Investment Community #19

Greg Hopkins, co-CIO of PSG Asset Management, was my special guest on the Investment Community podcast.

In this episode:

* The PSG team shops in uncrowded areas of the markets, those that are generally associated with fear and uncertainty. Difficult market conditions present the best investment opportunities and often represent a change in market leadership.

* Their team-based decision-making process means that culture is even more important than it otherwise might be. Greg describes the team’s culture as low-ego, high-trust, active and open-minded.

* The team is able to “hold the line” in the face of disconfirming data from the markets and negative feedback from stakeholders. This ability was tested and ultimately strengthened during a period of underperformance in 2019/2020. 

Greg Hopkins is co-CIO of PSG Asset Management and a fund manager on the firm’s global funds. He started his investment career in 1997 at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in London (now BlackRock). He did short stints as an emerging market analyst and in the fixed income team, but for the majority of his 9 years at Merrill he was in the global value team, focusing on European equities. After a brief time as a hedge fund manager at Cambrian Capital, Greg returned to South Africa and a position at Sanlam Investment Management, where he spent 3 years working on their Best Ideas Fund. In 2010, he joined PSG Asset Management, and in 2012 became the firm’s CIO.

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