Global And Local Investment Advisors — Investments, Potential Investing in Whisky

Once again, it is what's involved. Chilly, chilly, chilly weather. Fortunately, we're going to be talking about some hot topics this evening. I am joined today by the gang from Global and Local Investments. Joining me is Mauro Forlin, the MD of Global and Local Asset Management, as well as Lindy Vannenbach, who is the Senior Technical Analyst. Welcome, guys. Good evening, David. Good evening, David. So good to have you. Mauro, I haven't spoken to you on radio for a while, so it's kind of good to have you back. I've got a feeling of nostalgia. It's one of those things where I feel we should do this more often. And nice to have Lindy here as well, because I've never spoken to Lindy on here as far as I can remember. But why are you here? What are we talking about? Well, the big thing, the highlight of this evening's chat is going to be where we're going to be giving away a whiskey barrel. Now, this is a competition that's been running on MixFM for a while. It's all part of, can we call it your celebrations? Because just recently, you've moved premises, you've moved into a new premises. And I was fortunate enough to be invited to the launch and the opening a couple of weeks ago. And it's absolutely spectacular. Mauro, tell me a little bit about the move. Why the move? Okay, so effectively, let me answer your first question. Yes, we can definitely link this course to our celebration. So the move came about because we were working from two very nice houses in Emma Rancher. And we'd been there for something like 17 years. The problem was that they were across the road from each other. So we had

sort of advisory team on one side of the road, the asset management and the accounting team on the other side of the road. And every time somebody had to do something, we had to cross Barry Herzog, this very busy road. And it just sort of felt the feeling like we were almost developing two cultures. So we decided, you know, let's look around. And we actually looked at,

we were talking about it, Michael and I one day in the office. And very sort of casually, I went off for the weekend and on the Monday that I was away. During this weekend, Michael sends me a whole lot of photos. I found my office and yeah, we are now. There we go. And it's actually been very good. You know, we started to work as a cohesive team now. And it's just so much better. Now, obviously, there's been quite a bit of growth as well in terms of global and local. And that's good to see, because the team when I walked in there, I was amazed at the size of the team. And that's also when I got to meet Lindy for the first time as well, being the senior technical analyst. Lindy, what do you feel about the new place? And Maro mentioned it's becoming more cohesive. Is that the case for you guys? Because everybody's close enough to communicate directly now. Absolutely. It's just it just facilitates collaboration so much more if your colleagues are sitting just across the room from you. The old buildings, beautiful as they were in Emerntia. They were every team was in a separate room. And the one that the left hand didn't know what the right hand was up to. Lately, we are all on the same page. It's just fantastic. And I've been working with global and local since 2008, before I joined them. So for me as an outsider, that office party was just such a such a positive experience to see how much it had grown.

Remembering those early days when they only had the one building, the handful of administrators, everybody just trying to keep the ship afloat. And the massive successful and lovely building to work for that it is today. Well, not building company to work for today. It was just it made such a big impression to realize that growth because you kind of don't notice it when you're in the middle of it. Yeah, absolutely. Murra, back to you now, just for those of people who may not be aware, and I don't know, maybe they've left the planet for a while. What exactly does global and local do? What are you guys all about? We are principally an investment advisory business. So that just basically means that we look at clients, they might be an individual, they might be a trust, they might be a company. And we look at their requirements and we then propose to them what they should be investing in. And once they accept our proposal, we take over from there and we invest the capital on their behalf. And we look after it, we report on it. At times, we may make changes to the portfolio. And we basically try and look after people's money. That's the bottom line. We look after people's money, we grow people's money.

