital into South Africa
Banyan is a focused and active manager of capital and investments in South Africa and achieves stable alpha over a period of time by leveraging its established relationships with entrepreneurs, institutions and banks. Banyan has a highly skilled and accomplished team with decades of investment, asset management and transactional experience in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to actively managing invested capital, Banyan continually carries out research with dedicated teams operating on a deal-by-deal basis. Banyan also physically bases its team in South Africa for prudent asset management and to pursue opportunities.
“OFTEN PROBABILITY IS IGNORED AND RISK IS EXAGGERATED. WE MANAGE BOTH TO DELIVER CONSISTENT RISK-ADJUSTED RETURNS.”
“THE ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE OF AFRICA”
South Africa is a regional leader in Sub-Saharan Africa, both in economic impact as well as in terms of regional politics. South Africa is often regarded as the “gateway into Africa”.
The World Bank (2018b) argues that finance is South Africa’s strongest sector. It has a long history of intermediating capital in global markets, has benefited from reforms in the 1990s, and has adopted global financial standards. The sector (according to the World Bank) is expected to continue driving the country’s growth performance.
South Africa ranked 24th out of 190 (i.e. in the top 15%) countries for investor protection in the “World Bank Doing Business 2018 report”. According to the WEF GCI 2017–2018 report, South Africa ranks amongst the top 25% of countries worldwide in several aspects. These include the strength of investor protection, auditing and reporting standards, efficiency of legal framework in settling disputes, strength of auditing and reporting standards, protection of minority shareholders’ interests, corporate tax, availability of financial services and capacity for innovation.
Growth prospects for the South African economy have improved significantly, supported by positive developments in the political arena; rising confidence levels amongst businesses, investors and consumers; gradually ameliorating economic fundamentals; favourable developments in certain commodity markets; as well as by steadily improving demand conditions in Africa as well as globally.
South Africa’s stable macroeconomic environment provides a strong platform to attract foreign savings that can fund additional investment. The country’s prudent macroeconomic policies are generally highly regarded by international investors, as are its well-developed and well-regulated financial markets. The South African government remains committed to fiscal discipline, a flexible exchange rate and inflation targeting.
The adverse trend in the sovereign credit ratings has been halted. In this regard, Moody’s not only maintained its rating of South Africa’s local currency denominated debt at investment grade, but also revised the country’s credit outlook from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’. In so doing, it recognized positive developments in the political and economic arenas, specifically a gradual recovery in the economy’s growth performance, a more business-friendly political administration that is committed to restoring trust in key public sector institutions, fiscal consolidation and debt sustainability, as well as to providing certainty and consistency in the policy and regulatory environments.