Vaccine volatility – what have investors done?

Today was a monumental day on the markets. Pfizer announced that its Covid-19 vaccine has been found to be 90% effective, comfortably the most important scientific breakthrough thus far in the fight against the virus. Now, your immediate reaction might be to buy Pfizer shares. Funnily enough, at time of writing, Pfizer was only up 6% after the news. That …

View Post

Aspen gives South Africa a booster shot

Despite the negative cloud that we typically find ourselves under in South Africa, we still boast world-class technology and manufacturing capabilities in a number of industries. Aspen Pharmacare has had a really tough few years on the JSE, having struggled with a debt-funded globalisation strategy that hasn’t worked out. However, the market cheered the news that Aspen has entered into …

View Post

Aspen prescribes bolt-on acquisitions

Aspen Pharmacare is a R60bn pharmaceuticals giant that used to be a lot bigger. The share price is down over 57% in 5 years, reflecting an unsuccessful strategy to push into developed as well as emerging markets, all while steadily building up a debt pile. It’s a story that seems to play out over and over again: South African corporates …

View Post