Orbis was founded in 1989 to provide clients with performance-oriented global investment management based on the principles of fundamental, long-term and contrarian thinking. While these principles remain unchanged since inception, they have continually reinvested in their people, processes and technology to build scalable and sustainable investment and operational capabilities. They have also continued to manage the same core strategies (global equity and hedged global equity) since the firm’s inception.

Their approach to investment management and the firm’s Core Values can be traced directly to the vision of their founder Allan W B Gray. A graduate of Harvard Business School, Allan began his investment career in 1965 at Fidelity Management and Research in Boston. After eight years at Fidelity, he returned to his native South Africa to start his own firm, which later became Allan Gray Proprietary Limited. With more than $30 billion under management, that firm is now the largest privately owned and independent asset manager in Southern Africa. Orbis was subsequently formed to develop a global investment capability by applying the same investment and organisational philosophies.

Since the firm's inception, their purpose has been straightforward: to empower their clients by enhancing their savings and wealth. They believe the best way they can do this is by applying their fundamental, long-term and contrarian investment philosophy. To support this mission, they have structured their firm in a way that requires us to deliver meaningful value-for-money to their clients.