Question 01
How different is different?
Everyone says they're different. Fund fact sheets show otherwise.
Every manager claims they’re different. Then you open the holdings and find the same ten stocks as everyone else, in roughly the same order. Open your Orbis statement and you’ll likely see big positions in stocks you’ve never heard of, and no exposure to the ones everyone is talking about. This has been a pattern throughout our history.
We say we are different – and then we show you the difference. In 1998, we put 40% of Orbis Global into Japan when it was the market nobody would touch. In the dotcom bubble we owned almost no tech. And when the Magnificent Seven became the positions no investor could be seen without, we saw little value and owned almost none of them. Same markets as everyone else. Different conclusions.
Same information. Different conclusions.
When investors fall in love with an area of the market, we rarely share their enthusiasm.
Nobody in the industry admits they are following the crowd. Every brochure tells a good story, until you turn the page and the portfolio looks just like an index fund. There's a reason for that, and it isn't dishonesty. Humans are wired to seek the comfort of the tribe, and fund managers are no different. Investors say one thing and do another because sticking your neck out is genuinely uncomfortable.
So don’t take our word for it. Look at what we’ve done. As our founder Allan Gray liked to say, “Deeds, not words.” He backed it up by leaving a successful career at Fidelity to move back home to South Africa and start his own firm in 1973, taking on the local banks and insurance companies. That firm—Allan Gray—is now Africa’s largest asset management firm.
Then he did it again on a global stage. Orbis was founded in 1989, amid an epic bubble in the Japanese stockmarket. Japan was more than 40% of global equity market capitalisation back then. Its weight in our Global Strategy? Zero. Nearly a decade later, after the bubble burst and Japanese stocks were left for dead, we loaded up, holding more than 40% of the Orbis Global Equity Strategy in Japanese equities in 1998. We even launched a dedicated Japan Equity Strategy that same year.
A history of questioning consensus A look back at some of our investment decisions
30 Jun 2026 | Source: LSEG Worldscope, Orbis. All data is current as at 30 June 2026. The benchmark referenced is the FTSE World Index. The exposures noted above represent the biggest difference in the Orbis Global Strategy’s holding of various sectors/countries and that of the benchmark during the given year. “Value shares” are those Orbis has selected as representative of value shares based on valuations and internal research. The Orbis Global Strategy is an asset weighted composite of all Orbis Global Equity Funds that follow the same investment objective, include the Orbis Global Equity Fund in Australia (from 2005). The Strategy has been used to demonstrate Orbis’ contrarian investment philosophy. The Strategy is not available for investing. Investors interested in the Strategy must invest in the Orbis Global Equity Fund in Australia after reading the Fund’s most recent PDS and TDM, available from www.orbis.com.
The tech bubble in the late 1990s is another example. Telecom, media and technology stocks had swollen to 40% of global market cap and ignoring the so-called “New Economy” was considered foolish. Orbis Global owned almost no tech. Our largest holdings made mobile homes and golf clubs. Clients thought we'd lost it and we lost many of them. But those who stayed experienced one of our greatest periods of outperformance as the bubble burst in the years that followed.
Most recently, a handful of US mega-caps came to dominate sentiment and capital flows. The US grew to nearly 70% of global equity indices, with ten stocks making up roughly 40% of the S&P 500 on their own. We owned almost none of them, finding more value outside the US and in mid-sized US companies.
Global Equity Fund: a truly different portfolio
30 Jun 2026 | Source: eVestment, MSCI, Orbis. All data is as at 30 Jun 2026. % represents the % of our peers that hold the stock. eVestment and its affiliated entities (eVestment) collect information directly from investment management firms and other sources believed to be reliable. eVestment does not guarantee or warrant the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of the information provided and is not responsible for any errors or omissions. Not for general distribution
Those are just a few examples. But they are united by a common thread. When investors fall in love with a particular area of the market, we rarely share their enthusiasm. And when they are afraid to touch it, we may find more opportunities than we know what to do with. That doesn’t mean we are always right. But it means we have something truly different to offer.
Nobody in the industry admits they are following the crowd. Every brochure tells a good story, until you turn the page and the portfolio looks just like an index fund. There's a reason for that, and it isn't dishonesty. Humans are wired to seek the comfort of the tribe, and fund managers are no different. Investors say one thing and do another because sticking your neck out is genuinely uncomfortable.
So don’t take our word for it. Look at what we’ve done. As our founder Allan Gray liked to say, “Deeds, not words.” He backed it up by leaving a successful career at Fidelity to move back home to South Africa and start his own firm in 1973, taking on the local banks and insurance companies. That firm—Allan Gray—is now Africa’s largest asset management firm.
Same information. Different conclusions.
Then he did it again on a global stage. Orbis was founded in 1989, amid an epic bubble in the Japanese stockmarket. Japan was more than 40% of global equity market capitalisation back then. Its weight in our Global Strategy? Zero. Nearly a decade later, after the bubble burst and Japanese stocks were left for dead, we loaded up, holding more than 40% of the Orbis Global Equity Strategy in Japanese equities in 1998. We even launched a dedicated Japan Equity Strategy that same year.
A history of questioning consensus A look back at some of our investment decisions
30 Jun 2026 | Source: LSEG Worldscope, Orbis. All data is current as at 30 June 2026. The benchmark referenced is the FTSE World Index. The exposures noted above represent the biggest difference in the Orbis Global Strategy’s holding of various sectors/countries and that of the benchmark during the given year. “Value shares” are those Orbis has selected as representative of value shares based on valuations and internal research. The Orbis Global Strategy is an asset weighted composite of all Orbis Global Equity Funds that follow the same investment objective, include the Orbis Global Equity Fund in Australia (from 2005). The Strategy has been used to demonstrate Orbis’ contrarian investment philosophy. The Strategy is not available for investing. Investors interested in the Strategy must invest in the Orbis Global Equity Fund in Australia after reading the Fund’s most recent PDS and TDM, available from www.orbis.com.
The tech bubble in the late 1990s is another example. Telecom, media and technology stocks had swollen to 40% of global market cap and ignoring the so-called “New Economy” was considered foolish. Orbis Global owned almost no tech. Our largest holdings made mobile homes and golf clubs. Clients thought we'd lost it and we lost many of them. But those who stayed experienced one of our greatest periods of outperformance as the bubble burst in the years that followed.
Most recently, a handful of US mega-caps came to dominate sentiment and capital flows. The US grew to nearly 70% of global equity indices, with ten stocks making up roughly 40% of the S&P 500 on their own. We owned almost none of them, finding more value outside the US and in mid-sized US companies.
Global Equity Fund: a truly different portfolio
30 Jun 2026 | Source: eVestment, MSCI, Orbis. All data is as at 31 December 2025. % represents the % of our peers that hold the stock. eVestment and its affiliated entities (eVestment) collect information directly from investment management firms and other sources believed to be reliable. eVestment does not guarantee or warrant the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of the information provided and is not responsible for any errors or omissions. Not for general distribution
Those are just a few examples. But they are united by a common thread. When investors fall in love with a particular area of the market, we rarely share their enthusiasm. And when they are afraid to touch it, we may find more opportunities than we know what to do with. That doesn’t mean we are always right. But it means we have something truly different to offer.
Keep exploring our questions
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