FALLING BETWEEN TWO STOOLS
By Chris Gilmour
The JD Group share price has tanked in the past few days in the wake of poor interim results, sensational revelations from the Carte Blanche investigative TV programme, and the cancellation of the merger between JD Group (...
LIVE WIRES, BUT FOR HOW LONG?
By Stephen Cranston
The recovery in demand for life insurance products has taken all industry analysts by surprise. Perhaps it is one last hurrah before new commission regulations come in (see "Jam tomorrow") and before caps are introduced on ded...
RUSSIANS MAY NOT BUDGE
By Nicky Smith
The chess game that is Russian steelmaker Evraz's offer to Highveld Steel & Vanadium's (Hiveld) minorities has begun in earnest. After dropping from R96/ share to just above R85 after the value of Evraz's US$11,40 (or about R82) o...
LICENCE TO DREAM
By Duncan McLeod
Dimension Data subsidiary Internet Solutions (IS) is hoping it will soon be granted a licence to build its own network infrastructure. IS CEO Angus MacRobert believes this will help the company position itself as a "new-age" telecomm...
INVESTMENT OF THE WEEK
By Stephen Cranston
Who it's for: Though it is in the flexible category, the fund is compliant with regulation 28. This means it is suitable for small pension funds, and is ideally suited to investors in retirement annuities who do not want a pure equity produ...
JAM TOMORROW
By Stephen Cranston
It is 18 months since the life industry and national treasury signed a statement of intent (SOI), giving minimum termination values for retirement annuities (RAs) and endowments. This meant that, in order to remain profitable, li...
PICKED ON PUBLICLY, AGAIN
By Heather Formby
Barloworld can't seem to keep out of trouble with its largest shareholder, the Public Investment Corp (PIC), which has a 14,9% stake. Last week the PIC criticised the group's appointment of Trevor Munday as deputy chairman, saying...
SWITCH TO GREENER GOLD
By Brendan Ryan
Pan African Resources shareholders have had to wait longer than they expected to for the company to resume trading on London's AIM bourse and to list on the JSE, following the acquisition of Barberton Mines in Mpumalanga from Metorex...
BEHIND THE MARKET MOVES
By Stuart Theobald
To what can the sudden jump in Telkom's share price (well before its results announcement) be attributed? It rocketed 9% in the first half of last week to R182 on big volumes. That was its highest closing price since it had listed in 2003 at R2...
COUNT AND COUNT AGAIN
By Andrew McNulty
Investors should beware of any earnings figure that is presented as the key indicator of company performance and share valuations. The number of ways that companies report earnings per share (EPS) has increased in recent years. Us...
DOUBLED IN WEIGHT
By Brendan Ryan
The Nedsec junior mining & exploration index broke through the R100bn market capitalisation level last week. That's 113% up from R48,9bn when the index was launched at the end of September last year. The calculation is based on the ...
THE REIT THING TO DO?
By Sibonelo Radebe and Ian Fife
Investec Property Group is being showered with praise for moving its external management of Growthpoint into the listed property fund. This improves income and readies SA's biggest fund for conversion to a real estate investment t...
DIAMONDS & DOGS
By Jamie Carr
Diamond Invicta When you are structuring your portfolio, you could do a lot worse than to think like a rugby selector. From the go-go stocks, you stick in a flashy winger or two and a centre with a tidy sidestep. But these ...
