Aeon Investment Management’s chief investment officer Asief Mohamed comments on Johann Rupert-controlled luxury goods maker Richemont, after the behemoth added around R100bn in market value on Friday. The share price rally, which came off the back of superb half-results, can also be attributed to corporate action in its online sales platform; the company is in talks with e-commerce platform Farfetch. On top of this, an activist asset manager called Third Point, led by Daniel Loeb, has bought around 3% of the business and will be looking to iron out the operational issues plaguing one of the world’s largest luxury goods businesses. Whether Johann Rupert, who is the controlling shareholder via higher voting shares, will agree with Loeb’s direction is unknown at this point. Mohamed outlines some of the reasons for Richemont’s ‘expensive’ valuation, given its cheap cost of capital and rand hedge qualities. 

Purple Capital is to its segments of SA's financial markets what Amazon has been to retailing in the USA. A classic tale of disruption, its primary business Easy Equities started as low cost stockbroker seven years ago. Competitors dismissed it as cheap and nasty - nothing to worry overly about. With more than 700 000 active clients, and a new customer cost of acquisition of just R50, the company is continually innovating. Not just within the stockbroking space, but also into fractionalised ownership of property and crypto currency. With a share price that's surged by over 600% in the last two years, founder Charles Savage's company has been on a tear. The 48 year old, however, believes Easy has hardly started.

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Alec Hogg sat down with Purple Group’s CEO Charles Savage to unpack the success that has been Easy Equities and other business units under the umbrella; and the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction winner - Damon Galgut on his book “The Promise,” a novel about one white family’s reckoning with South Africa’s racist history.

A South African writer, Damon Galgut has won the 2021 Booker Prize with his novel about a Pretoria family, The Promise. With this win, he follows in the footsteps of well-known South African writers Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee. Damon, who was shortlisted for the prize on two previous occasions, told BizNews he really imagined that being shortlisted was as far as the book would go and was taken by surprise when he happened to win.

Dirk Van Vlaanderen of Kagiso Asset Management shares his thoughts on Piet Viljoen and Jan Van Niekerk's listed investment vehicle - RECM Calibre.

EasyEquities and Purple Group CEO Charles Savage spent time with the BizNews team unpacking their highly anticipated results. EasyEquities, the group’s crown jewel, was a standout performance. The brokerage platform now has more than one million registered accounts and is growing strongly, as well as being one of South Africa’s most loved brands. The rest of the group weighed on its performance but Savage did suggest that a rebranding of the group’s trading and asset management arms were in the pipeline. Alec Hogg recently added the Purple Group to the BizNews portfolio, generating more than a 70% return in the space of a few months, an incredible return on investment. Long may it continue. 

Remgro’s chief investment officer Pieter Uys sits down with the BizNews team to discuss Community Investment Ventures Holdings’ (CIVH) latest proposed transaction with Vodacom. Remgro is the majority shareholder of CIVH, which houses its fibre assets: Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa (DFA). This is regarded as Remgro’s most exciting unlisted investment, with CIVH’s valuation totalling R27bn as of Remgro’s latest annual financial statements. Uys delves into the complexities of this transaction and the perceived synergies with Vodacom as one of the leading telecommunications companies on the continent.

Counterpoint Value Fund manager Piet Viljoen delves into a host of corporate action taking place across the local bourse. The mining mergers and acquisitions mania has continued, with a twist, as Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBK) turned down Impala Platinum’s proposed takeover to pursue a deal with competitor Northam Platinum. The Purple Group (owner of Easy Equities) also posted its financial results with the brokerage platform announcing impressive numbers. It remains one of the flagship growth companies on the JSE. Vodacom and Remgro have recently announced a partnership to grow high-flying fibre businesses Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa. Viljoen unpacks the possible synergies this could create. Lastly, Ascendis Activist Investor Harry Smit’s appointment to the board is discussed to wrap up the conversation. 