That's, you know, if we had to sort of break it down to bare facts, that's what we do. Now, the wonderful thing about this, and I can now say this from firsthand knowledge, because when I was there at the launch, I actually interviewed some of your clients, because why not? Let's find out what actually is going on there. And of all of those interviews, and there were quite a few, every single one of them was more than happy with what you guys have done, your returns, et cetera, et cetera. Lindy, this is a question, and I'm going to do a senior technical analyst question to you now. People have been happy with the growth. How have you guys managed to do it? Because, you know, in these times, things are not easy like that. And specifically last year, I think before last year, I was actually chatting to Michael and tomorrow, and they were going, whoa, this thing is now going to happen and hit us, and we need to make some changes. How did you guys do during that period?

Well, Derek, David, with the rest of the market, we did see a drop in March. Luckily, we weren't too aggressively positioned beforehand, and that's not because we had a crystal ball that told us that COVID is going to do what it did to the world in March. It was more a factor of just keeping an eye on the markets over the last three, four years before 2020 hit us. The markets had been very hot. The equity markets were very overpriced, and we were already a little bit concerned about a correction coming. We feel like COVID accelerated that. Obviously, afterwards, everything bounced back quite dramatically. Our clients have exceeded where they were before the pandemic hit us, and that's not just our clients. That was a worldwide thing. If you managed to stick to your guns, if you managed to stick to your original investment plan, you would have recovered those March 2020 losses again. But I think that's probably the more important part about our jobs. When you tell somebody that you're an investment advisor, they kind of picture television, and you are buying, and you are selling, and you are making these dramatic changes to your investments all the time, and it's a very active thing, our job is to come up with a plan together with our clients, sit with them, find out what their goals are, and then find a long-term solution for them.

And if you do that well at the beginning, at the onset, then you don't need to make dramatic changes. When there's a pandemic that hits, and the whole world is in turmoil, you can make small tactical changes. But our job is, I would rather compare it to a coach that needs to keep his athlete fit. You don't need to teach that athlete to run. You don't need to teach them a new skill every single day. You have to refine what's already there. And our job is to find the correct plan for our clients, and then make small refinements just to make sure that we stay in touch with what's happening in the world. Fantastic stuff. My special guests on what's involved this evening, Mauro Falin and Lindy Fenenbach. We'll be back in just a bit. Of course, the big thing about tonight is we are, and I'm very, very, very proud to be able to do this, we're going to be giving away because we've been running that competition. So if you've entered, if you're one of the finalists, stay listening because in just a bit live, we are going to give somebody that whisky cask valued around about 50,000. I don't know what the exchange rates happen, but round about there, which let me tell you, there's a chunk of change. We'll be back in just a bit. This is what's involved. And we're back with what's involved, my guests, Mauro Falin and Lindy Fenenbach.

Okay. So just before the break, we're figuring out a little bit about what you guys do and how you do. Mauro, if somebody's listening now and they're going, "Oh, okay. You know, this COVID thing, everything's in a mess. I don't know what to do." Where do we start? I mean, do you guys know at that place where you're such a large organisation, you go, "Listen, Mr. David Watts, DJ, I don't want your little amount of money every month." Or who do you cater for these days? Anybody. So we've been known to never turn anybody away and to find a solution for anybody in any size pocket. We've got clients who can only invest, I don't know, 500 rand a month. And we've got clients who've got many, many, many, many millions. It doesn't matter. In essence, you're building a port failure and the difference is what's going to afford, and the zero is behind that. That's all. You know, whichever... Sorry, Mauro. Sorry to interrupt. I don't know if it's a mic problem there, but I just noticed you were fading out a little bit. Might be the mic problem. You know what I mean? I talk with my hands, I may have turned my mouth away from it. That's why I was important, David. Face the microphone, Mauro. Face the microphone. Okay. So essentially, just to backtrack, you were saying that anywhere from like 500 bucks a month up to many millions, it's about building your portfolio. When is it too late to start?

