Alec Hogg: Piet Viljoen regains his mojo

It's a decade since we said farewell to the late Dr Ivan May, a man I got to know through our shared passion for Joburg's Radio Today community station. An intellectual giant (MSc, PhD and MBA – all from Wits) Ivan was a fighter with a splendid turn of phrase. He never shirked from confrontation – one of his favourite sayings being "revenge is a dish best served cold.".Read also: Alec Hogg: Tesla may be ringing market's bell.I'm not sure whether Piet Viljoen ascribes to that philosophy, but given our long history it's a delight to see how this veteran asset manager picked himself up after public humiliation five years ago. Among his detractors back then was straight-talking Magnus Heystek who said Viljoen's under-performing RECM did not deserve any of his clients' money. Nedgroup agreed and in November 2015 terminated Piet's 12 year custodianship of its then mighty Managed unit trust..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Viljoen took it all on board, said lessons had been learnt and re-assumed personal control of all RECM's investment decisions. Five years later, Heystek has done a 180. He sent me the graph above showing Viljoen's co-managed Counterpoint Value Fund beating all peers. And the equally impressive one below comparing it with Growth funds – outperforming all but one of them..Read also: Alec Hogg: A way to stay sane in SA – stop cretins rent space in your head.Maybe it's Viljoen's partnership with like-minded Sam Houlie and Ray Shapiro that's done the trick. Either way, the portfolio reflects some very smart calls – 11% is invested in African Bank inflation-linked bonds (yielding 8.5% real return) and Steinhoff prefs (yielding 18%); with a quarter of the assets spread between ABSA, Nedbank, Discovery and precious metals stocks Sibanye and Harmony. Viljoen is back where he belongs. On top..TO LISTEN….Latest audio on BizNews Radio.…..(click on the link to access).Magnus Heystek: Piet Viljoen has got his mojo back How to generate double digit returns in SA via renewable energyFlash Briefing: Rand a star performer, Ramos new Anglogold chair.4Sight's CEO Tertius Zitzke: Covid-19 was our best salesman FLASHBACK: Why Jooste roams free 3 years after SHF collapse .TO WATCH….On the BizNews TV channel on Youtube….FLASHBACK: Tongaat CEO Gavin Hudson on the turnaroundFlash Briefing: SA GDP in slow recovery; Sygnia boomsFinance Friday webinar: Your money after Covid-19Rational Radio webinar: Naspers CFO Basil Sgourdos

Alec Hogg: Piet Viljoen regains his mojo

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