10 things that you need to know about Vestact

1. There used to be six full time employees at Vestact. They are Mavis Bande (reception and tea), Howard Mashego (documentation and driving), Michael Treherne, Byron Lotter, Sasha Naryshkine and Paul Theron (all portfolio managers). The latest addition to the portfolio management team (he started late last year) is Bright Khumalo. He is a recent UCT BComm graduate, and a real student of the markets.


2. Paul and Sasha founded Vestact in early 2003, in a tiny office with no windows. We had no clients. Now we have over 800 clients and assets under management of just over R2.7 billion. Of that amount, over R1.2 billion is in US Dollar portfolios in New York.


3. Our daily market report has been published over 3,300 times over the past decade. It gets emailed to over 3,000 people every working day of the week.



4. Our offices are in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg. It's an airy, open plan space, with a big garden just outside. We sit here quietly all day, answering your emails and reading on our Apple MacBook Pros.



5. Our clients are all in direct equity portfolios, which are focused on the technology, healthcare and consumer sectors. Our business plan is to continue doing the same thing, forever. We are like a restaurant with only two menu items. Works for us. 6. Our advice fees are 1 percent per annum, with no performance based charges. That makes us one of the cheapest asset management solutions for private clients in South Africa.


7. This year Paul will turn 50, Sasha will turn 40 and Byron will turn 30. The other portfolio managers are younger! We are all runners, and health freaks.


8. We do lots of media work. All of us are on CNBC Africa regularly. Paul's HotStocks TV show is the most popular programme on that channel (airs at 8pm and 8am on DStv 410). You will also catch us on Radio 702, PowerFM and Cape Talk.


9. In 2015, our Johannesburg model portfolio rose by 6.0%. Naspers and Woolworths did well, but Aspen and MTN held us back. Our benchmark, the Alsi40 rose by 4.2%. Over the last thirteen years, our compound returns have been 21.8% compared to the Alsi40's 16.2%.


10. In 2015, our New York portfolios absolutely crushed it - up 19.7% compared to the S&P500 which went down by 0.8%. This was thanks to exposure in our core portfolio to Amazon, Google, Facebook, Nike, Starbucks, Visa and General Electric. Over the last eleven years, our compound returns have been 9.5% compared to the S&P500's 4.9%.


Let us know if we can manage more money for you?

All the best for 2016!


Paul Theron

Vestact