Diversifying your investments, protecting yourself against currency depreciation and improving the growth prospects of your money are just some of the reasons why offshore investment makes good sense to South Africans.
GuardBank Management Corporation chairman Roy McAlpine said at the launch of the GuardBank Global Fund in Cape Town last week that it was purely a coincidence that the fund was launched on the same day that South Africans were, for the first time in 40 years, allowed to transfer money overseas for direct investment.
McAlpine said the GuardBank Global Fund was a domestic unit trust and that there was no connection between the two forms of investment.
"You subscribe in rands and your units are redeemed in rands. But the underlying investment of the fund is made up of a portfolio which is comprised of non-South African assets."
Another difference, he said, was that there was no limit on the amount that can be invested. in the GuardBank Global Fund.
As a specialist fund, its objective is to provide an internationally diversified medium to achieve steady growth of capital over the longer term.
Securities included in the portfolio will consist of sound shares and bonds listed on recognised world bond and stock markets.
The fund will be managed by UBS International Investment London Limited, a subsidiary of Union Bank of Switzerland.
At the launch, UBS representatives said their investment strategy was to buy assets when they were cheaply rated and to sell when they were expensive.