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
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 …
View Post
Reviewing the COVID-19 financial support for South Africans
- South Africa
-
Banks, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Debt Relief Fund, Growth Resilience Facility, Oppenheimer, Rupert, South African Future Trust, Sukuma Relief Programme, UIF TERS, Unemployment Insurance Fund
- April 18, 2020
Lockdown is supposed to be over, but it isn’t. In fact, it’s just getting weird now, with increasingly strange decisions coming out of government. I’m sure nurses and doctors really appreciate the nonsensical ban on frozen prepared meals when they get home late at night. At least Fikile Mbalula can be proud of his Easter road death toll statistics, which …
View Post
ZAR – the lost currency
The poor old ZAR has had a rough time of it in the past decade. Everyone watched with horror this month as the Rand took another nosedive, breaching never-before-seen levels. At one point in intraday trading, R19/US$ became a reality. The Rand managed to pull back below R19 , but the reality is that the seal has been broken. the_ad …
View Post
Capitec’s Corona-coaster ride
Capitec has had a volatile few weeks even by current market standards. The bank has been the darling of the market for years, growing from obscurity to become South Africa’s largest bank by retail customer numbers. So, what’s going on? Tracking the Corona-coaster. Capitec fell from around R1,440 per share in mid-Feb to R1,110 by the third week of March, …
View Post
GDP: Let’s get real
- South Africa
-
Coronavirus, COVID-19, Economics, GDP, Inflation, Nominal GDP, Nominal Growth, Real GDP, Real Growth, South Africa
- March 25, 2020
You’ve probably heard the term “GDP” many times before, but do you actually know what it is and why it is so important? ???????????????? ???????? ????????????? This isn’t the simplest concept in the world, so let’s start with the basics. GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product, which (despite the name) has nothing to do with your baby’s nappy. Instead, it …
View Post
Corona’s chaos is creating some positives
We are on a journey into the abyss. It’s way too early to tell how it might end, but there could be some positives for South Africa from all this craziness. ????. ???????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????? ???????????????? ???????? If Cyril pulls this off, the last remaining Zuma supporters are going to find life very difficult. A …
View Post
Sasol’s fight for survival
In a sea of red share price movements, Sasol has stood out over the past couple of weeks as a turd that even the COVID-19 toilet paper hoarders would struggle to get rid of. Nonetheless, it’s a turd that many financial professionals are buying up at the moment. The reason is pretty simple – if it recovers, it has the …
View Post