By Bruce Whitfield
Emerging markets specialist Mark Mobius has about $1-billion invested in South Africa, and he’s looking to increase his exposure.
He is the president of the Templeton Emerging Markets Fund, and about 15% of the fund’s total assets are invested in a wide range of South African companies. He is looking to increase that to 20% of the fund.
“When you are a global investor, you have to make comparisons between countries and sometimes prices go down in one place and suddenly they become interesting and cheap, so you put your guns in that direction. So it’s very difficult to predict where we are going to be at any particular point in time. But generally speaking from the way we see things now, we would like to increase our exposure in South Africa.”
China’s rapidly growing economy, he says, poses the biggest threat to international investment in South Africa.