Articles by Tim Acker

What has gone wrong with Naspers?
For many years, Naspers was the star performer of the South African stock market. The onset of COVID-19 drove the Naspers and Tencent share prices to new...

Q&A: Perspectives and positioning for 2022
Amid a rising inflationary environment and ongoing uncertainty, many investors are struggling to take a long-term view. During the recent Allan Gray webinar,...

Interrogating the opportunity in South Africa
Market dislocations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic have presented attractive opportunities for investors. The JSE is a good case in point. Presenting...

Investment update: Is it time to reduce SA share exposure?
The FTSE/JSE All Share Index (ALSI) is now significantly higher than it was before the pandemic – 21% up from the start of 2020. Is this a sign that it is ti...

Understanding the Naspers-Prosus transaction
Naspers and Prosus have announced a transaction that changes the group’s financial structure. They hope this will reduce the large discount at which Naspers...

Balanced Fund: Perspectives and positioning
In a recent webinar, Portfolio Manager Tim Acker discussed the investment environment and looked at how the Allan Gray Balanced Fund is positioned to take...

Balanced Fund: Optionality, the most unappreciated asset
One of the most unappreciated assets in a portfolio is optionality – the ability to take advantage of market disparity and to move between and within asset...

Do South African banks offer value in a COVID-19 battered world?
As South African banks re-evaluate their models to deal with the potential implications of the coronavirus pandemic and take proactive steps to minimise the...

Platinum can move the needle on the economic growth SA so desperately needs
Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) are proving to be market darlings: In the last 12 months platinum prices have soared by 30%, palladium prices have doubled, and...

Structural challenges to business models
At the core of our investment philosophy we look for companies we believe are priced below our estimate of their true worth and sell them when they reach fai...

Platinum and palladium: Low-risk opportunities
Investing in platinum or palladium directly is taking a view that the prices of these commodities will increase. Tim Acker explains why we currently prefer...