BizNews Radio

Former England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen's transformation from athlete to entrepreneur takes another step this month when 50% of his Umganu Lodge will be made available to retail investors in the first underlying listing of the CTSE's newcomer AltVest. In this podcast, Pietersen tells BizNews editor Alec Hogg the story of how he came to own the R35m Lodge; why he sees the team at disruptive AltVest as kindred spirits; he shares the business case for Umganu; and tells us why he is excited to be introducing retail investors as co-owners of the 5 bedroom luxury lodge bordering the Kruger National Park on the banks of the Sabie River. AltVest, which lists on the CTSE tomorrow (5 May), was created to bring private equity investment opportunities to retail investors by leveraging technology in a sophisticated trading platform in partnership with media partners that includes BizNews.

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The latest Corion Report, which tracks the best and worst performing asset classes and investment products, is sobering reading after the world's major stock market recorded its worst first four month performance since 1939. Yet, there's always some light in the gloom and in this podcast Corion's David Bacher shares ideas on how investors can now position themselves after April's blowoff - including a surprising suggestion there could be safety in owning global bonds. Apart from sharing his own ideas on sensible portfolio construction, in this monthly update Bacher also shares the winning and losing investment houses with BizNews.com editor Alec Hogg - fascinating insights for anyone who entrusts their money to others.

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Six months ago, a BizNews community member stumped up R1m to put the Local v Offshore argument to the test over a five year period. Half of it was given to Counterpoint's Piet Viljoen to invest in his SA-focused Value Fund; the other half to independent financial advisor Magnus Heystek, founder of Brenthurst. So far it's hardly a contest. Viljoen's R500 000 has grown to almost R600 000; Heystek's is down to around R350 000. But both caution that it's very early days, Heystek reminding us how Tiger Woods blew out in the first few holes of his first appearance at The Masters, only to regather and cruise home well clear of the competition. In this podcast with BizNews editor Alec Hogg the money managers share some important lessons they have already learnt from the exercise.

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In the Northern Drakensberg, there is a small independent primary school called the Royal Drakensberg that is educating children from the area from the age of 4–10. It was co-founded by Megan Bedingham and Loretta Mecklenborg in 2007, initially to educate their own children, but was then expanded to include children from the area and now caters for 100 children. Their mission is to transform their local area through quality education initiatives and they also provide programmes to local communities to encourage early learning and child development. To raise funds for the school and their programmes; they have an annual Big5Hike through five peaks of the Drakensberg. Bedingham told BizNews they wanted to raise R1m with this year’s hike and were looking for corporates to sponsor two peaks … and for anyone who has an urge to scale a mountain, there are places left. – Linda van Tilburg

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South Africa plans to sell a portion of its strategic petroleum reserve to plug a R6bn hole created by recent interventions aimed at easing the pain for motorists at the pump. How wise is this and what are the options?

In a wide-ranging interview with global energy market experts Justus van der Spuy and Enrico Ganter of UK-based Capital Energy Resources Limited, the South African government's recent announcement to sell a portion of its strategic crude oil reserves is in focus.

At the end of March 2022, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the state planned to use the sale to cover a R6bn shortfall to the fiscus caused by the government's cushioning of price increases at the pump. This was achieved by slashing the general fuel levy by R1.50 per litre for April and May. There are different ways to go about the sale of the strategic reserves.

Which way does it appear South Africa is leaning and what other options should be considered?

"It is not unusual that in these times of extraordinarily high prices, as well as a healthy element of physical disruption of crude oil supplies and refined products mainly from Russia, that governments worldwide are deploying strategic petroleum reserves to minimise the pain," says Van der Spuy.

He explains that if the government was to simply net sell the oil there would be an increased vulnerability to future supply disruptions. South Africa also has a relatively low emergency reserve stock level, believed to be about 10 million barrels. South Africa is a roughly one million barrel per day market meaning we have about 10 day's worth of imports, well below the 90-day commitment advocated by the International Energy Agency.

"Oil and geopolitics are first cousins," explains Van der Spuy. With the war between Ukraine and Russia entering its third month, global energy prices continue to soar with adverse economic impacts on inflation, job creation, and growth.

Gunter says the government's attempts to mitigate the impact of rising fuel prices, compounded not only by the continued conflict in Eastern Europe but by a weakening rand, should be applauded but are simply not sustainable.

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President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the termination of the National State of Disaster in early April. Any celebratory relief, however, is premature. The Draft Health Regulations published in March for public comment are highly ominous. Various organisations have spoken out against these regulations, one of them being Solidarity which has vowed to take legal action in the event that the Bill is passed.

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The pride of many South Africans could not help but swell this week when Elon Musk, the SA-born entrepreneur and richest person on the planet, acquired Twitter. Musk allegedly plans to take the social -media company private, and has said he wants Twitter to adhere more closely to the principles of free speech. As journalists, this news could not be more welcome. In response to this news, PANDA – Pandemics ~ Data & Analytics – penned the following open letter to Elon Musk.

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Ukraine’s Ambassador to South Africa, Liubov Abravitova, says she wants ordinary South Africans to know her country fights for its very existence against a Russian enemy perpetrating genocide.

Abravitova explains in her interview with BizNews – despite the efforts of many not to recognise it as such – that there has been a very real war raging in her country for over two months. It’s a war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. As is so often the case in war, civilians bear the brunt of the suffering.

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A comprehensive review of the wealth sector in Africa has found that Africa’s wealth has decreased over the last decade in dollar terms from $2.2trn to $2.1trn, and the number of millionaires with assets over $1m has dropped by 2000 from 136,000 in 2011. The number of centimillionaires and billionaires has however shot through the roof.  In their report, Henley and Partners and New World Wealth (NWW) highlighted the rise of frontier economies like Mauritius while South Africa’s performance over the past decade has been poor, with total private wealth held in the country declining by 12%. A research director at NWW, Andrew Amoils told BizNews about other trends they have identified including that many of South Africa’s super rich are abandoning their large houses and moving not only to estates, but into apartments, and investing in passion. They are predicting major growth in private wealth in South Africa and the rest of the continent in the next decade. The full report is available on the BizNews website. – Linda van Tilburg

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Ace forensic investigator Paul O' Sullivan launched his new book 'Stop Me If You Can' this week. At the launch, BizNews founder Alec Hogg sat down with O'Sullivan for a fascinating discussion on the stories contained therein.

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