Discovery teams up with world leaders in investment management
Medium- to long-term investors in South Africa stand a lot to gain from quality exposure to international markets. And for those seeking to diversify their portfolios abroad, Discovery Invest is bringing in the big guns. Their enhanced global investment offering has solutions in association with BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management – some of the biggest names in the investment world. Here’s how it’s shaking things up.
If there’s one South African company that understands the value of collaboration, it’s Discovery. From strategic partnerships with global insurers like John Hancock and Ping An to help expand its life and health businesses, to Vitality’s bringing of big names like Apple and Disney on board – Discovery has always sought to add value to clients through market-leading, credible and aspirational alliances.
Now it’s creating waves in the investment space by using solutions from world-leading investment managers BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Discovery brings solutions from titans in the investment world
At the recent launch of an enhanced global investment solution, Head of Research and Development at Discovery Invest, Craig Sher, announced: “We’re very excited to introduce the Discovery Global Portfolios – a range of risk-profiled, multi-asset global portfolios in association with one of the biggest asset managers in the world, BlackRock.”
BlackRock employs around 13 000 investment professionals whose clients include some of the largest institutions around the globe. It has offices in over 30 countries, and assets under management of almost $7 trillion. “Combining BlackRock’s portfolio management expertise with our pioneering shared-value investment platform offers investors a really powerful value proposition,” Sher says.
Diverse and discerning teams could make for high-quality choices
The Discovery team has also introduced a set of share portfolios in association with premier wealth manager, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who manages almost $2 trillion in assets worldwide. The Discovery Global Growth Share Portfolio focuses on 25 to 40 stocks that seek to achieve high total returns. Their strategy is to find companies that trade at a significant discount to the intrinsic value. This strict emphasis on quality and valuation could make the portfolio more resilient in down markets, notes Sher.
Goldman Sachs is well regarded in the industry for its vast global reach and focused local expertise. Its diverse investment team is well positioned to combine resources and insights from across different geographies and asset classes – an especially relevant skill, considering that the key reason clients look offshore to invest is diversification.
Diversification – ‘the only free lunch in finance’
“As much as 64% of household expenditure is impacted by currency movements,” says Sher. “This shows the tangible effect that the global economy has on local investors’ everyday finances. Our portfolios need an adequate amount of currency diversification, geographical diversification and access to a wide range of opportunity to balance risk and grow personal wealth.”
“The broad insight and decades of experience brought to the table by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs is significant. We’re proud to be a part of giving retail investors in South Africa access to this kind of expertise, and we definitely see it as a strategic advantage to our business.”
The setting of a new industry standard?
“Discovery also offers a wide range of both active and passive investment options for investors who want to structure their portfolios themselves,” Sher continues. “This gives clients access to many more options in which to capture opportunities worldwide and achieve strong risk-adjusted returns within a given appetite. Plus, we’ve made choosing funds much simpler with our risk-profiled solutions and new user-friendly platform.”
With more efficiency and flexibility built into the structure of their global endowment product, its innovative currency enhancer benefit and its competitive value proposition, Discovery is setting the bar for global investing solutions high – a move that may well establish a new standard within the industry.
This article first appeared on Business Insider.
Discovery Life International, the Guernsey branch of Discovery Life Limited (South Africa), licensed by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission under the Insurance Business (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2002, to carry on long-term insurance business. Discovery Life Limited is a registered long term insurer and authorised financial services provider. Registration number 1966/003901/06. Discovery Life Investment Services Pty (Ltd): Registration number 2007/005969/07, is an authorised financial services provider. The views and opinions expressed in this article are for information purposes only and should not be seen as advice as defined in the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act. Discovery shall not be liable for any actions taken by any person based on the correctness of this information. For full details on the products, benefits and any conditions, please refer to the relevant fact file. For tailored financial advice, please contact your financial adviser.