Rosy outlook for GraySwan Investments

Duncan Theron, CEO of GraySwan.

Award-winning investment advisory and wealth management company GraySwan Investments is gliding after seven years in business and achieving several notable firsts.

Having extended its institutional services to private and corporate investors and family offices in 2013, GraySwan now advises to more than R20 billion in institutional assets and retail assets. With all their clients among the top performers in the industry, it has built up an enviable track record. The company also has an experienced and stable investment team, which together has more than 110 years’ experience in the industry, as well as robust investment processes to which the company’s name alludes.

Duncan Theron, CEO of GraySwan, explains that ‘gray swans’ are risks that can be identified and should be avoided for their unintended consequences on investors’ portfolios. Instead of attempting to predict the unpredictable, the company’s investment advisory and wealth management services aims to empower clients to avoid ‘gray swan’ risks. Their clients’ portfolios are designed to eliminate ‘gray swan’ risks and thereby maximise expected returns at predefined levels of risk.

All these features have sparked interest in the industry and Tradehold Limited, of which Dr Christo Wiese is the controlling shareholder, acquired a shareholding in GraySwan via specialist financial services company Mettle Investments (Pty) Ltd on 1 July 2017. Mettle is known for innovation in the creation of specialised financial solutions. With clients ranging from international corporates to small and medium enterprises and individuals, clients experience a different kind of insight from Mettle. This level of vision and considered intuition can also be found in Mettle’s strategic investments such as GraySwan.

Theron is excited about the company’s new business partner and looks forward to taking the road less travelled with them. “Mettle is a dynamic and entrepreneurial company with great aspirations, and our DNA and culture are a perfect and an easy match.” He believes Mettle is the ideal strategic partner to catapult GraySwan to the next level where the company will compete more aggressively in the institutional investment advisory and wealth management industry.

To help achieve this aim, GraySwan launched its first three fund of funds unit trusts for private client investors on 1 July 2017. Invested in underlying Collective Investment Schemes and diversified across investment managers, asset classes and local and offshore geographies, the funds provide access to GraySwan’s best investment views. The funds are already outperforming their peers, albeit over a short period, and their fees are bottom quartile versus their peers.

“Via smart fund selection, portfolio construction and fee negotiations, we can pass on investment costs to private investors that are marginally higher than institutional rates but materially lower than retail rates,” says Theron. The portfolios are also more tax advantageous for discretionary investments than GraySwan’s tailormade investment advisory solutions, offering a win-win situation for private investors.

A signatory of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, always doing the right things in the right way is at the core of the company’s culture. It is also one of the reasons why industry body BATSETA awarded GraySwan the Responsible Investment Consultant of the Year 2016 at the Imbasa Yegolide Award ceremony in June last year. The award recognises the company’s unique and leading-edge approach of incorporating best practice responsible investing principles in its investment advisory and wealth management solution. As a feather in its cap, GraySwan is on the shortlist for the award, which will be announced at the Imbasa Yegolide Awards evening in February 2018.

Dr Christo Wiese once said, “Every big business starts as a small business. It’s all about walking across the street. It’s about opportunity and opportunism.” According to Theron, direction determines destination. The steps have been taken in the right direction and GraySwan has great aspirations for its future.