Andre Delport, B.IURIS (UP) (With Endorsement)
Chairman (Head Fund Manager)
Andre holds a B.Iuris degree (with endorsement) from the University of Pretoria and is a registered DFA (Discretionary Financial Adviser) with FSCA, with a Category IIA license.
He has been managing investments successfully for many years, via Kanaan Asset Managers, since August 1995 when he received his fund management license. Since 2005, he has been managing the funds together with Gert Delport. In more recent years, Andries van Tonder also joined the fund management team.
They had been known for their successful macro top-down methodology, where they switched their funds under management to the money market just weeks before the 1998 crash, again just before the IT Bubble crash of 2000 and before the Credit crunch crash of 2008. However, they have had to change their macro top-down methodology since the credit crunch crash of 2008, which is explained in more detail under professional advice par 7 on the home page.
As a majority of clients invested in Kanaan Hedge FoF have indicated during 2019 that they would rather invest in the Moriah Global Hedge FoF via the administrator IAL in Mauritius where fund managers are not limited to a handful of offshore funds and shares registered in South Africa, it was decided to transfer the Kanaan Hedge FoF from South Africa to Mauritius during Feb 2020 and diversify into Stable Offshore, Moriah Global and Equities Offshore which is not a hedge fund but a portfolio of fourth revolution shares, environmental shares and unit trusts.
Gert Delport, B.COM (FIN.)
Fund Manager (and CEO)
Gert Delport worked as a Portfolio Administrator for Kanaan Trust Investment Managers from 1999 until 2002. Working with a successful DFA stimulated his interest in fund management, and during 2002, he enrolled for the Bachelor of Commerce Financial Management degree.
He was appointed by Xhilarator Investment Managers as a Junior Analyst during 2004, and completed his B.Com Financial Management Degree in June 2005. He was subsequently promoted to an Investment Analyst and Assistant Financial Manager. During his time with Xhilarator (Pty) Ltd, Gert was instrumental in the development of various products, including the successful Kanaan Hedge Fund of Funds. His involvement and research into the alternative investment space intrigued him and led him to enrol for CFA. He has completed the first year of studies of CFA.
In 2011, he was appointed by Kanaan Trust, as Assistant DFA (Discretionary Financial Adviser), Investment Analyst, and Financial Manager. He was appointed CEO during 2018.
Andries Van Tonder, B.Sc Engineering (Chem), CFP (application after completion of PGDFP at the UFS, 2017)
Analyst
Andries van Tonder was appointed as Analyst, Programmer, and Compliance Officer at Kanaan Asset Managers. Andries holds a B.Sc Engineering (Chem) Degree and has successfully completed his CFP examinations (Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning) in 2017 at the University of the Free State. Andries also teaches Economics, Maths, and Science at Cedar University of Education and is currently studying towards his Actuarial Science degree. He is keenly interested in economic matters and as such has applied his mathematical mind accordingly in identifying new investment opportunities, analysing existing and new funds, identifying possible risks, etc., and is continuously qualifying himself in the field. He also acts FA (Financial Adviser) for Kanaan Asset managers.
Andries managed an Internet Service Provider (ISP) before he started to work for Kanaan. He also manages Kanaan’s database programming, fund optimization, and compliance needs.
Kanaan Trust has extensive experience dealing with private investors and their IFAs. We know that investors like to make money. However, we also know that they hate losing money even more.
Through careful analysis of the global economy and the investment cycle, we invest in assets that we favour and avoid those that we don’t. In short, we attempt to be in the right asset at the right time, investing in what makes sense rather than what is in an index or what is the latest fad. Over the years, this approach has produced results that compare favourably with those of our peers, not only in terms of total return but also in terms of the level of risk to which our investors have been exposed.
There are two disciplines involved in the Kanaan Trust asset allocation process: “macro top-down” and “bottom-up”. The first is the means by which we determine the most appropriate spread of assets for a portfolio, across different sectors of the JSE (e.g., industrial and financial services, commodities, bonds, cash, etc.) The second is the means by which we determine the best individual investments within a given asset class. While the objective of a top-down strategy is absolute performance (a steady, positive return), the objective of a bottom-up strategy is relative performance (i.e., to beat the market). In other words, while a top-down analysis will determine the most attractive sector of the markets, the bottom-up analysis will identify the most attractive individual investment within those sectors.