It's never too late to start. The difference is what we'll be able to achieve, but it's never too late to start. You've got to start somewhere. And if you're, I don't know, if all you've got is a pension fund and you're sitting at 65 and you've got to retire on it, we can work with it. It all depends. Everybody's different. So everybody's got different needs and everybody starts at different ages. You know, there's no such thing as being too late. I actually thought that there was, and I mean, I know you guys have said there wasn't before, until I met one of your clients and she said she only started, I think she said she only started with you guys when she was 57. And she was in the real estate business. She was selling houses. And her story was just absolutely fantastic to hear. And just the way you guys assisted them. And that's what came through during this whole process. And I wonder, Lindy, if you can maybe jump in here, is I've very much picked up the sense of family. Although you guys have grown, you're still a very close knit family and your clients are literally part of the family. Is that PR and marketing or is that the way it is? That's absolutely been the evolution. I mean, in some cases, we are now starting to talk to the third generation. In most cases, we deal with grandparents and parents, and in some cases, the grandkids are starting to come through the ranks now. So absolutely, that is definitely also our main form of new business.

We market on mix FM and we do market a little bit on money web and things like that. But our main source of new business is referrals from existing clients. So that's just absolutely what we are so proud about. Because if you can do a good job for your existing clients, that makes you sleep at night. Now, you mentioned something and Maro is the MD for Global and Local Asset Management. Now, when I think asset management, I think, what's the program on TV? Billions. I think it was Billions where these guys manage these. Is that a TV thing or is that what you do? Because apparently it counts how much money you have under management. I don't understand how it works. Maro, help me. Okay, so the TV show you're referring to is actually one of my favourites and it's very much dramatised. It's not that dramatic in real life. But effectively, we manage, well, Global and Local manages somewhere around six and a half billion rand on behalf of, I don't know, two and a half thousand, three thousand active clients. And asset management has grown out of Global and Local investment advisors. And what we do is we manage four unit trusts on behalf of our investors and those unit trusts are invested in financial markets, in listed shares, listed bonds, many market instruments, properties, both onshore and offshore. So it's the very much more, let's call it, technical side of the company. But yeah, it's we managing proper unit trusts with some American partners, in fact. So, you know,

sorry, Maro, does that translate then into being a good thing for me, who's a smaller investor because Malamani goes into a big pot and a big pot can do more things. So if you look at the way unit trust works, unit trusts were designed to allow the smaller investors accessibility into listed markets. So it's exactly what you're saying. So as a small investor, your money goes into a pool, your interest in the pool is recorded, and we can invest large amounts of money on behalf of many, many people in markets that are usually only open for, well, not open, but are easily accessible when you've got large amounts of money. So because of the amounts of money that we're talking about, we can, you know, reduce fees, we've got economies of scale in the market. So if you had to go into the market and say, I want to buy one NASPAS share, you know, it would be quite difficult to do. But as a unit trust, we can go in and say, we have 10 million rand, we want NASPAS shares and they'll give us the best price on the day. Ah, okay. So yes, it does answer my question, even though I've made it very, very much David and radio friendly. Fantastic. Now, Lindy, let's get back to you, because I'm trying to understand about these whiskey costs as an investment. Why would somebody go, okay, yeah, that sounds like an idea. Take my, take my 50 or 60 or whatever it is thousand and buy me a whiskey cost. What is that about? Well, David, the first thing that pops into my head is, is Michael, our founder of the company telling me that it's a very liquid investment. But jokes aside, it is really a great investment for somebody that's just looking for something a little bit different. Every investor has got a core component of their portfolio. They need to save for retirement. They need to set some money aside for emergencies. If they've got, if it's a larger investor, they've got some discretionary investments where they are literally just trying to achieve growth. And then a certain type of client comes to us and they go, well, what else can you offer me? I don't like art. I'm not, I'm not into art. I'm not going to buy a Rolex and put it on my wrist because I don't feel safe doing that. What, what, what other assets can I invest in?