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Alec Hogg brings some on-the-ground insights on the back of the medium-term budget speech; Piet Viljoen's market insights; Purple Group’s CEO Charles Savage on the group's results plus an update on other business units under the umbrella; and Remgro CIO Pieter Uys on Vodacom’s latest acquisition, a co-controlling equity stake in (CIVH’s) fibre assets.

Despite millions being spent on rhino protection elsewhere in Africa and in South Africa, the number of rhinos in the Kruger National Park is reported to have dropped no more than 3,000, the lowest number ever. That is a decline of nearly two-thirds over the past decade according to South African National Parks (SANParks). South Africa holds the majority of the world’s rhinos and it is the country hardest hit by poachers. And while there is demand in the Far East, the situation remains dire.

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Alec Hogg celebrates the 30th anniversary of previously isolated South Africa's return to international sport; Alec speaks to legendary Ali Bacher, former SA cricket captain and long-time driver of the sport, who is joined by Proteas Clive Eksteen and Adrian Kuiper who were on that historic tour to India; Andre Viljoen, the owner of Woodstock Brewery, launched Mother Soup and in partnership with the Great Commission United have supplied more than five million meals since the global pandemic started.

10X founder Steven Nathan shares his pearls of wisdom on interesting developments taking place across local and international markets. Since his departure at 10X at the beginning of the year, Nathan has been on ‘garden leave’, which is a restraint of trade prohibiting him from working in the asset management industry for two years. Despite calling his time off “refreshing”, Nathan says it’s important to not lose focus and hence has been keeping up to date with all the market trends in 2021. Local talking points include Northam Platinum’s R17bn deal with Royal Bafokeng Platinum; representative of the Ascendis Activist Investors (Harry Smit) being appointed to the board of directors; and Mark Sardi departing the debt-laden pharma business for South Africa’s pharma leader, Aspen.

Veteran mining analyst Peter Major analyses Royal Bafokeng Platinum’s decision to reject Impala Platinum’s takeover bid, opting for a deal with Northam Platinum instead. In a deal valued at around R17bn, Northam Platinum will buy a third of RBP at R180.50 per share, a 50% premium on its share price before the deal was announced. Strangely, RBP’s share price fell following the announcement. Northam’s slumped 15%, on a day where the producer of precious metals lost more than R10bn. At face value, Major says the consolidation of Impala and RBP made a lot of sense given the operational synergies. Major is more sceptical with synergies and benefits of consolidation with Northam; however, he outlines that Northam CEO Paul Dunne is a shrewd operator and has intentions to scale the business to levels that are attractive for international investment houses. 

This special podcast marks the 30th anniversary of previously isolated South Africa's return to international sport - SA cricket's first ever One Day International played in front of 90,000 fans in Calcutta on 10 November 1991. It features legendary Ali Bacher, former SA cricket captain and long-time driver of the sport, who is joined by Proteas Clive Eksteen and Adrian Kuiper who were on that historic tour to India.

A flurry of negotiations has taken place over the last couple of days as political parties started coalition talks after the 2021 local government elections resulted in 66 hung councils with the ANC dipping below 50% of voter support for the first time in post-apartheid South Africa. Political analyst, Dr Piet Croucamp from North-West University, says the challenge of opposition parties is not to re-empower the ANC as the governing party is on course to lose the national election in 2024 unless, “they do something really, really radical”. Dr Croucamp also weighs in on the stellar rise of Herman Mashaba and the EFF as a toxic coalition partner.

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Steven Nathan applies his mind to contested takeover bids and shareholder activism; Dr Piet Croukamp explains most why opposition parties are rejecting the ANC - they don't want to risk making the ruling party "look good" ahead of the critical 2024 Election; Peter Major sifts through the noise around the BP takeover offers; and Future Forex CEO Harry Scherzer unpacks the low-risk opportunity offered offshore-to-onshore crypto arbitrage.

TreasuryOne's currency expert Andre Cilliers outlines the reasons for the Rand's big swings over the past fortnight.

