According to Egypt’s second-richest man Naguib Sawiris, gold should form a major chunk of your investments when concerns over escalating costs of business and living expenses are as widespread as they are currently. Speaking to CNBC, the billionaire chairman and CEO of Orascom Investment Holding noted “The world is worried about inflation. This is a cycle we had seen before. You need to have part of a portfolio invested in gold. I say 20% to 30%. I used to be at 50%. It is something that is fundamental”.
In a political, social and economic climate battered by regulations aimed at stemming the tide of Coronavirus infections (and with wave after wave predicted), as well as major upheavals in government and sporadic civil unrest, gold provides comfort against uncertainty. An already stressed investor community would do well to cut themselves some slack and take the sting out of market volatility by investing heavily in gold. “Let’s say inflation comes in, and there is a crash in the stock market. You’ll be very happy that you have a position in gold.”
On the potential for a stock market crash, he commented: “[It] has been at the highest range for a very long time now. At some point, [the crash] should happen. There is a lot of uncertainty. I want to go to sleep at night and not be affected by the stock market or the pandemic.”
While Mr Sawiris did caution that rising interest rates can diminish the gains gold enjoys from inflation, in South Africa the rates are still at an all-time low, and even if they should rise in future, long-term investors will always look to own gold as a safe haven asset in tumultuous times.
So certain of gold’s value in these times, the billionaire set up a $1.4 billion gold mining fund last month (July 2021), the primary investment objective of which is to provide capital for new opportunities in the sector and hold his gold mining investments. “Transitioning to a fund structure and welcoming new investors is timely when we are seeing opportunities in a gold mining sector…”
