{"id":16116,"date":"2014-09-01T11:55:04","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T11:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/africa-s-biggest-fund-manager-prefers-platinum-to\/"},"modified":"2014-09-01T11:53:30","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T11:53:30","slug":"africa-s-biggest-fund-manager-prefers-platinum-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/africa-s-biggest-fund-manager-prefers-platinum-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa\u2019s Biggest Fund Manager Prefers Platinum to Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

{{Africa\u2019s biggest fund manager favors South African platinum equities over those of gold, betting against the price performance of the metals and the share performance of the companies that mine them.}}<\/p>\n

The Pretoria, South Africa-based Public Investment Corp., which manages the equivalent of $150 billion, is the biggest or second-largest shareholder in South Africa\u2019s four top gold producers and two largest platinum miners, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. <\/p>\n

It prefers platinum because of the metal\u2019s industrial applications, while gold is primarily used in jewelry or for investment purposes, Chief Investment Officer Daniel Matjila said.<\/p>\n

The gold price advanced 7.1% this year compared with a 3.7% gain for platinum. At the same time, an index of gold stocks traded in Johannesburg surged 51%, heading for its first annual increase in three, while a measure of platinum shares declined 12% in what will be its fourth year of losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlatinum is strategic in the long term,\u201d Matjila said in an Aug. 27 interview at Bloomberg\u2019s offices in Johannesburg. \u201cWe like industrial metals, not those about sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Africa is the world\u2019s biggest producer of platinum, accounting for about three quarters of all supply, and Africa\u2019s largest supplier of gold.<\/p>\n

The PIC, which manages money on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund, holds 11.8% of Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMP), the second-largest producer of the metal, and 3.2% of Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS), the biggest. It also owns 7.6% of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG), 7.7% of Gold Fields Ltd., 7.5% of Sibanye Gold Ltd. (SGL) and 6.5 percent of Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HAR)<\/p>\n

{{Deadliest Action}}<\/p>\n

Output tumbled at Anglo American Platinum, Impala and Lonmin Plc after a five-month wage strike this year, prompting them to review growth plans or put mines up for sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to hang in there,\u201d Matjila said. \u201cIt should bounce back at some point. We are a long-term player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police shot dead 34 protesters in August 2012 during a wage strike at Lonmin\u2019s (LON) Marikana mine, the deadliest police action since the end of apartheid in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is to try and resolve all these problems around mining, the Marikana issue, the social issue,\u201d Matjila, 52, said. \u201cWe need to come up with a solution, at least a long term solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Africa plans to promote manufacturing to reinvigorate sluggish economic growth, which measured an annualized 0.6% in the second quarter after contracting 0.6% in the first three months of the year. <\/p>\n

South African companies should explore more ways of using platinum in domestic manufacturing, Matjila said.<\/p>\n

{{Useful Metal}}<\/p>\n

Platinum is used in catalytic converters to reduce pollution from cars and its use in fuel cells, which convert hydrogen into electricity, is being explored.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got such good industrial use,\u201d Matjila said. \u201cWe need to figure out how to enhance that. Maybe through beneficiation and many other things, industries around that. And try to create even better value.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PIC will keep stakes in gold producers, Matjila said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to play in gold,\u201d Matjila said. \u201cIt\u2019s still one of the most important precious metals in our view, but we don\u2019t believe we\u2019ll go in in a big way. The best we can do is just to keep the position we have at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PIC is simultaneously planning to boost its investment in energy, a shortage of which has stifled South Africa\u2019s economic growth.<\/p>\n

The PIC will invest into potential shale gas projects \u201cin a big way,\u201d Matjila said.<\/p>\n

Explorers including Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) seek to tap as much as 390 trillion cubic feet of gas resources beneath the semi-arid Karoo region, an area the size of Montana, the eighth-biggest deposits in the world, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.<\/p>\n

As the government turns to private companies to help state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. fill a 225 billion-rand expansion funding shortfall in the five years through March 2018, the PIC will also be a \u201cbig player\u201d in financing new power plants, Matjila said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{Daniel Matjila, chief investment officer of Public Investment Corp., speaks during an interview in Johannesburg on Aug. 27, 2014}<\/p>\n

bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{Africa\u2019s biggest fund manager favors South African platinum equities over those of gold, betting against the price performance of the metals and the share performance of the companies that mine them.}} The Pretoria, South Africa-based Public Investment Corp., which manages the equivalent of $150 billion, is the biggest or second-largest shareholder in South Africa\u2019s four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000053779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-16116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000053779,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16116.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16116.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16116.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16116.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16116.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16116.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000053779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16116"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=16116"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=16116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}