And whiskey cost is really a nice way to access those more interesting investments. We are never going to tell somebody you need to make this the core of your investment. We are not going to invest 50% of somebody's wealth in whiskey costs. It is a satellite component. It's a nice conversation to have and, and all the, the interesting stuff aside, it has historically been a very good investment. Our costs are obviously most of your whiskey distillers are in, in Scotland. And the costs are denominated in pounds and our investors have achieved growth of between 10 and 15% every year during their investment. So, so if you, if you imagine that the interest rates in the UK are well, almost negative. Maybe if you're an institutional investor, you can earn 1% in the bank. Stock markets are very volatile. Then, then this is really a nice way to secure an investment that's at least going to give you double digit returns. So now the mechanics of it is, is I would, I would come to you and give you that amount of money and say, I want a whiskey cost, please. What am I getting return and how long is this whiskey cost mine and how do I get my money back? So when, when the whiskey goes into the cost, when the liquid goes into the cost, it is not yet called whiskey. It has to be in that cost for a period of three years before it can officially be classified as whiskey. So I think that's quite important for, for investors to remember, you are going to have to hold onto your cost for at least three years because otherwise you've really got a watery mix in there and you're just hoping for the best.

After three years, it is classified as whiskey. And at that point, you are able to sell it on auction. You are able to bottle it. We do have some corporate investors who, who bottle the, the whiskey and they put their own personal brand on it and they give it away as corporate gifts. There's several ways in which you can exit out of the investment, but the key thing is of course the storage of your whiskey because somebody sitting in South Africa is always going to be wondering, well, does my whiskey cost exist? And, and the main security that you have there is that the HMRC, which is Her Majesty's revenue and custom services in, in the UK, they audit the whiskey warehouse, the distilleries warehouse every quarter. So when you purchase your whiskey cost, you will get a certificate. You will have a particular cost number that whiskey certificate will be verified by the HMRC. And every quarter they will go and visit the warehouse and they'll make sure that your cost is still inside that whiskey warehouse. The whiskey also gets re-gauged. Sorry, David. Yeah. Every, the, the, the distillery will go into that warehouse sort of once or twice a year and they'll re-gauge the whiskey. They'll, they'll taste it. They'll make sure it's the right alcohol content or the volume is correct.

And it's when you buy the whiskey cost from us, it's the storage and the insurance is paid upfront for five years. So it's included in the price. Okay. And then that, cause that was going to be my question, which I was battling to get out was, you know, they also then make sure it's full because I wouldn't like after my three or five years to, they say, sorry, it was a leak buddy, but you do have a very attractive cost. So I'm going to get the cost with the whiskey. And then the ideal I would assume is that you would sell it in Scotland somewhere and bring the cash back. Yeah. Typically costs are sold at auction and they are bought by blenders. So you get blenders in, in the whiskey world that don't, don't have a single malt whiskey, but blend whiskies together and makes a very, very nice whiskey. And that, that's why they're always looking for costs of whiskey that they, that they'll use to blend with, with other whiskies. Talking about leaks in whiskey, we just need to be aware in, in the cost that the cost, hold 200 litres. But when it's ready after three years, you're looking at about 180 litres. Because what happens is about 20 litres go evaporates or gets absorbed into the, into the wood of the barrel itself. And in the industry, they call that the angel's shade. Well, the angels need a shade too.

Listen, when we come back, can we, can we give away this cost of whiskey? Sure. Looking forward to right. It is what's involved. My special guests, Mauro Follen, who is the MD of global and local asset management, as well as Lindy Fannenberg, senior technical analyst. We'll be back and we're going to give away to one lucky person, that incredible prize, which has been sponsored by global and local back in a bit. And we're back with what's involved and my special guests, Mauro and Lindy. I have been looking forward to this day for a while now, because to me, I am fascinated about the concept, just about being somebody that can own a barrel of whiskey and make money on it every year, which is brilliant. And then, you know, the money you make on that, which when you bring it back, yeah, you can, you can afford a bottle of whiskey yourself and I'm pretty sure. Mauro, how are we going to do this? Are we going to let somebody know right now? Yes. Can I talk a little bit about this competition? Please, let's do that. So we had about 187 entries and each day we selected a winner. So there were five daily winners and these were all entered into the final draw. And the grand prize winner is a lady called Maggie Lindsay. And now we're busy getting her on the line.

