BizNews Radio

With both supply and costs of electricity having changed dramatically for SA in the past few years, many are wondering it's time to dust off the blueprints of Eskom's groundbreaking Pebble Bed Modular Reactor nuclear power programme. Cancelled in 2010 due to affordability, the PBMR project had sucked in a staggering R30bn in State investment, employed hundreds of scientists and even created a working prototype at NW University. Theuns Eloff, who was NWU's vice chancellor at the time; and Andrew Donaldson, then DDG at National Treasury, discuss why the project was canned - and whether the new energy equation justifies revisiting the PBMR idea. They spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investors got the fireworks they expected from Grindrod in the half year to end June, and despite a share price that has already trebled this year - the market rewarded the stock with another price increase. In this interview, CEO Andrew Waller talks to Alec Hogg of BizNews about his four year journey alongside former chairman Mike Hankinson (who retired in June) where their strategy was to streamline the business, sell off non-core assets and find a partner for Grindrod Bank (sold for R1.5bn to African Bank). He also talks highly about his CFO Xolani Mbambo who takes over when Waller departs in January. - explaining why he believes there's plenty more to come from the century-old KZN group.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transnet's latest annual report highlights net profits of R5bn - marking a significant turnaround from the R8bn in losses in the prior financial year - but the African Rail Industry Association (ARIA) says don't be fooled. ARIA CEO Mesela Nhlapo spoke to Michael Appel about the state of the country's ports and rail authority in a climate in which South Africa should be perfectly positioned to take advantage of high coal and commodity prices - but isn't. ARIA wants the monopoly of Transnet broken, with greater private sector involvement for which there is significant appetite. This particular beleaguered state-owned entity is fast becoming South Africa's next Eskom, says Nhlapo. She warns that decades of underspending on maintenance and the propensity to throw good money after bad at Transnet comes at a huge cost to South Africa's economy. Nhlapo quotes Professor Jan Havenga, head of logistics management at Stellenbosch University, as estimating the cost of a floundering and ineffective Transnet at R385bn a year, or approximately 10% of GDP.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Briefing, we're joined by financial whistleblower Sean Peche for reaction to his blockbuster expose' this week on Performance Fees being charged by most of SA's big money managers (a uniquely SA cost) - even when they lose clients money. Also, we revisit SA's nuclear power "moonshot", the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor, into which taxpayers ploughed R30bn and which at its peak had 2 000 staff. With the energy equation having changed since the PBMR project was terminated in 2010, is it time to dust off the blueprints?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of CrypTalk, Ross Sinclair speaks to Gaurav Nair of Jaltech about the sanctions against Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixing service which was designed for privacy, but was abused for money laundering by the North Koreans, which caused the Office of Foreign exchange control (OFAC) to crack down on the service. Also discussed is how to store your crypto safely and what risks you potentially face with each different service. 

For more information about Jaltech: https://www.biznews.com/jaltech-cryptocurrency-notes

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Corruption Watch is raising the alarm about corruption in South Africa’s education sector, bringing together statistics collated from over 3,600 reports to the NGO over the last decade. Senior researcher Melusi Ncala - who wrote the report - spoke to Michael Appel about the overall picture that emerges from their work. The most pervasive forms of corruption are broken down into misappropriation of resources (43%), maladministration (17.1%), abuse of authority (14.2%), procurement irregularities (12.3%), and employment irregularities (12.1%). Gauteng is the country’s education corruption hotspot, followed by KZN and the Eastern Cape. Ncala says authorities - including law enforcement - continue to pay lip service to the issue of graft in this country. To read the full report click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When markets are volatile, where would you normally invest if you are seeking lower volatility and higher income yields than equity markets? The traditional answer to that is government bonds. Founder and CEO of Overberg Asset Management, Nick Downing, says bonds are however no longer fulfilling their traditional role as balanced portfolio risk diversifiers. Downing suggests that investors should consider a blend of alternative asset classes for their global portfolio and has singled out six classes and the investment vehicles of choice to balance share portfolios. They are renewable energy, infrastructure, private equity, secured loans, absolute returns and a rather unusual asset, music royalties. He told BizNews of a company Overberg has chosen as an investment vehicle that taps into the appetite for streaming services. When the market gives you volatility, music royalties could be music to your ears to find balance in your portfolio, with a company called BHMacro. – Linda van Tilburg

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Straight-speaking independent financial advisor Magnus Heystek joins as a special guest in this episode of the Briefing where much of the focus is on Sean Peche's bombshell expose' on the billions fleeced from SA savers through dubious unit trust Performance Fees. Heystek also weighs in on the possible knockout blow landed today by Elon Musk in his fight with the directors of Twitter. On the global front, the oil price rises above $100 again and Johann Rupert's global luxury goods group Richemont strikes a deal with the Portuguese Steve Jobs - whose company FARFETCH's share price jumped 25% as a result.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (Nedbank CIB) has been diligently working on ambitious and rigorous goals towards a just energy transition, as evidenced by the Nedbank carbon journey series published on BizNews.com over the past couple of months. In this interview, Bronwyn Nielsen speaks to Kevin Whitfield, head of Africa Treasury at Nedbank CIB, about the company’s carbon journey, a venture initiated by former Nedbank CEO Tom Boardman “in the space of a couple of hours of decision-making”. Whitfield, who excitedly shared details about the company’s planned activities and projects, said, “The bottom line is we need to get a price for carbon and natural capital that allows sustainable and long-term change.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After his recent expose’ on the massively underperforming, but big fee charging Balanced Fund unit trusts, Ranmore Funds founder Sean Peche has taken his attack on money management ripoffs to a new level. The highly qualified asset management insider (CA, CFA) describes results of a lengthy and thorough investigation into unit trust Fact Sheets and in particular the Performance Fees charged in SA, as a “Nuclear Bomb” compared with his Balanced Funds “Scud Missile”. He notes that Performance Fees on retail funds are a uniquely South African feature, having been abandoned elswhere by competition and regulator action. Peche took BizNews.com's Alec Hogg through a presentation where he lays out the shocking results uncovered by his research. It shows, inter alia, that SA’s Big Three asset managers – Allan Gray, Coronation and Ninety One – are generating billions in unwarranted fees through applying self-serving self benchmarks to deliver huge “Performance Fees” - in some instances even when they have been losing money for investors.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices