Last year was categorised by market-moving headlines, shifts in the global monetary order, divergent monetary policy, AI flexing its muscle, and gold regaining its sheen. There were many major global news events – war, elections, tariffs, to name a few.
On the local front, 2025 was the strongest single year for the equity and bond markets in almost 20 years, with the FTSE/JSE All Share Index returning 42% and the FTSE/JSE All Bond Index returning 24%. There was also some progress on South Africa’s reform agenda and infrastructure rehabilitation.
Thanks to these factors, sentiment feels more positive. However, economic growth remains lacklustre. To achieve the 5% GDP growth the country desperately needs after more than a decade of stagnation requires accelerated investment in infrastructure. While we are seeing policy reform, much depends on the pace and consistency of execution, alongside a tougher stance on crime and corruption. In a comprehensive analysis, Raine Adams assesses whether the country is at an inflection point.
Investment review
As discussed in our chief investment officer Duncan Artus’s investment update video, we had strong absolute and good relative performance across most of our funds, with the funds of our offshore partner, Orbis, performing particularly strongly. This was despite not being invested in the market darlings – a typical feature of our shared investment philosophy. We generally prefer to look for opportunities in unloved areas of the market, where we can find shares priced below our estimate of their true worth. We believe this is less risky than investing in expensive shares that the market assumes will continue to rise in price.
We are privileged as a business to be part of a bigger ecosystem designed to not only generate wealth for clients over the long term, but also ensure the business can act as a force for good.
Jithen Pillay shares an interesting example of this in Anheuser-Busch InBev, which, along with other consumer staple stocks, has had a tough time of late. Jithen opens the tap on the risks and opportunities inherent in the investment case, illustrating how our deep research challenges some of the provocative headlines currently circulating.
There are plenty of examples of investing against the grain in Orbis’ realm. You can read more about these in Adam R. Karr’s annual president’s letter. As Adam aptly notes, strong performance today is the result of decisions made some time ago; several long-held positioning choices that shifted from headwinds to tailwinds. Adam touches on how Orbis continues to adapt and explore opportunities in which to invest clients’ capital.
Investing offshore using rands
Appetite for investing offshore, including in Orbis’ funds, remains healthy. Given many investors’ preference for using rands to invest in rand-denominated offshore funds, we are pleased to advise that we have added a third way to use rands to access the Allan Gray - Orbis global feeder strategies. In early December, we launched actively managed exchange-traded funds (AMETFs) – the Allan Gray - Orbis Global Equity Feeder AMETF and the Allan Gray - Orbis Global Balanced Feeder AMETF. Unit trusts and AMETFs are, for all intents and purposes, the same thing. The main difference is that the AMETFs are listed on and traded through a stock exchange, while unit trusts are not listed and typically made available via investment platforms and/or directly from the unit trust management company. Our AMETFs are currently available via stockbrokers and online trading platforms. We plan to make them available via Allan Gray later in 2026. You can learn about the other ways to access these rand-denominated strategies here.
Adopting a long-term approach in personal investing
Building long-term wealth is the culmination of habits formed and sustained over time, rather than grand gestures or perfect decisions. Results come from small actions that are easy to repeat – a concept known in behavioural science as “micro wins”. In this quarter’s Investing Tutorial, Thandi Skade explores how focusing on manageable micro wins can help investors build momentum, remain disciplined and let time do the heavy lifting.
Maximise your benefits before the end of the tax year
We have written about retirement products and tax-free investments (TFIs) extensively over the years (see the “Personal investing” and “Retirement” categories in the “Latest insights” section of our website). As a reminder, these products benefit from tax-free growth while you are invested – a big win if you invest for the long term. Every year, you can make a pre-tax contribution to your retirement funds of up to 27.5% of the greater of your taxable income or remuneration, capped at R350 000 per tax year. You forfeit this benefit if you do not make use of it each tax year. There are also lifetime benefits to contributing in excess of the allowable limits, as Carla Rossouw explains in her piece.
The other annual tax benefit the government offers is the ability to invest after-tax money in a TFI – up to R36 000 per tax year (and a maximum of R500 000 over your lifetime).
If you have not yet maximised your contributions for the current tax year and would like to do so, please ensure we receive your contributions before the February deadlines – provided in Carla’s piece.
10 years for Allan & Gill Gray Foundation
December marked 10 years since Allan, Gill and the Gray family transferred their controlling interests in Allan Gray and Orbis to Allan & Gill Gray Foundation. Essentially, Allan & Gill Gray Foundation owns the majority share of the Allan Gray Group in SA, Allan Gray Australia and Orbis. Allan & Gill Gray Foundation has two purposes: 1) to promote the long-term success of the asset management businesses for their respective clients, and 2) to devote the economic benefits that it receives from asset management businesses to charitable causes.
According to Allan: “… philanthropy is a natural extension of what Orbis and Allan Gray already do each and every day. Just as these firms strive to promote their clients’ financial security and peace of mind, so too will Allan & Gill Gray Foundation strive to make a positive difference to the common good.”
We are privileged as a business to be part of a bigger ecosystem designed to not only generate wealth for clients over the long term, but also ensure the business can act as a force for good.
Thank you for your continued trust in us, and all the best for 2026.