How risky is Everest?

WEALTH OFFERING: MONEYWEB LOOKS AT LAUDIAN'S PORTFOLIO

- Ryk van Niekerk

Laudian Investment Holdings (LIH) manages the private equity portfolio that underpins prominent alternative investment group Everest Wealth's investment products and generates the cash to pay investors.

Everest Wealth, known for its aggressive television and outdoor marketing of its alternative investment portfolios, promotes its offerings as stable, high-yield investments with relatively conservative risk ratings, given that they are fully invested in a private equity portfolio.

Several members of the Moneyweb community approached us to look into the portfolio's risk profile.

Moneyweb first engaged with Everest Wealth's Jarryd Gillmer and Thys van Zyl regarding the limited information the company makes publicly available regarding the private equity portfolio in which their clients' funds would be invested.

The lack of transparency prevents clients from gaining insights into these companies' operations and ability to generate the cash to pay stable returns.

Both Gillmer and Thys van Zyl emphasized the company provides more detailed information to advisors if requested.

Thys van Zyl included Laudian CEO Chris van Zyl (his brother) in the conversation, who disclosed much more detailed information.

Profitable and generating cash

Chris van Zyl repeatedly emphasized Laudian is profitable and consistently generates sufficient cash flow to meet investor obligations.

From publicly available information, Moneyweb calculated that Laudian's portfolio needs to generate an annual cash return of around R25 million a month or 12.8% on the R2.4 billion capital invested to pay the dividends due to investors every month.