Okay. I can hear that. I can hear the phone going, did you say Maggie or Maggie? Maggie. Maggie Lindsay is our winner. We're not going to be nasty though, and say that if she doesn't answer, it goes to David. I'm sure we'll, we'll see.

My name is Mauro Fallin. I'm the managing director of global and local asset management. Can you talk for a few minutes? Yes. Brilliant. I've got David Watts from Watts involved on the line and we'd like to congratulate you that you've won a whiskey cost from us. You are kidding me.

You won it. Oh my God. Oh, I can't believe it. Hang on. We won the whiskey.

Thanks global. Thanks. There we go. Maggie. I'm not sure if Maggie can hear me, but from everybody at global and local, from all of us at mix FM. Well done and congratulations. Oh, thanks guys. Oh wow.

Maggie, what's going to happen now is Jamie Lee our marketing manager will give you a call and we'll have to get all sorts of information from you. And once we've done all that and we've sent the documents off, we'll then be able to get you a certificate of ownership. And then the cost is yours and we'll keep in touch with you through the next three years and we'll take you through the process. Okay. Thanks so much. Pleasure. Thank you very much. We'll be in touch in a little while. Okay, cool. Thank you. Thanks Maggie. Bye. Thanks guys. Well, I can tell you something. That is one happy, happy listener. A cost of whiskey valued around about 50,000 rand. That's going to grow over the next couple of years as well. So that's absolutely fantastic. Maro, to yourselves, to Michael, thank you so much for doing this. It's been an incredible competition. I think a lot of people had fingers and toes crossed, but Maggie, you certainly sounded like a deserving winner. I think so too. David, thanks to you guys and everybody at Mix FM. We love being part of the Mix FM family and we hope to be involved with you guys for a lot longer. Wonderful stuff. Yeah, we also, it's all about family for us at Mix as well. You know, we always used to say we don't have, we don't have listeners, we have family. So that's brilliant. And again, congratulations to Maggie. Before I let you guys go though, because now I'm fascinated.

There's whiskey costs that you can now invest in. What other, dare we say, quirky investment opportunities? Are they, Lindy, are you a good person to answer this question or are you, are you too being a senior technical analyst? Are you too analytical? David, well, nothing else is ever going to be as interesting as having a discussion about whiskey costs that I can promise you. But aside from the normal, as I mentioned earlier, the normal core components of your investment, your retirement savings, global and local, as the name implies, are really passionate about offshore investments. We really think that it needs to be quite a big component of your, of your investment. And there's so many international options. We like property, we like fixed property investments, and we're not estate agents. So we're also still talking about investment style property investments. We're not going to help you buy a whole building, but we are going to help you invest in a professional property investment. We really love structured notes. Structured notes, your listeners may have heard our adverts on NxFM over the last month or two, structured notes are a really nice way to access equity markets, stock market markets, without taking on all that risk of being invested in the, in the direct stock market. So structured notes are really interesting for us. We feel like they serve a nice place in every investment portfolio. As everybody else, we've got our eyes on cryptocurrencies. It's a difficult one for us because we are passionate.

I think almost everybody that works for global and local is somehow investing in cryptos themselves, but it's not a market that's regulated just quite yet. It's not a market where there's a formal investment route that we can comfortably recommend to clients at this stage, but we have got our eye on it and we are really actively looking for a way that we can give clients some safe access to cryptocurrencies. And so, so watch this space. We, we're doing a lot of homework on that. And, and we, I mean, we get, we get approached by foreign investment managers quite often with private equity types of investments. There's, there's always a project running at global and local. And so, so if you are looking for something that's interesting, it's definitely worth it to give us a ring. Fantastic. And I'm so glad you talked about, about crypto, because I started a little while ago with a hundred dollars with what I had. And I thought, I can't really get it out of this little wallet thing that I have. So I'm just going to hang around and I'm going to see in my very limited capacity what I can do with it. And I managed to get it up to, recently my highest balance I got it up to was $3,267. And then the bottom fell out. Then the bottom fell out.

