Sterling Invest

About Us

Sterling Invest is a Durban based, owner-managed, boutique investment manager. We offer discretionary investment management services tailored to your needs, offering only what we are comfortable investing into ourselves. Because everyone here at Sterling Invest knows doing what’s best for you is also best for us in the long term.

Sterling Invest manages local and offshore share portfolios, the Sterling Invest Alpha Worldwide Prescient Unit Trust Fund, and a comprehensive range of model unit trust portfolios. We also specialise in Ethical and Shariah Compliant investing.

Relationship with Bobats Wealth Solutions

In 2016, Sterling Invest partnered with Bobats Wealth Solutions, a long-standing financial planning business. Bobats creates tailored wealth solutions to grow and protect your wealth and bring order and clarity to your financial life. Sterling Invest continues to operate independently as a discretionary investment manager. Visit www.bobats.co.za for more information.

  • Our People
  • Our Investment Beliefs
  • Vision
  • Purpose
  • Our Values
  • Client Promises

Ebrahim founded Sterling Invest in 2015. He has 12 years of financial services experience, including 3 years as a Trainee Accountant with the Deloitte Durban office, 2 years as an Investment Analyst at Old Mutual Equities in Cape Town and 6 years as Portfolio Manager at Sterling Invest in Durban. Sterling draws on Ebrahim’s diligent and focused approach towards business and investing.

Ebrahim Moola
CA (SA), CFA
Portfolio Manager

Faheem joined Sterling Invest in 2018 and has worked closely with Ebrahim in building the business and investment offering. Prior to joining Sterling Invest, he worked for 6 years in various financial services roles in the fields of accounting, corporate finance, financial management and financial advisory. Faheem’s primary responsibility is to ensure all investment portfolios are managed prudently and in line with the Sterling Invest Alpha Process. 

Faheem Paruk
Bcomm (Honours), CFA
Portfolio Manager

DJ joined Sterling Invest in 2021. He has always been fascinated by investments and financial markets. Prior to joining Sterling Invest, DJ worked for 6 years as a corporate financial analyst at JCDecaux and JLL. DJ’s primary responsibility is equity analysis and he is a member of the investment committee.

David-John (DJ) Elliott
BBusSci (Honours), CFA
Investment Analyst

Chantelle joined Sterling Invest in 2020 with 9 years’ experience in the financial services industry. Her administrative efficiency, coupled with her positive attitude makes her a vital part of the team.

Chantelle Victor
Administrative Manager & Client Liaison

Ebrahim founded Sterling Invest in 2015. He has 12 years of financial services experience, including 3 years as a Trainee Accountant with the Deloitte Durban office, 2 years as an Investment Analyst at Old Mutual Equities in Cape Town and 6 years as Portfolio Manager at Sterling Invest in Durban. Sterling draws on Ebrahim’s diligent and focused approach towards business and investing.

Ebrahim Moola
CA (SA), CFA
Portfolio Manager

Faheem joined Sterling Invest in 2018 and has worked closely with Ebrahim in building the business and investment offering. Prior to joining Sterling Invest, he worked for 6 years in various financial services roles in the fields of accounting, corporate finance, financial management and financial advisory. Faheem’s primary responsibility is to ensure all investment portfolios are managed prudently and in line with the Sterling Invest Alpha Process. 

Faheem Paruk
Bcomm (Honours), CFA
Portfolio Manager

DJ joined Sterling Invest in 2021. He has always been fascinated by investments and financial markets. Prior to joining Sterling Invest, DJ worked for 6 years as a corporate financial analyst at JCDecaux and JLL. DJ’s primary responsibility is equity analysis and he is a member of the investment committee.

David-John (DJ) Elliot
BBusSci (Honours), CFA Level III Candidate
Investment Analyst

Chantelle joined Sterling Invest in 2020 with 9 years’ experience in the financial services industry. Her administrative efficiency, coupled with her positive attitude makes her a vital part of the team.

Chantelle Victor
Client Liaison & Administrator

  • Sterling_Web Icons-01 Have a long-term and patient mindset
  • Sterling_Web Icons-07 Stick to investments within our circle of competence
  • Sterling_Web Icons-06 Rigorously research the fundamentals and valuation of every investment
  • Sterling_Web Icons-05 Relentlessly focus on honing our process and approach to drive investment returns
  • Sterling_Web Icons-04 Strive to minimize costs
  • Sterling_Web Icons-03 Remain flexible and unconstrained
  • Sterling_Web Icons-02 Follow a portfolio approach that carefully balances the contrasting objectives of concentrating investments to build wealth and diversifying to preserve it
  • Sterling_Web Icons-10 To become a trusted investment manager that delivers top long-term returns
  • Sterling_Web Icons-16 To prudently grow your hard-earned wealth alongside ours
  • Sterling_Web Icons-08 Earning the trust of our investors is the foundation of everything we do
  • Sterling_Web Icons-09 Have an unwavering commitment to long-term thinking
  • Sterling_Web Icons-10 Build enduring relationships with our carefully selected stakeholders
  • Sterling_Web Icons-11 Always act with humility
  • Sterling_Web Icons-13 Work diligently and smartly to achieve successful outcomes for our investors
  • Sterling_Web Icons-13 We invest our life-savings alongside you into the investments we offer
  • Sterling_Web Icons-01 We aim to deliver top long-term returns
  • Sterling_Web Icons-16 Earnestly stick to our values, beliefs and investment processes
  • Sterling_Web Icons-18 We provide world class service

Why we invest in shares and the stock market

We believe the stock market is an investment in human ingenuity. It is a bet on the continued progress of humankind and the future being better than it is today. It allows anyone to invest alongside the most intelligent minds in the world (and their related businesses) as they innovate and grow. We believe investing in the stock market is the most passive and efficient way to own slices of these businesses and profit from their long term success.

Some people compare the stock market to a casino. We fervently disagree with this. In a casino, the odds are stacked against you. The longer you play in a casino, the greater the odds are that you’ll walk away a loser, based purely on probabilities. It’s just the opposite in the stock market. History has shown the longer your time horizon in the stock market, the better your odds are of achieving top investment returns.

The stock market is fuelled by differences in opinions, goals, time horizons and personalities of market participants over the short term but economic and business fundamentals over the long term.  At times, this means share prices overshoot to the upside and go higher than fundamentals would dictate. Other times, share prices overshoot to the downside and go lower than fundamentals would dictate. The biggest reason for this is because people collectively lose their minds sometimes when they come together as a group (herd mentality). As long as markets are made up of human decisions, it will always be like this. 

If there is an ironclad rule in the investing world, it’s that risk and reward will always and forever be attached at the hip. If there were no risk, there would be no wonderful long term returns. And because there is risk involved in owning shares, your returns can vary widely,  depending on when you invest. The good news, the longer your time horizon, the less volatile investment returns become. This is the beauty of compounding. Even the worst 30 year return achieved by global stock markets over the last 100 years would have resulted in an 850% return (more than 8x your initial investment), far outstripping returns generated by most other investments.