Matthew Whitelaw, co-manager of the 36ONE BCI SA Equity Fund, receives the Raging Bull Trophy from Dr Leila Fourie, CEO of the JSE and Niël Pretorius, Chief Executive Officer of DRDGOLD Limited
Image: Ian Landsberg/Independent Media
36ONE won the Best SA Equity SA General Fund in both categories: the 3 year straight performance and risk adjusted performance over 5 years for 2025.
36ONE Asset Management is an independent, performance-driven asset manager that has been owner-managed for over 20 years, since its founding in 2004. The firm employs 29 professionals, 16 of whom are part of the investment team led by Cy Jacobs.
Rooted in hedge fund thinking, 36ONE takes a deep, fundamental, bottom-up research approach, with short-selling capability ensuring thorough analysis from every angle. The firm has a style-agnostic approach: no box, no bias – investing where opportunity presents itself. Its focused yet comprehensive range of funds serves a variety of investor objectives.
The 36ONE BCI SA Equity Fund is a domestic equity portfolio with a minimum equity exposure of 95% and the primary objective of generating sustainable capital growth for investors. The fund's benchmark is the FTSE JSE Capped All Share Index TR.
Over the last three years to the end of 2025, the fund delivered an annualised return of 23.05%, almost 3% above its benchmark. Over five years, the fund returned an annualised 22.26%, outperforming its benchmark by a notable 4% per annum, net of fees. These returns have been achieved with lower volatility and shallower drawdowns than the benchmark, reflecting our disciplined approach to risk.
Personal Finance asked portfolio managers Matthew Whitelaw and Cy Jacobs about their management of the fund.
Can you explain your investment approach?
Our investment philosophy is centred on the principle that the market does not price securities correctly at all times. We believe that stock selection through bottom-up fundamental analysis can outperform over time. We follow the same investment approach across all our funds. Although we focus primarily on bottom-up, fundamental research, macroeconomic views play a supporting role in portfolio construction.
To what do you attribute the fund's excellent performance in 2025 and risk-adjusted annualised performance over the five years to the end of 2025?
In 2025, performance was driven by overweight positions in Glencore, Grindrod, and select banks, notably Standard Bank and Absa. While precious metals detracted, as the fund maintained an underweight position in the sector for most of the year, the portfolio still outperformed its benchmark, reflecting the strength of stock selection elsewhere. Over the past five years, the largest contributors to performance have been active trading within the platinum group metals sector, combined with overweight exposure to banks and select diversified miners.
Are there any specific counters that stood out for you?
Grindrod has been a standout, with management executing well by simplifying the group through non-core disposals and sharpening the focus on its ports, terminals, and logistics platform – critical infrastructure that remains a key route for South African miners to get product to export markets.
How are you positioning the fund going into 2026 and how do you see the resources boom playing out?
We continue to reduce resource exposure – particularly to gold – as prices have moved higher, rotating that capital into staples and industrial stocks that have underperformed. We expect the second half of 2026 to be more stable than the first, as the US shifts its focus from geopolitics to domestic issues ahead of the mid-term elections. This could weigh on certain commodities, while potentially supporting others.
- Martin Hesse