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Top fund manager modest on brilliant run
RETIRING ATTITUDE:Simon Marais SIMON Marais, Allan Gray's chief investment officer, is modest about achieving a phenomenal return of almost 80% in 1999. "Yes, we had a good year," he says casually.
Marais puts it down to having a high equity content in the portfolio, at 59%, and to the quality of the stocks in his portfolio.
"We had a high exposure to commodities at the start of 1999 which we sold off during the year - getting us into a slightly underweight position at yearend. We also had a big weighting in retail stocks when they were doing well.
"But mostly we avoided the year's market mistakes, such as overexposure to IT stocks and to certain financial stocks which plummeted from sky-high levels never to recover."
Marais admits that a one-year return of close to 80% is "unusual". Indeed, in the company's 25-year history, only one other return, of 42% in 1993, comes close.
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