Top economist joins asset management circle

Economist of the Year Christo Luüs has joined the Pretoria-based asset management company Third Circle as chief economic advisor.

Luüs, who also serves on the SA Statistics Council and is a member of the Board of Governors of the SA Institute of Financial Markets, is since July 2007 the owner of Ecoquant, an economic services and consultancy company, and involved in economic scenario modeling, impact studies and other macro-economic and sectoral research, in association with Quantec Research.

Before he went on his own, he served as senior manager and senior economist at Absa Bank and, from 1998 to 2007, as chief economist of the Absa Group.

He was named Sake24’s Economist of the Year in May this year.

49 year-old Luüs is co-author of a number of books, among others Wealth Your Way and International Asset Management – a South African Perspective.

He joins managing director Hugo Snyman, Van der Spuy Brink and Dr Louwrence Erasmus on the Third Circle advisory board.

Luüs’s role includes informing clients at a macro-investment level and looking at the interrelationship between personality profiles and economic choices.

“Economics,” he says, “is very much a social science which embodies the behaviour and decisions of numerous producers, consumers, workers and investors. My involvement with Third Circle adds value because I will be able to advise on the cross influences that investor psychology and economic developments have on each other.”

To which Snyman adds: “True. It’s not enough to just understand the economy, there’s also the human aspect, in other words, the whole psychological impact that needs to be realised. Third Circle combines psychology, mathematics and fundamental analysis in a complete solution that addresses 95% of the requirements of our clients. This gives us, we believe, the edge over other asset management companies because it makes us different.”