But it's, it's now, it's now back to $1,800. But it is something that's, that's very, very risky. I mean, for me, that was a hundred dollars. It's neither here nor there. People are investing much larger amounts in it, but I think it's, it's the volatility of it that people are scared about. But yeah, maybe one day I can say to you, listen, my $1,800 in crypto, here we go. You'd make it into something more than that. Maybe we can do that. Is that a possibility at some stage? Would you say if people come to you with crypto? We desperately hope so. We would really love to do that. And I mean, in the meantime, when our clients contact us, we, we pretty much tell them to do what you've done. If you do want to do it directly in the meantime, take a small amount that will not affect your lifestyle or your budgets. If that amount disappears completely, and I know it's horrible to say something like that out loud, especially out of a financial advisor's mouth, it's, it's, it's sacrilege. But if you, if you do want to play with cryptos in the meantime, start with a small amount and be patient. You did exactly the right thing when that bottom fell out. You may have felt the urge to, to just save whatever you can, but you stuck it out. You stayed in there and your hundred dollars is now 1,800. So, so that is exactly the correct approach to have with crypto. What we would like to be able to offer clients is something where it's diversified.

We, crypto is not only about Bitcoin. There's, there's hundreds of cryptocurrencies. But we also want to offer you something that's regulated. We, we, there are unfortunately quite a few scams around. So we are definitely putting in some work to try and find something that's safe and well regulated, but still interesting and exciting and still gives you access to that market. Yeah. There's a part of me that wants to tell you which, which cryptocurrencies I have. And the other part says no, because just as somebody goes out and buys it on your say so and the bottom falls out. So I'm not going to tell you what I've got, but, but I've got, I've got about four or five different forms of crypto. That's all I'm going to say. What I'd like to add in there is for, for investors out there, Zeta, until we have the solution, if you want to take part in cryptocurrencies, do your own research, speak to people that, you know, look around, Google it to death. Make sure that whoever you, you take a lot, a wallet with, it's, it's a reputable crowd. And there's nothing worse than, than, than you getting a wallet that is not serviced or it's a bit dodgy. Excuse the pun. And suddenly you lose, you lose everything. So there we go, guys, this has been a fantastic chat, man. Thank you so much. And sure. We've got one very, very happy winner in, in Maggie there.

I think as we go along, we should maybe do some follow-ups and see how that barrel of whiskey is doing in terms of the growth and the return on investment. I get the feeling you just want to taste it, David. There is that. That, why do you think, the first thing when you guys mentioned it to me, the first thing is a whole barrel of whiskey. Can I drink it? And the short answer was no.

So that was a bit of a letter, but nevermind. Guys, if, Mara, if somebody wants to get hold of, global and local, what is the best way to, to get hold of you guys and to start having that conversation about, okay, this is where I am. What do I do from here on in? You can get hold of us on our telephone number. It's 011 486 2500. Or you can email us at info@globallocal.co.za. That's global local, two L's in the middle. And that's the best way. Just get hold of us. We're available. We're happy to talk to you. We've got a Facebook page as well. And it's global and local investment advice. Fantastic stuff. Well, I'd just like to say to you, Mara, and to Lindy as well, to the entire team at global and local. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us. And we wish you all the very best. I'm sure we're going to talk again soon though. I'm sure we will. Thanks, David. Thanks for having us. It's an absolute pleasure. So there we go. That was the gang from global and local. We gave away that fantastic whiskey cask. One very, very happy winner there. We will be back with more what's involved in just a bit. Until then, look after yourselves. Take care. Thank you for listening.