South African assets look cheap compared to other emerging markets. But this year’s election brings uncertainty, write Robert Davy, emerging market equities fund manager at Schroders and Andrew Rymer, strategist at the UK asset manager.
We discussed our favourable view of South Africa in April of last year. While the market has underperformed wider emerging markets (EM) since then, there have been some positive developments in line with our thesis.
The private sector response has started to gradually ease the electricity crisis, with both the number of days and severity of load shedding falling. Meanwhile, bond yields globally and in South Africa have fallen from peak.