🔒 Premium: When Cy Jacobs met Markus Jooste – his inside track on spotting fraudsters

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When SA’s quiet investing genius Cy Jacobs agreed to deliver a keynote (and debate Piet Viljoen) at BNC#4, it made my week. He keeps a relatively low profile. While well respected in his industry, Cy’s name is not up in lights outside it. 

Those in the BizNews tribe who haven’t yet come across the co-founder and investment chief at 36ONE (AUM: R33bn) are in for a treat. He’s my favourite kind of person – a straight talker with a rational mind. We’ve just uploaded an appetiser on BizNews TV – the recording of Friday’s in-studio interview. Click here to watch.  

There’s plenty of meat in the discussion. Highlighted by his fascinating insights into former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste, starting 17 minutes in. Cy, a chartered accountant, enjoyed an inside track having once been audit manager at JD Group, one of Jooste’s many acquisitions with fraudulently inflated shares.

He approached Jooste at the group’s results presentation and, in contrast to most of us, quickly saw through SA’s biggest ever con man. I won’t spoil the story. Except that it confirms how sociopaths are everywhere, some occupying corner offices at ‘respectable’ corporations. Lest we ever forget. 

More for you to read today: 

WATCH: Cy Jacobs is among a handful of investment managers who consistently attract South Africa’s smart money. An all rounder, his company 36ONE runs hedge funds and unit trusts, takes long and short positions, invests locally and offshore. With a 15 year compound annual growth rate of 16%, an investment of R1m in 2006 in its flagship SNN Q1 Hedge Fund has grown to R11m today. In this interview ahead of Jacobs’ keynote presentation to BNC#4, the ace money manager shares his investment strategy – and gets into specifics on Naspers and Absa. An investing masterclass from a professional at the top of his game.

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