The world is changing fast and to keep up you need local knowledge with global context.
Retirement is a word that usually conjures up images of wrinkly grey-haired people sitting around with little to do in a communal lounge. But, the reality is many of us will leave formal employment long before we need to check in to an old age home. And, sadly, most of us will not have enough … Read more
Times Media took another big restructuring step today with the sale, for R75m, of wholly owned Nu Metro, the country’s second largest cinema operation after Primedia’s Ster Kinekor. Sales house Popcorn Advertising is part of the transaction. The new owner is KZN-based private equity company OneFiftyCapital, better known through its ownership of former Naspers-owned education … Read more
Financial journalism in 1980, when I joined the business, was a very different proposition to nowadays. The Internet, SENS, live prices and the tsunami of information we now take for granted was still almost two decades off. Print ruled and financial news was released to fit into newspaper deadlines. But some principles have endured. The … Read more
By Alec Hogg Andrew Bonamour (right), who switched his attention from investment banking to media when becoming the CEO of Times Media Group (TMG) a year ago, is off to a flying start in his new role. TMG was one of the best performing stocks on the JSE last year, its share price gaining 53%. … Read more
Some years back my pal Adrian Morris of EasySoft showed me how to pull performance data from his excellent Market Master stock market software. So I spent part of New Year’s Day at my iMac pulling the JSE’s key numbers for 2013. Yesterday we published the 25 Biggest Losers. Here are shares we all wish … Read more
The year 2013 is one miners will want to forget. Quickly. It was their Annus Horribilis with billions wiped off the value of JSE-listed resources companies. The evidence is clear in our table of the 25 worst performing stocks of 2013 – 19 of them engaged in mining. Gold shares were especially hard hit with the … Read more
Ask anyone if they know where the stock markets are heading and they are likely to greet your question with disbelief. “If I knew that, I’d be rich,” is the type of answer you can expect to receive. Yet, there are many professionals who earn their keep by providing pointers on where assets might be … Read more
A clear play on the health of SA tourism, Cullinan Holdings has been one of the best performing shares of the past year, up 74% to a market cap of R1.6bn. The company chose an unusual time – December 23rd – to release its financial results for the year to end September. That’s a pity because … Read more
Any lingering hope which Chilean group CFR entertained in its pursuit of Adcock Ingram surely ended this morning. The largest shareholder, the Public Investment Company, has been quietly accumulating stock. It announced through SENS that its stake in Adcock is now 22.3%, up from 18.9% stated in the pharma company’s most recent annual report. Today’s announcement … Read more
Here’s an article that will put you in a great spending mood for 2014: fortunes are looking up for many businesses around Africa, with abundant opportunities for investors. Investment expert Mike Browne of Seed Investments highlights some major trends that could turbo-charge revenues for companies servicing the growing middle classes beyond South Africa’s borders. Mike … Read more