Fink sees investment opportunities in gold

By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Short-term investment opportunities lie in gold and commodities on which the world relies heavily, and in green energy in the long term, International Standard Asset Management head Stanley Fink said.

Fink, the former chief executive of hedge fund manager Man Group (EMG.L), said gold was "the ultimate earth currency".

ISAM invests in commodity and financial futures as well as forex and plans to relaunch a gold fund in December. Its ISAM Trend fund, launched in June 2007, has made a return of 17 percent in two years.

"I think gold will take value as the world's ultimate reserve currency," he said in South Africa, a major producer of the precious metal.

Gold hit a record high above $1,095 for the second straight day on Wednesday, but retreated on Thursday as the dollar rose ahead of policy decisions from the UK and the euro zone, which curbed appetite for assets seen as higher risk.

"In the short term there is going to be the effects of how individual companies and countries escape from the financial tsunami in the last 18 months," Fink told Reuters.

"In the medium term, countries who thrive will be the ones who have goods and materials -- be they commodities -- the rest of the world needs and who are able to access those markets because the demand will return in the next three to five years."

Africa is well positioned to provide a solution to climate change because of year-round sunlight in most countries, Fink said.

"In the long term, they will be those countries that will supply power to the rest of the world. Green power comes from sunshine, whether you use solar ... or whether in the form of trees for photosynthesis. Africa, with the sunlight, will have a lot of the keys to helping solve global warming."

Fink retired as chief executive of Man Group, one of the world's largest listed hedge fund managers, in 2008 after growing its assets to $80 billion.

Fink also said South Africa had the potential to benefit from a growing trend of outsourcing financial services.

The country is in the same time zone as Britain and has a large, well-educated and English-speaking but relatively cheap workforce, he said.

International investors were also more comfortable with political risk in South Africa but were still a bit hesitant to venture to the rest of the continent, he said.

"The currency has been liberalised more, the economy functions well. Most of the indicators are positive in South Africa and we have had three changes of leadership post apartheid, and that's remarkable," he said.

(Editing by Sue Thomas)