After more than a decade of debate, hedge funds are finally available to the SA public. SA’s hedge funds have acquitted themselves well so far. Over the past 10 years, according to the industry magazine HedgeNews Africa, long/short equity funds have given an annual return of 10.9%, compared with 9.7% from domestic equity unit trusts, while fixed income hedge funds have done even better with an 11.1% return compared with 7.6% from the all bond index. Last year, the finance minister at the time (Nhlanhla Nene) declared that from April 1 2015 all hedge funds would be deemed to be collective investment schemes — the legislation which covers regular unit trusts, real estate investment trusts and participation mortgage bond schemes. So far hedge funds with R73bn of assets under management have been registered. Out of the 269 funds, 112 are available to the public as retail investor funds (RIFs). Most are not from the well-known fund houses: a few are from the emerging second tier such as ...
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