Business
Allan W.B. Gray founded his first investment firm in 1973 with the objective of providing clients with superior long-term investment returns, client service and value for money. What began as a sole proprietorship in South Africa has since become three distinct businesses, located across the globe, and managing some $100 billion in aggregate. Each continues to share Allan’s founding values, investment philosophy and commitment to clients, with business models dependent on the delivery of meaningful outperformance for clients.
Being privately owned in perpetuity means that the businesses can take a truly long-term view and act in clients’ best interests.
Headquartered in Cape Town, Allan Gray is one of Africa’s largest privately owned investment management companies. The firm has remained true to the client-centric values and the valuation-oriented investment philosophy on which Allan founded the business 50 years ago. Allan Gray clients include individuals and their advisers, retirement funds, insurers, trusts, companies and foundations. The firm offers a focused range of unit trusts, retirement products, life insurance investment pools and segregated portfolios and a retail investment platform through which it offers administration services and third-party unit trusts.
In 1989 Orbis Investments was established to take the Allan Gray investment approach global. Today Orbis has offices across four continents and partners with clients across the world. The firm has delivered long-term value for its clients using the same fundamental, long-term and contrarian investment philosophy developed at its sister company in South Africa. Like Allan Gray, Orbis is uniquely structured to encourage bold but considered decisions, even – and especially - in times of stress.
Allan Gray Australia was founded in 2005 and like the original Allan Gray in South Africa and Orbis, the Australian business is true to the group’s founding investment philosophy and client focus. The investment team scrutinises opportunities that aren’t necessarily ‘obvious’ and searches for value in places that others may overlook or undervalue, serving a wide range of Australian individual clients, families and institutions.