BizNews Radio

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. 

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

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.

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

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.

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

News headlines:

*Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has extended South Africa’s national state of disaster by a further month.

*Leaders from South Africa’s smaller political parties are meeting today to discuss coalitions – however, the ANC and EFF have been sidelined from the talks and won’t be approached.

*Some Gauteng residents will be hit with a 54-hour shutdown of water starting Monday.

A South African writer, Damon Galgut has won the 2021 Booker Prize with his novel about a Pretoria family, The Promise. With this win, he follows in the footsteps of well-known South African writers Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee. Damon, who was shortlisted for the prize on two previous occasions, told BizNews he really imagined that being shortlisted was as far as the book would go and was taken by surprise when he happened to win.

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

Dirk Van Vlaanderen of Kagiso Asset Management shares his thoughts on Piet Viljoen and Jan Van Niekerk's listed investment vehicle - RECM Calibre.

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

EasyEquities and Purple Group CEO Charles Savage spent time with the BizNews team unpacking their highly anticipated results. EasyEquities, the group’s crown jewel, was a standout performance. The brokerage platform now has more than one million registered accounts and is growing strongly, as well as being one of South Africa’s most loved brands. The rest of the group weighed on its performance but Savage did suggest that a rebranding of the group’s trading and asset management arms were in the pipeline. Alec Hogg recently added the Purple Group to the BizNews portfolio, generating more than a 70% return in the space of a few months, an incredible return on investment. Long may it continue. 

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

Remgro’s chief investment officer Pieter Uys sits down with the BizNews team to discuss Community Investment Ventures Holdings’ (CIVH) latest proposed transaction with Vodacom. Remgro is the majority shareholder of CIVH, which houses its fibre assets: Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa (DFA). This is regarded as Remgro’s most exciting unlisted investment, with CIVH’s valuation totalling R27bn as of Remgro’s latest annual financial statements. Uys delves into the complexities of this transaction and the perceived synergies with Vodacom as one of the leading telecommunications companies on the continent.

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

Counterpoint Value Fund manager Piet Viljoen delves into a host of corporate action taking place across the local bourse. The mining mergers and acquisitions mania has continued, with a twist, as Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBK) turned down Impala Platinum’s proposed takeover to pursue a deal with competitor Northam Platinum. The Purple Group (owner of Easy Equities) also posted its financial results with the brokerage platform announcing impressive numbers. It remains one of the flagship growth companies on the JSE. Vodacom and Remgro have recently announced a partnership to grow high-flying fibre businesses Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa. Viljoen unpacks the possible synergies this could create. Lastly, Ascendis Activist Investor Harry Smit’s appointment to the board is discussed to wrap up the conversation. 

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