HAS THE BUBBLE BURST?
By Michael Coulson
A year ago, FM writer Brendan Ryan said Impala was a better bet than Anglo Platinum (AngloPlat), and he was right, but maybe not in the way he would have liked. For though Impala has indeed firmed over the past year while AngloPlat h...
MELTDOWN ON THE HORIZON?
By Brendan Ryan
With a string of highly successful aluminium smelter projects in Southern Africa now complete, BHP Billiton is looking at further developments. But the availability of cheap and reliable power is vital. That message was delivered clearly by BH...
HERDING CATS SUCCESSFULLY LANDS GROUP ON ITS FEET
By Michelle Joubert
Spescom chief technical officer and director Viv Crone couldn't believe it when he was told by a colleague that the group's prepaid electricity meter had to be insect-proof to meet the needs of SA and other developing countries. Until the colle...
IT HASN'T BEEN SMOOTH SAILING
By Chris Gilmour
Tourvest, SA's pre-eminent tourism-orientated company, has delivered a poor set of results. And though it has gone to great pains to assuage investor fears - to the extent of hosting a maiden interim results presentation - there's no disguising t...
TABLES HAVE TURNED AND IT'S BLISS ON THE DOMESTIC FRONT
By Stephen Cranston
The market is falling out of love with rand hedges. This is well illustrated by the difference in the performance of two insurance broking and consulting businesses, Alexander Forbes (Forbes) and Glenrand MIB (Glenrand). Over the past year t...
NO CHICKEN PERFORMANCE
By Stafford Thomas
Most of us are born weather-watchers, but few can match the beady eye of Nick Wentzel, CEO of broiler chicken and animal feeds producer Astral Food. His sights are set on longer-term forecasts and what he sees "does not look like the calamity 5 M...
CLEANED UP BUT LACKING DIRECTION
By Chris Gilmour
Woolworths' interims to December 2003 send mixed signals. Group revenue rose by 10%, but that hides a great performance from foods (+17%), a pedestrian clothing performance (+10%) and another poor show from Country Road (-18%), the Australian ope...
TOURVEST
No rush to buy Ord price: 136c Div yield: 7,4% PE ratio: 12,7...
DIAMONDS & DOGS
By Jamie Carr
Diamond Howden One of the oldest maxims of the investing game is that you should stick your money into companies that you know and understand. This is perfectly sensible advice, and legions of housewives buying sha...
