Opportune Investments founder Chris Logan has a closer look at Tongaat’s massive R4bn proposed rights issue. The embroiled agri-processing business has a market value of around R1bn, which means it will raise equity capital of up to four times its value. Logan discusses the reasons why Tongaat finds itself in this precarious position, after years of mismanagement and fraud from senior executives. The capital raise, given the size, is likely to be extremely dilutive and at a significant discount to its shares, currently. In early morning trade following the announcement, Tongaat was down close to 50% before paring losses to close 24% lower. The pricing of the rights issue will be of particular interest to Tongaat shareholders, who will be expected to pay up in order to their pro rata share holding in the company. Logan says the rights issue was largely unavoidable, given the operational mishaps and Covid-19 that have caused a troublesome period for the once high-flying business.

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Discovery Health CEO Ryan Noach unpacks one of the world's biggest data sets which provides practical results on the efficacy of Covid vaccines and how much protection they offer. Also, Opportune Investments founder Chris Logan unpacks why Tongaat needs its shareholders to inject R4bn to keep the company afloat.

News headlines:

*Coalition talks between political parties have broken down, with the deadline for forming councils in hung municipalities looming.

*Deputy finance minister David Masondo says that the government should steer away from a blanket ban on talk of getting the private sector involved with struggling state-run companies, adding that getting private groups involved would boost competition and efficiencies where the state has failed.

*Civil society group Afriforum has sent a legal letter of demand to Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, stating that the continued implementation of national curfews as part of the state of disaster is irrational and unjustified.

In one of the biggest Covid-19 research surveys in the world, Discovery Health has released data with the focus of understanding what more can be done to enhance and protect the lives of its customers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr Ryan Noach, CEO of Discovery Health, sits down with BizNews founder, Alec Hogg to discuss the findings of the study. Noach says these insights have the potential to inform and transform its understanding and decision-making in navigating the current landscape. He adds that he believes if South Africa reaches its 70% vaccination deadline, “We could save 25,000 people from dying from the virus.”

Hedge fund guru Jean Pierre Verster has an in-depth look at food retail giant, Shoprite, after South Africa’s largest grocer announced a bumper quarterly update and interesting annual general meeting results. The food retailer, which has brands such as Checkers and uSave under its umbrella, increased sales by close to 10%, without adjusting for the impact of the July riots. All of South Africa’s other large food retailers – Woolies, Spar and Pick n Pay – announced rather sluggish updates, suggesting Shoprite is taking market share from competitors. South Africa business tycoon Dr Christo Wiese, a major shareholder and director of the board of Shoprite, retained his seat on the board by a mere 0.1%. Verster explains that shareholders have become fed up at the related party transactions between Shoprite and Dr Wiese, which tends to benefit Wiese at the expense of minority shareholders. When asked which way Verster voted at Shoprite’s AGM on this specific resolution, he said his hedge fund no longer holds any Shoprite shares.

In this episode of the BPH, the first contributions from two new voices you'll be hearing from on Biznews in future - Jeremy Maggs and Martin Welz. Jeremy's famous show Maggs on Media is now part of the BizNews network and here we draw on his interview with media guru Gordon Muller. Welz, doyen of SA's investigative journalists, gets his teeth into the SARS court attack on Zondo Commission whistleblower Angelo Agrizzi. Also in this show, Francois Nortje of the Port of Gauteng explains why private company use of Transnet's rail network is a game changer; and top money manager Jean-Pierre Verster discusses SA's latest investment news including the shock vote of no confidence in Christo Wiese by 49% of Shoprite's shareholders.

News headlines:

*South Africa’s hospitality industry says the government needs to look at all the options it can before reintroducing damaging lockdown regulations.

*The DA, FF Plus, ActionSA, ACDP and COPE have enough numbers to make up the 108-seat majority needed to run Pretoria, says Steenhuisen.

*The Cricket World Cup will return to South Africa for the first time since 2003 when the 50-over showpiece comes around again in 2027.

Aeon Investment Management’s chief investment officer Asief Mohamed comments on Johann Rupert-controlled luxury goods maker Richemont, after the behemoth added around R100bn in market value on Friday. The share price rally, which came off the back of superb half-results, can also be attributed to corporate action in its online sales platform; the company is in talks with e-commerce platform Farfetch. On top of this, an activist asset manager called Third Point, led by Daniel Loeb, has bought around 3% of the business and will be looking to iron out the operational issues plaguing one of the world’s largest luxury goods businesses. Whether Johann Rupert, who is the controlling shareholder via higher voting shares, will agree with Loeb’s direction is unknown at this point. Mohamed outlines some of the reasons for Richemont’s ‘expensive’ valuation, given its cheap cost of capital and rand hedge qualities.

Purple Capital is to its segments of SA's financial markets what Amazon has been to retailing in the USA. A classic tale of disruption, its primary business Easy Equities started as low cost stockbroker seven years ago. Competitors dismissed it as cheap and nasty - nothing to worry overly about. With more than 700 000 active clients, and a new customer cost of acquisition of just R50, the company is continually innovating. Not just within the stockbroking space, but also into fractionalised ownership of property and crypto currency. With a share price that's surged by over 600% in the last two years, founder Charles Savage's company has been on a tear. The 48 year old, however, believes Easy has hardly started.

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Alec Hogg sat down with Purple Group’s CEO Charles Savage to unpack the success that has been Easy Equities and other business units under the umbrella; and the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction winner - Damon Galgut on his book “The Promise,” a novel about one white family’s reckoning with South Africa’s racist history.