Surprisingly low valuations in Africa
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African equities in general have not been a success story in the last ten years, at least not when compared to other regions. The MSCI US and the MSCI Developed World index rose 232% and 159% respectively in the last ten years, while the MSCI South Africa and MSCI EFM Africa ex. South Africa only gained 33% and 23% respectively in USD terms. Did African equities lag because of volatile politics, falling commodity prices, currency problems and/or economic mismanagement? Not really. Of course, such factors have a negative impact on earnings and currencies, but corporate earnings growth has been quite similar in Africa versus the rest of the world. The big gap in equity returns is almost entirely caused by an expansion of valuation differences.