Ion Capital has established itself as a global leader in unique, event-driven investment opportunities across economic cycles and industry sectors. We are a trusted, yet explicitly exclusive investment partner, generating superior value and returns.
We provide our clients with access to rare Special Situations and investment opportunities within a complex global political economy, offering unique, and private, bespoke transactions.
Our team uses tacit attention to detail when monitoring market behaviour, given their unique experience in a wide range of debt and equity investment techniques.
Our innovative approach to sourcing unique investment opportunities is centred around wealth preservation, downside protection and full transparency. We have focused our mandate around these principles, towards maximising investor satisfaction and trust.
We have assisted investors with the identification and execution of trades & investments characterised by a unique set of opportunities, that have resulted in Special Situations worldwide. Our specialised approach provides investors with the market insights they need, across a range of complex global scenarios, to ensure the preservation & growth of their wealth.
Investors have constant access to every activity of the fund and can feel at ease knowing that their money is in safe hands. Our financials, weekly meetings, and Fund manager whereabouts are available to our investors 24/7. Ion Capital prides itself on its specialised offering, as a high-performance private company and fund that is characterising the future of asset management.
The first of its kind in South Africa, the Strelka Quant Special Situations Funds remains at the global forefront of quantitative bond investing through innovative back tested strategies utilising our in-house Strelka 1.0 Model. Access to this private investment fund is reserved for exclusive, high stake investors willing to take the same unique approach to wealth preservation and generation in the current global economic climate.
Ion Capital Partners is defined by an exceptional team of special situation experts that are willing to travel through disputed territories and war-torn regions to secure access to the rarest and most unique investment opportunities for their capital partners. Our team’s latest trip included a visit to the Republic of South Ossetia - we leave no stone unturned.
Understanding special situations, and the opportunity they provide, will be a critical undertaking for anyone seeking to protect their wealth in 2023. At Ion Capital Partners, we identify unique assets, in strange places, which no one else has tapped into yet. You can read more about this and special situations in Michael’s article for the Company & Markets section of the Business Day newspaper here.
As 2022 slowly comes to a close, our Quantitative Investment Analyst, Simryn Andhee, looks into how we could improve South Africa’s financial outlook by addressing the barrier that GBV creates to women's participation in our economy. Did you know that violence against women costs our economy an estimated R36 billion per year? Find out how murder affects the markets in Simryn’s latest thought leadership piece for News24. This includes a harrowing look into the latest national crime statistic report, which recently revealed a 52% increase in the murder rate of women, against a 46% increase in the murder rate of children between Q1 2021 and Q1 2022.
In October 2022, the National Assembly adopted an anti-money laundering Bill that was rushed through Parliament as government raced to avoid being greylisted by the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Just over a year ago, the FATF released its Mutual Evaluation Report on South Africa’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures. South Africa scored poorly with low compliance levels in the 40 areas of technical compliance, indicating several deficiencies which would require us to make some serious changes to meet FATF recommendations by April 2023, or risk being added to the FATF grey list. From Steinhoff to State Capture, South Africa will have to ensure that it uproots deeply entrenched levels of corruption if we are to protect our fiscal policy in the long term. We discussed these and other critical insights with News24 here.
The Strelka Quant Bond Fund, which was launched by Ion last month, has positioned South Africa as an emerging market economy with the most attractive (comparative) risk profile for bond market investments worldwide. It seeks to invest in a number of high yield emerging market bonds through the use of innovative quantitative investment strategies that are back-tested against the latest, up-to-date empirical bond data to capitalise on index inefficiencies. This helps hedge investments against bond price movements, interest rate sensitivity and overall market volatility. Local and international investors should be encouraged to commit their savings to emerging market bond funds as a versatile asset class that has been proven to be far less volatile than any other equity class in the current economic climate, to ensure the preservation and generation of their wealth.
In this op-ed for the Mail & Guardian, Ion’s CEO shares his insights on South Africa’s thriving primary and secondary government debt market, despite our sluggish long term growth forecast, infrastructure challenges and growing public debt. He argues that local and international investors should consider using the South African bond market for the stable generation and preservation of their wealth. South Africa’s local bond market has reached yields as high as 12% in the last two years, outperforming those of other emerging economies (including those of China, Indonesia, Brazil, India and Mexico), becoming a global pace setter with a total return of 8.7% in 2021. Read more in Michael’s latest thought leadership piece here.
In this thought leadership piece for the Business Day, Ion Capital Partners’ CEO, Michael de la Hunt, provides several thought provoking ideas around how individual states and businesses might navigate international conflict, especially during times of such great economic uncertainty worldwide. He highlights several case studies regarding the impact that the Russia-Ukraine war has had on different sectors in our country, against South Africa’s position on the matter in terms of its membership to BRICS. He deliberates on how businesses might hope to navigate international conflict, when it results in a decreasing capacity to generate foreign revenue and sustain local jobs and livelihoods back home.
As a company committed to increasing women’s access to opportunities in our sector, Ion Capital Partners will continue to provide qualified and accomplished women with access to leadership positions in our company, with the aim of being active contributors towards a more inclusive and diverse industry. It is with this in mind that we are proud to share the notable achievements and trail-blazing innovations that have been made possible by our leading Quantitative Investment Analyst, Simryn Andhee.
In this exclusive interview, Ion’s Quantitative Investment Analysis Lead, Simryn Andhee, shares a bit about herself, her background and the advice she would give young women seeking to build a career in Actuarial Sciences, Finance and Investing. She encourages inspired women to work hard and put in the hours to build a successful career in what is a predominantly male-dominated industry.