Japan eyes South Africa

The World Cup effect – Japan eyes South Africa

There is no better opportunity to promote potential investment in your country than during the World’s biggest sporting event and despite Japan being a recent entrant as a football enjoying country, the hosting of this year’s World Cup has put South Africa firmly on Japan’s radar.  According to Investec, the specialist Bank and Asset Management company, in the days leading up to the World Cup they met with Japanese financial powerhouse Nomura to offer Japanese investors an equity fund focused on resources companies. It has been reported that the fund has already collected more than $190.  

This is not the first Japanese venture Investec has been involved in.  In 2009, Investec S.A. began managing Nomura’s oil and gold futures commodity trust and it also teamed up with Shinsei Bank to manage a Rand money market fund that has yielded 13.72% returns since the beginning of 2009.   Not surprisingly, Investec is now in talks with Japanese asset managers about possibilities for other equity and fixed income funds.

Carry Traders, of course, have been selling and buying South African Rand for several years, enjoying the benefits of relative interest rate of 10% to Japan’s 0.1% and it is expected that, after having hosted a successful World Cup, South Africa will attract the interest of a wider range of potential investors.

Indeed, the Japanese telecoms giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) has confirmed it is to buy the South African IT firm Dimension Data in a £2.12bn ($3.24bn) deal, giving NTT exposure to a fast-growing Africa.