Taking Investments To Market With A Knockout

It’s the famous “Rumble in the Jungle”, the story of the world heavyweight championship fight between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. It has gone down in history as one of the most ingenious strategies ever used in the sport, and has been powerfully expressed in our latest television ad as an accurate reflection of Sanlam’s approach to investments.

Journeying back to the set of the original face-off in Kinshasa, we vividly recount the eight-round fight that saw favourite-to-win Foreman stumble to the canvas at the left hook of a calculating Ali. Although Foreman was greatly feared for his punching power, size and sheer physical dominance, Ali had a carefully considered plan. He leaned against the ropes and covered up, while Foreman spent all his energy throwing punches that either missed or were cleverly deflected. This decidedly cautious strategy saw Foreman’s strength start to wane as his punching and defence became ineffective. At just the right moment, Ali struck with a series of bold jabs and punch combinations. Foreman was knocked out and Ali became the champion.

In much the same way, our investment philosophy is consciously cautious and – when the time is right – strategically bold. We resist the temptation to ride the euphoria of speculation and scrutinise every investment decision we make. We remove emotion and we check, re-check and analyse.

This approach is embedded throughout our business and is underpinned by our Wealthsmiths™ promise to do things very, very well. “We carefully consider the consequences of every investment decision we make because we fundamentally believe that for every Rand we invest, there is an individual for whom that investment means more than money. It’s a retirement plan, an education or a home,” says Johan van der Merwe.

We have worked tirelessly to build our investment expertise around the right people, level-headed processes and rigorous discipline. This strategy has been meticulously applied to enable us to deliver the best possible performance over both the short and long term. And the time has now come for us to tell our story with conviction and pride, through our brand.

“We hold the nation’s savings in our hands and take our responsibility of improving the lives of a broad range of stakeholders very seriously,” adds van der Merwe. “It is this single, profound responsibility that drives our philosophy. Because when it comes to investing, there is a time to be bold and a time to be cautious. It is knowing which to be when that makes us Wealthsmiths™.”

Sanlam’s approach is perhaps best demonstrated by the performance history of our flagship general equity funds – the Sanlam Investment Management (SIM) General Equity, SIM Top Choice Equity and SIM Value Funds – as well as our flagship multi-asset fund (the SIM Balanced Fund). These have delivered consistently above-average performance by ranking in the top two quartiles measured against peers over measurable 3, 5, 7 and 10 years to end December 2014.

Our flagship global products – Sanlam Global Equity, Sanlam Global Cautious Fund of Funds and Sanlam Balanced Fund of Funds – have also enjoyed top quartile performance over the three years to end December 2014.