Boardroom Talk: Neels’s timely reminder why M&R should never make it into the BizNews portfolio.

Am looking forward to sharing the monthly portfolio update at noon today – not just because it comes from Cape Town where I'm ensconced at the Latitude ahead of tomorrow's mid-term Budget. I'll be in lock-up from 6am tomorrow, putting together the important stuff for publication on BizNews.com at 2pm. At 7pm tomorrow evening I'll host an interactive traditional post-Budget webinar sharing the info you need to know. It's open to all but you do need to sign up beforehand. Click here to register.

Back to the BizNews share portfolio which was significantly restructured last month. Some changes have already worked out well. One, Telkom, not so, after MTN pulled out of a possible takeover. It could have been worse as ahead of the restructure, I was tempted to add Murray & Roberts after its share price had fallen by half despite an upbeat outlook.

Even after falling further – now a third of August's price – M&R is not for us. I'm indebted to community member Neels Viljoen's pointer to Benjamin Graham's classic definition of an investable stock: "one which, on thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and a satisfactory return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative."

___STEADY_PAYWALL___