Rational Perspective

Alec Hogg says being at PSG Group's 20th anniversary last night was a great privilege. In those two decades, the now R60bn group started from scratch in November 1995 by then recently fired stockbroker Jannie Mouton, has delivered compounded growth of 54% a year to shareholders. An investment of R100 000 back then would be worth R550m today. No other company in the world, even Apple, TenCent and Naspers, matches that growth rate. So impressive, that two of the big names in global value investing, former Morningstar research head Pat Dorsey and author William Thorndike made the trek to Stellenbosch to see how the one-time shop assistant from Carnarvon did it. Mouton's pride shone through in the 45 minutes he gave me immediately ahead of the formalities to tell his and PSG's story. What followed was a night of celebration and some rare showing off by a group that has never strayed from its hard working, humble roots. And, one hopes, never will. Because the next act only gets harder. More than R10bn of PSG's cur