Most people’s experience of artificial intelligence has been the chatbot: ask a question, get an answer. That use is still growing. What is changing—and what matters for Contrarius’ Funds—is the next layer of demand.
Most people’s experience of artificial intelligence has been the chatbot: ask a question, get an answer. That use is still growing. What is changing—and what matters for Contrarius’ Funds—is the next layer of demand.
Savvy investors are always on the lookout for the proverbial canary in the coalmine, particularly when markets keep hitting all-time highs with seemingly unstoppable momentum.
When Beijing throttled exports of rare-earth magnets in April 2025, carmakers from Detroit to Wolfsburg panicked. Production lines halted. Procurement experts scrambled for stock. What looked like a trade tiff was, in fact, the visible edge of a very deliberate strategy, one that has been unfolding quietly for nearly a decade.
If you’ve noticed a change in the way markets have been functioning in recent years, you’re not wrong. The exponential growth of U.S. money supply, fuelled by decades of deregulation, cheap debt, and increasingly aggressive central bank stimulus has arguably changed the very nature of investing.
Non-bank lending has increasingly become an integral part of Australia’s financial system, serving a much-needed segment of the market. For investors, non-bank lending provides access to loans secured against assets which may generate income – for example, in the case of the asset being property, from the borrower’s mortgage repayments.
Ready to be shocked? The bottom half of American households, some 65 million families, now own just 2.5% of total U.S. wealth. And at the other end of the spectrum, the top 1% controls wealth that outstrips the bottom 50% by more than $US40 trillion.
The Australian private credit market has grown rapidly in recent years. Once considered a niche investment strategy, it has become mainstream, attracting capital from a range of sources seeking yield in a low-rate world.
A unique characteristic of high-quality, defensive listed infrastructure companies is their sustained investment profile through the economic cycle. With this in mind, we look to secular trends for opportunities to enhance real growth. One such trend is investment in renewable energy, which is sustaining robust growth despite political headwinds and appears positioned for strong ongoing gains.
It’s well known that most Australian portfolios are overweight equities to the detriment of their debt exposure. It’s easy to understand why. Local and global equities have performed strongly over the long term, and particularly since the pandemic selloff. It’s also easier for most investors to understand equities than debt.
Have you ever invested in a fund with the expectation that you’ll be able to sell your stake at a fair price, only to discover liquidity was non-existent when you eventually tried to sell? Welcome to the liquidity illusion, the time-worn tendency for investors to run for the exits at exactly the same moment only to discover the exit is closed.
Contrarian investing is the discipline of seeking value where others refuse to look. Most investors endorse it in theory, yet few have the nerve to put it into practice. After all, human instinct favours the comfort of the herd. But history shows that contrarian investors often earn superior risk-adjusted returns. Warren Buffett’s maxim about being greedy when others are fearful may be over-quoted, but its truth endures.
The Australian mortgage fund sector has grown to become an important bridge between investor capital and property lending. While the sector remains comparatively young, its recent trajectory invites a compelling question: what if the sector were to follow the path carved out by the more mature US market? The answer may provide valuable insight into the opportunities and risks that lie ahead…