INVESTORS BREATHE AGAIN
By Andrew McNulty
Just days after SA's Reserve Bank increased the bank rate for the eighth time in less than two years, the JSE all share index (Alsi) closed at a record high last week. In January, equity investors were buffeted by the worst s...
WAVING OR DROWNING?
By Ian Fife
There are better things in life for SA developers than coastal and leisure properties. High interest rates and plunging demand make those the last places to be. But what if you're committed? Pinnacle Point Holdings has R200m debt an...
DECLINE AND RISE
By Matebello Motloung
The return of Koos Bekker from his year's sabbatical coincided with a rise in the Naspers share price by 12% to R160, from R142 in March. The market probably likes the fact that he's back - though Khulekani Dlamini, senior analyst at R...
BUILDING ON MOMENTUM
By Larry Claasen
We have heard this before. A construction company speaks fondly of all the opportunities across the continent and goes in guns blazing, only to trek back across the Limpopo, dejectedly admitting defeat. Usually, all talk of hig...
TAKING THE LONG VIEW
By Desné Masie, Sasha Planting and Rob Rose
The gut reaction of investors to Absa's decision to pay R875m for just more than 50% of Woolworths's financial services business may offer an insight into who got the better end of the stick. On the day the sale was announced, Woolw...
RISING TO NEW CHALLENGES
By Sasha Planting
Newly listed Pioneer Foods' proven ability to develop new brands and extract value from older ones will soon be sorely tested. The company is facing soaring commodity prices, rising capital expenditure and flatter margins. The capit...
LOOKING FURTHER FOR VALUE
By Stephen Cranston
When Botswana-based Imara launched its African Opportunities Fund in June 2005, only a few brave hedge funds and family offices were prepared to invest. Africa, excluding SA, is not even considered an emerging market; it's seen as a f...
INVESTMENT OF THE WEEK
By Stephen Cranston
Who's it for: People looking for positive returns through the market cycle, and who cannot tolerate more than minimal losses in the short term. It uses derivatives to ensure that losses on equities are minimised. In January, for example, th...
TOO MUCH STOCK
By Sasha Planting
Despite inflation hitting lower-income shoppers the hardest, supermarkets in rural areas are growing faster than those in the cities. And though Pick n Pay invested R1,1bn in its business in 2007 and another R822m in the past financial...
FOOD & DRUG RETAILERS
By Sasha Planting
PICK N PAY Ord price R28,90 <...
DIAMONDS & DOGS
By Jamie Carr
Diamond B&W AltX has come a long way since the JSE's small-companies boards were more full of garbage than the average landfill site. There is now a real solidity to many of the operations listed there, quality companies wi...
