Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Bias?
Humans are a weird bunch. We oscillate between rationality and irrationality. We develop probability theories and then we don’t use them. We do odd things like differentiate between “fun money” and savings, as though there are two types of money in this world. We spend differently depending on where the money came from, even though money is perfectly fungible. We …
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Ghost (????????????????????????) busters – edition 4
In this edition, we focus on two concepts that are a core part of equity capital markets. It’s complicated to understand how listed companies work and what the benefits are, but with each term you learn and understand, you’re getting closer. Initial Public Offering (IPO) An IPO is a capital raise by a company as part of a new listing. …
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Curro: rights issue, wrong time
One of the fundamental reasons to list a company on a stock exchange is to access capital from the market. There’s so much strategy in capital raising that an entire industry of highly-paid advisors and bankers exists around it. Curro Holdings, one of the private school companies listed on the JSE, has announced a rights issue. The Foschini Group did …
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Ghost (????????????????????????) busters – edition 3
In this edition, we focus on one of the most important terms in finance: liquidity. This isn’t just useful in your investing journey, but is a key part of any personal finance decision like buying cars or houses. We will just scratch the surface of this concept. We also touch on the development board of the JSE: the AltX. the_ad …
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Multichoice – Africa’s storyteller rewards shareholders
The front page of Multichoice’s results booklet that was released today describes the group as “Africa’s most loved storyteller” – that’s beautiful, but perhaps not as beautiful as the stunning improvement in their profitability. StatsSA’s last major survey (done in 2017) estimated that there are 16.2m households in South Africa. Multichoice has 8.4m subscribers in South Africa, which suggests that …
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Capital Appreciation Group – right place, right time
The JSE was a hot place to raise capital back in 2014 – 2016. Red hot. At the height of this capital raising frenzy, the JSE allowed a new type of company to be listed: a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). Enter the SPAC Normally, a company listing on the JSE must have a decent track record and meet stringent …
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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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