As is customary for a Monday, Sasfin Securities David Shapiro gives us his insight on the latest developments taking place across local and international markets. The conversation starts by focusing on the price action in New York, where Moderna and Peloton have nosedived, as the world returns to normality. Shapiro notes the tailwinds that both companies had as a result of the pandemic and demand is unlikely to be sustainable as Covid-19 eases. Harry Smit, the representative of the Ascendis Activist Investors, was recently added to the board as a non-executive director. A big win for activism in South Africa and hopefully, the precedent has been set. Speculation surrounding MTN’s rumoured buyout of Telkom was also discussed, with Shapiro outlining it is unlikely the Competition Commission would allow this on anti-competitive grounds. The infrastructure drive implemented by the government seems to be well underway; construction group Raubex has posted good numbers. Lastly, small-cap retail investor favourites Renergen and the Purple Group are discussed.  

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Cape Independence activist Phil Craig explains how the Local Election results are a major boost for the Cape Independence lobby; SA's favourite stockbroker David Shapiro gets excited about the Purple Group's trading update and assesses the plunging prices of Moderna and Peloton Interactive; Township shopping centre owner Exemplar is coming back stronger after losing 5 of its 23 centres says CEO Jason McCormick; and TreasuryONE's Andre Cilliers explains why he expects to see the Rand strengthening to R14.50 against the US Dollar (now R15).

CEO of Future Forex Harry Scherzer unpacks a unique cryptocurrency arbitrage opportunity that he and his team use to produce investment returns no matter the movement and volatility of the underlying cryptocurrency.

Jason McCormick has been a regular BizNews contributor following the July riots. The McCormick family has billions of rand in exposure to rural property developments all across the country. A large portion of their property portfolio is held through listed real estate business Exemplar, which recently announced upbeat financial results. Exemplar was one of the most adversely affected businesses during the civil unrest, with five retail malls looted and vandalised. Despite the chaos that unravelled, McCormick confirmed trading conditions have surpassed expectations and the fundamentals of the business are intact. He believes that if these black swan events can be avoided, the business will continue to flourish. He also provides an update on Exemplar’s latest development in Mamelodi, which is expected to complete by 2022.    

Dirk Van Vlaanderen of Kagiso Asset Management shares his thoughts on Brait. Their house view is that Brait's intrinsic value is around R7 a share.

Counterpoint Value Fund manager Piet Viljoen makes his second appearance for the week on BizNews, days after going head to head with Magnus Heystek in a R500,000 investment challenge. Putting his money where his mouth is, Piet has allocated the full initial investment into the Counterpoint Value Fund. A few of the top holdings in the fund are deliberated, on a day where MTN released an upbeat quarterly update, with the share at levels last seen in 2015. Anglo American, another large holding in the fund, is discussed following the retirement of decorated mining executive Mark Cutifani. Lastly, we touch on South African bonds, with Piet outlining the attractive real yield they offer relative to global counterparts

South Africans may have become accustomed to the persistent load shedding but it is understandably causing much frustration among citizens, businesses and industry. As a result, attention has shifted towards alternative power sources. BizNews spoke to the director of SolarSaver, a group that was founded on the concept of providing clients with unique solar solutions without requiring them to put up any capital or financial guarantees. Stuart Batchelor touched on selling solar under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), saying it would relieve businesses from operational responsibilities. One of the greatest benefits of the solar solution is that it is capex-free, so there are massive savings to be made, as opposed to using municipal city power.

An Israeli watertech company, Blue Green Technologies, cleaned up the Setumo Dam in the North West Province on the Molopo River of the contaminated toxic algae blooms making its water unsafe to drink. It was basically a dead aquatic zone. The South African Director of Blue Green Technologies, Jurgens van Loggerenberg, told BizNews how the company’s technology achieved this, how they saved a canoe race on the Roodeplaat Dam, the story about a fisherman who covered himself in Vaseline to protect himself from the toxic algae and the link to elephants dying in Botswana.