2014 is now upon us and already furious debate rages over the “fragile five” and the effects of reduced global liquidity on the emerging markets. In this latest quarterly newsletter, we also evaluate the “New New Normal” and interest rate normalisation effects on the developing world, particularly South Africa. We have our regular International and Domestic (South Africa) Asset Allocation updates; Prof. Evan Gilbert reviews Active Beta, using passive investment products, and we also introduce two new team members in the Cape Town office.
“And Finally…”, in her last guest article for us, Nina Campbell looks into the vast and complicated subject of marriages & mergers and how this relates to business, interestingly highlighting the fact that there are many websites now offering advice on how to apply business models to marriage and long term relationships.
This in itself is a major topic of interest to MitonOptimal, as over the past 12 months we have welcomed into the Group the Guernsey Portfolio Management team, formerly Argyll Investment Services Limited, and the former Bond Street Financial Services Limited team, as our South African Portfolio Management team. On top of this Rob Macdonald joined us in our Cape Town office, as our Chief Operating Officer, so we have indeed added many new personalities through mergers and recruitment.
As Nina points out, no amount of pre-nuptual ‘thrashing out’ or forward planning can ever take into account the many twists and turns in our lives and you need a common culture and shared objectives to make it work, something which MitonOptimal now has in ‘spades’.
Quarterly Newsletter, Q4 - 2013
