Ghost (????????????????????????) busters – edition 2
Welcome to the next instalment in the jargon-busting series of articles on The Finance Ghost. Let’s jump straight in with one term from each world of investments and financial management: Hedge fund Probably the sexiest term in finance but also one of the least understood, “hedge fund” is synonymous with high-flying investment professionals earning huge money and having movies made …
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Ghost (????????????????????????) busters – edition 1
Financial jargon can be so frustrating. It’s one thing talking about the basics of investment analysis etc. but as things get more complicated, you just have to know some of the jargon. Here’s some jargon to get you started: Big balance sheet A balance sheet is simply a statement of all assets and liabilities of a company. You have a …
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“No” is a full sentence
Many make the mistake of thinking that strategy is an esoteric concept, found only in presentations and the agenda of “yet another meeting”. We can hardly blame them for feeling this way. The thought of a “strategy offsite” conjures up images of questionable coffee and impractical hotel venues with diet-ruining lunches. The day only gets worse, offering the prospect of …
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Coronavirus deal fatigue
There’s a term in investment banking called “deal fatigue” – from experience, it happens around 6 months into a deal process. That’s usually halfway. Despite numerous late nights and ruined weekends, the parties to the transaction just can’t seem to agree. The whole deal might fall over, taking your bonus with it. You spend every waking hour tweaking the financial …
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Joffe proves there’s Long4Life after Bidvest
Within the South African business community, there are giants who seem to get it right time and time again. In contrast, there are others whose fall from grace has been quite spectacular, like Markus Jooste over alleged accounting fraud in Steinhoff and Christo Wiese over a number of poor investments. Let’s focus on one of the giants with a much …
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Barloworld gets its MAC on
Corporate mergers and acquisitions are fascinating beasts. In case you’re wondering, MAC doesn’t stand for mergers and acquisitions, but more on that later. The headlines always describe the deal as though nothing can go wrong. “Tongaat Hulett sells Starch division to Barloworld for R5.35 billion,” screamed the business media back in March. The better media houses (like Creamer Media) typically …
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Dial Business 911 – unpacking business rescue
Business rescue is a term that has become synonymous with the economic lockdown of 2020. Barely a day goes by without another headline proclaiming a well-known company to have entered business rescue. The most high-profile examples of companies in business rescue include Edcon, SAA and more recently Comair. The first two were broken long before COVID-19 arrived. People make the …
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Cry, the beloved Cape Town economy
I have lived in the two most economically important cities in South Africa: Johannesburg and Cape Town. The coffee is different. The weekend activities are different. The night life is incredibly different. Like all cities, they both offer positives and negatives. Nowhere is perfect. Most of all though, the economies are completely different. One is a banking, corporate and industrial powerhouse, …
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Imperial is almost a pure-play African business
There was an interesting announcement out of Imperial Logistics (JSE:IPL) today, especially considering JSE companies were scrambling for “hard currency exposure” just a few years ago. ???????????????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????? ???????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????? ???????????? “???????????????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????????” Conglomerates have been out of fashion for a while. Investors prefer pure-play businesses that allow them to take specific exposure to an …
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Amazon: Revenue for show, profit for dough
There’s a saying in golf: “Drive for show, putt for dough.” It’s a great phrase, as anyone who has ever hacked around a golf course will attest to. A perfect drive down the middle of the fairway might make you feel good as you stroll away from the tee box, but four putts on the green will quickly ruin your …
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