Why South Africans are investing offshore
South Africa’s slow economic growth makes a good case study for offshore investments
South African investors are buying into global investing. Day to day, we interact with local investors who have embraced investing in global companies as a key pillar of their long-term investment strategy. At first glance this may seem strange. After all, we are geographically (and, for a long time, politically) isolated from the rest of world. Many believed that we were so inwardly focused we didn’t really look too far beyond our borders. This is changing. Pragmatism over patriotism The reasons behind the recent push to invest offshore is more a case of a pragmatic assessment of the available investment options than unpatriotic sentiment towards SA. For one, most of the JSE-listed companies, especially the blue-chip Top 40, are global companies that just happen to be listed locally. Naspers, BHP Billiton, British American Tobacco, Richemont and Bid Corporation, among others, all derive the bulk of their profits from foreign jurisdictions, and so local investors are realising that ...
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