From Dr Pravin Thakur, a council member of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry:
Many thanks for your insights into Davos 2014 and then unpacking some of the key points of our latest budget. It was quite enjoyable notwithstanding the serious and heavy stuff being reflected upon.
I particularly found the broad trends that you touched on much food for thought.
Please, if time would permit, could you further comment on some of the following for me:
1. As an investment option you found great favour with tracker and ETF’s funds. Out of curiosity, I would like to know why you did not mention Unit Trusts and Endowments?
2. Being a regular reader of Independent Newspaper’s Business Report, with one of my favourite writers being Anny Crotty, I have read that she will be no longer be with the group. In the last two weeks, I read two articles by her, one of which criticised the massive pomp, splendour and unbridled opulence of the opening of Parliament and the other last week, reporting on some controversial point relating to the new Group CEO. Is her resignation linked to these articles in any way?
Finally, many thanks also for recommending Biznews.com which I have visited and will be doing so again.
Alec Hogg replies:
On the first point, my view is shaped by the reality that costs are the greatest enemy of performance. As ETFs are low cost they tick that box. There is great debate on the subject but I go with Warren Buffett who says because of costs, 70% of fund managers under-perform the market. There are always the exceptional managers, and we try to highlight them on Biznews. But over time, ETFs and index trackers should come in the top 30% of the performance table. Those are great odds.
On the second, I sent your question to the lady herself. Ann Crotty said her departure was not directly related to those two articles. She added: “I resigned at the end of January because of some worrying developments at Independent, in particular the increasing focus on the chairman and his interests. As I said in an interview with GroundUp, while I recognise that the ‘owner’ of a newspaper group does have some rights in terms of editorial content, these rights have to be balanced against the rights of readers and journalists. I felt that The Independent no longer has that balance. In February I was serving out my notice, during that month I continued to write what i regarded as newsworthy stories. (That’s the short answer, the much longer answer is in the Groundup piece!!).
