Finweek - English

sixty-four years ago, 20 000 women marched on the Union Buildings to protest apartheid pass laws for women. On 9 August we will again commemorate that historic day in 1956 as we celebrate National Women’s Day during National Women’s month. I will cer

we live in a world where information is available at the click of a button. Only three decades ago, a trip to the local library was the only way to know the population size of Portugal or Papua New Guinea. Acquiring information was expensive. Much of

the ruling ANC has an illustrious career in producing policy proposals that never see the light of day. Occasionally, some proposals are implemented half-heartedly, resulting in no meaningful impact being achieved by them. I was reminded of the ANC’s

—The ANC’s integrity committee wrote to party national executive committee (NEC) member and deputy finance minister David Masondo, asking him to “voluntarily step aside” from his responsibilities in government and the party. Masondo is alleged to hav

Acting Editor Jana Jacobs Deputy Editor Jaco Visser  Journalists and Contributors Simon Brown, Lucas de Lange, Johan Fourie, Moxima Gama, Schalk Louw, David McKay, Maarten Mittner, Andile Ntingi, Timothy Rangongo, Melusi Tshabalala, Amanda Visser, Gl

in early 2018, JSE-listed Kumba Iron Ore said it was considering a ‘step-out’ strategy, having in the previous year restructured its Sishen mine in the Northern Cape – a move that cut the operation’s life to 13 years from 17 years previously. The str

hanré Rossouw, chief financial officer of Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat), knows a thing or two about dividend disappointment. As a former portfolio manager for Investec Asset Management, he recalls the train smash that was the mining sector in 2015

Momentum’s Trending Equity Fund comprises a South African equity portfolio with no restrictions on how much exposure the fund can have to different sectors. As at end-June, the top three sectors in terms of equity allocation were resources at 37.59%,

The Shoprite* trading update for the year ending June was decent. Headline earnings per share (HEPS) from continuing operations are expected to range between 1.6% lower and 6.4% higher than a year ago. The update includes a R327.2m expenditure toward

Mobile operator MTN expects its HEPS for its six months to end-June to rise by as much as 125%, thanks to favourable foreign currency gains. MTN Ghana also grew its after-tax profit by 52.3% to R2bn in its year to end-June, from strong growth in data

for the past year or so there’s been a tweet that frequently pops up in my Twitter timeline, stating that in 1999 the JSE had 668 listed companies and now has 351. I haven’t verified the information, because it makes sense to me. It’s not a regulatio

for thousands of years the glamour of gold has attracted and captivated humans and even caused conflict. But during the 19th century, the role of gold changed dramatically by becoming the world’s official means of payment – not necessarily via direct

there is no easy answer when forced to choose between life and living; and it is this choice that has resulted in 3m jobs being lost in the last three months. The economic lockdown has created a plethora of emotions within all of us – despondency, fr

the pandemic is unequivocally unprecedented. In response, we’ve all voiced, in a chorus of lament, that “it is the worst of times”. After much observation and thought, I wonder whether there’s a case for seeing the existence of the best alongside the

the single most powerful ideology of our time is the fixation on growth. Irrespective of whether it is growth at a macro or micro level, if entities can demonstrate some form of growth, they are perceived to be on the road to success. The time, howev

south Africa’s GDP looks set to contract by 8% in 2020. In an ideal scenario, we would see a sharp V-shaped recovery in 2021, resulting in an expansion of 8% or more. For this to occur, we need two things. Firstly, we need a return of confidence. Rem

the conversation is shifting from environmental, social and governance (ESG) to impact investing. ESG is characterised as good risk management practices and defined by the UN as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the

for years, the campaign to hold companies – and not just their shareholders, but the societies and economies in which they operate – more accountable, moved at a modest but resolute pace. This past year, though, theCovid-19 crisis laid bare the neces

south Africa’s fiscal position, with its gross-debt-to-GDP expected to exceed 100% between 2021 and 2022, severely limits the government’s room to drive economic recovery, therefore the current emphasis on an investment-led recovery. To stimulate eco

the correlation between investment in capital infrastructure and GDP has been shown by IMF and World Bank data collected between 1960 and 2019. These studies demonstrate that 54% of all GDP performance can be explained by a country’s investment level

all investments have an impact – either positive or negative. A positive impact can be generated deliberately or unintentionally. Selecting the right metrics is an important tenet of the impact measurement and management process. But simply measuring

why is impact measurement and reporting such a challenge for investors? After all, they have the necessary frameworks, tools, and metrics to support this process. Could this be a function of the fact that in some instances, the effect cannot easily b

impact Investing South Africa is tasked with accelerating the adoption of investing for impact into SA’s investment community. It interacts with stakeholders across the financial sector, generating action points and sharing local findings with the Im

on 12 July, the Financial Times published this article: “Fund industry prepares to fight Trump curbs on socially responsible investing”. The curbs being proposed were to address the question of whether investing for societal impact would hamper retur

sasol has announced the sale of 16 air-separation units located in Secunda to Air Liquide for R8.5bn. The market very much liked the deal, pushing the share up over 12% at one point on the day before closing over 8% higher. Sasol needs to reduce its

Spur Corporation’s trading update for the year through 30 June, which was released at the end of July, gives details of the impact of the hard government-imposed lockdown. Spur’s system-wide sales were 5.8% higher for the period to the end of Februar

equity markets are usually efficient allocators of capital. But there may come a time when markets get distorted, usually due to changes in the macroeconomic environment. Now may be such a time. High-tech companies have grown strongly since the begin

with two-thirds of the JSE’s 100 largest shares by market cap lying below their 200-day exponential moving averages (EMAs), the bear is no doubt continuing to dominate most of the JSE. That both the All-Share Index and theTop40 are lying above their

words like ‘force majeure’, ‘vis major’ and ‘casus fortuitous’ have special meaning in a time when a pandemic causes health and financial crises. The Covid-19 pandemic forced retailers to close their doors for weeks on end and are now only allowed to

I swear, that maniac weaver bird in our back garden is a townhouse developer … he’s now building nest #6. Corruption in Eastern Cape issa sport. I bought Choice Assorted today because we don’t know if we’ll see Christmas 2020. A tender is an ethical