Adcorp – “no holy cows” approach is working
Adcorp has shed 90% of its market value in the past 5 years. The recruitment and training company suffered an ailment that has plagued many industry consolidators: an incoherent strategy combined with an unsustainable balance sheet. There was a time on the JSE when people believed that if you buy five companies on a P/E (Price / Earnings ratio) of …
View Post
Big banks kick off Q3 earnings
I love the American market. Apart from groovy stock market tickers (like NYSE: RACE for Ferrari), the market is kept up to date by quarterly earnings releases from the best-known companies in the world. The Q3 earnings season is upon us, as companies report on how they did from July to September. You don’t have to wait long for information …
View Post
Can Mboweni save South Africa?
Literally minutes after I first posted this article, the headline broke that Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has asked for a postponement of the medium-term budget speech. He’s asked for a week’s delay but it’s still a really bad sign. We now wait and see whether the speech will be on October 21st as originally planned, or kicked out to October …
View Post
Can Mboweni save South Africa?
Literally minutes after I first posted this article, the headline broke that Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has asked for a postponement of the medium-term budget speech. He’s asked for a week’s delay but it’s still a really bad sign. We now wait and see whether the speech will be on October 21st as originally planned, or kicked out to October …
View Post
The professors who shaped the world of auctions
The Nobel Prize in economics has been awarded to Americans Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson, whose work in the field of auctions genuinely shaped the way private sector entities bid for natural resources from governments and regulators. This includes things like radio frequencies and oil mining rights. Auctions affect you directly in more ways than you realise. There’s the obvious …
View Post
Oh yes, I’m the Great Pretender
Ever felt like you got to where you are today because you’re lucky? Humility may be a beautiful character trait, but be careful that it isn’t impostor syndrome rearing its ugly head, especially if you are a high achiever. Queen’s hit song “The Great Pretender” reminds us of some of the challenges of impostor syndrome. As Freddie sang…“Too real is …
View Post
Oh yes, I’m the Great Pretender
Ever felt like you got to where you are today because you’re lucky? Humility may be a beautiful character trait, but be careful that it isn’t impostor syndrome rearing its ugly head, especially if you are a high achiever. Queen’s hit song “The Great Pretender” reminds us of some of the challenges of impostor syndrome. As Freddie sang…“Too real is …
View Post
IBM evolves once more
As you probably know, IBM is one of the original tech companies. The company can trace its roots back to 1911, admittedly to a time when it manufactured and sold machinery including commercial scales and cheese slicers. There’s a well-known saying in the corporate world: “Nobody gets fired for buying IBM.” It means that IBM was such a safe bet …
View Post
Is African Bank ready to fly yet?
- South Africa
-
African Bank, African Rainbow Capital, Capital adequacy ratio, Capitec, FinBond, Grindrod Bank, Impairment, Net interest income, Non-interest revenue, Return on equity, Tyme Bank
- October 7, 2020
Remember African Bank? If you watched any of President Ramaphosa’s lockdown speeches, you were definitely given a refresher. We don’t know what they paid for those ads, but it was probably the most valuable advertising space anywhere in South Africa at the time. Long before that, African Bank had been on an aggressive campaign, advertising at airports and all over …
View Post
ARC investors vote with their cash
I have been openly critical of the way the African Rainbow Capital Investments (ARC) story has played out. Without rehashing what I’ve previously written, I thought I should touch on the news that ARC’s capital raise has been less than ideal. To be clear: they’ve raised the full R750m they wanted. The problem is that shareholders didn’t give them as much …
View Post