On busy days at Chartered House, you may find me picking up on news headlines between meetings. Our round glass table in reception displays the daily newspapers, and I regularly scan them for positive news – sometimes, in vain.
The headline catching my eye in the last few months has been of particular concern: the tabling of the National Health Insurance Bill, which aims for universal access to primary healthcare for all South Africans. My immediate question is “How?” I have had many discussions with friends and clients who are doctors and their predominant feeling is that there is not a chance that they can depend on getting paid by the government every month. Furthermore, how can six million taxpayers fund this scheme for a population of 55 million people?
This proposed Bill, together with the Expropriation Bill (land expropriation without compensation), has South Africans in a state of suspended agitation – on those proverbial tenterhooks. Both these Bills still need to go through an extensive parliamentary process before becoming legislation.
On the investment front we saw South Africa’s largest stock and success story Naspers announce the listing of its offshore assets in a new entity on the Amsterdam Euronext market. This new share, Prosus, holds all of Naspers’s foreign-owned assets, which includes its 31% holding in the Chinese internet giant, Tencent. I am explaining this to you because most of our clients (through their unit trust holdings) hold approximately 9% of their equity investments in Naspers, so this is a significant development for all of us.
The rationale behind this move is as follows:
I have noticed in client meetings that many people are concerned about Prescribed Assets, where the government makes it law for retirement funds to invest in certain government-approved investments. For any of us, the thought of buying bonds in SAA or Eskom is most concerning.
There are couple of important points to note:
We congratulate one of our Retiremeant Specialists, Tiffany Venter, on her marriage to Chris over this past weekend. We wish Mr and Mrs Havinga much happiness for their future.
Chartered Wealth Solutions is an authorised financial services provider
(FSP no. 13909)
© Chartered Wealth 2018 | All rights Reserved