The rand might have been one of the world’s strongest currencies last year, but that has not slowed the rush by South African capital for the exit door.
Nothing captures the waning confidence in South Africa than the following graph which shows direct investment by SA companies abroad. Last year it hit roughly R70 billion on a rolling four month cumulative basis up to September 2016. Back in 2012 it was zero.
Old Mutual Multi-Managers chief investment strategist Dave Mohr says the outflow of capital reflects ongoing nervousness over the domestic economy. A year ago, power outages, the “three finance ministers in a week” fiasco, and the threat of a credit downgrade to junk were among the issues that pushed the rand past R17 to the US dollar at one point.
Since then the rand has come back strongly, but corporate SA continues to vote with its feet, moving money abroad as fast as possible. Corporate owners are planning for the long term, spreading their assets outside of the country. The real motivation for this is the expectation of persistently low domestic growth – expected to be a shade over 1% in 2017. Money moves where the growth is, and that is outside of SA. The UK has been a particularly popular destination for companies such as Truworths, Brait, Woolworths and Steinhoff, all of which made UK acquisitions in recent years.
The exodus of capital from SA continues a trend that commenced two decades ago. Fifteen of the biggest companies on the JSE now earn more than half their revenue offshore. These include MTN, Bidvest, Steinhoff, Naspers, British American Tobacco, Glencore and BHP Billiton. It is clear that the strength of the rand last year did little to halt the exodus of capital.
“The strength of the rand last year reflected the improvement in commodity prices and the outperformance of emerging markets,” says Mohr. “Plus the rand was extremely bombed out after the collapse of 2016 and prior years. On a PPP (purchasing power parity) calculation the rand was historically weak as well – so lots of bad news was priced in to the currency.
“The threat of a downgrade will linger, but we can avoid it if we tighten the budget as expected and our growth surprises on the upside. With growth expectations extremely low it will not be difficult to surprise on the upside. Recent good rains and an expected fall in inflation could be the triggers for such an upside surprise.”
Mohr expects the rand to hold its ground this year, after strong gains in 2016.
The fact that the rand recovered some of its losses last year is small comfort for importers who have seen a near halving in currency value against the US dollar since 2011.
The second graph shows the JSE All Share index in rand and US dollar terms. In dollar terms, the JSE is unchanged since 2009, and has been declining steadily since 2014. The JSE All Share index is up 12% in rand terms over the 12 months to date, but is up 40% in US dollars, thanks in large part to a 20% improvement in the rand-US dollar exchange rate over the period. This made it one of the strongest performing bourses in the world last year in US dollar terms.
André Beukes is an EU Management Consultant to international companies doing business in Europe. He provides clients with practical business support that makes a real difference doing business in the EU. “Put simply, I am here to help you meet your challenges. I believe in the importance of doing things correctly, meaning risks are reduced and problems are avoided.”
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