Classic Business

Despite Lockdown, 85% of salaries remained unchanged during the last quarter in Europe and the US, meaning saved money will be spent, and stock inventories will be replenished in the third quarter. The first wave of the global COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping South Africa and, in its wake, comes economic complexity, market uncertainty and increased lockdown anxiety. It’s easy for market and investor to become uneasy as unemployment rises and incomes remain static – not just in South Africa, but in the US and EU as well. However, in spite of limited spend and the understatement of ‘challenging times’, there remains opportunity and optimism. Paul Donovan, Chief Economist at UBS, explains the case for optimism about the economic outlook to Michael Avery

Janade du Plessis, head of alternative equity investments at Nedbank CIB

Despite serious headwinds, both on the Covid-19 and coal fronts, Exxaro Resources turned in a stellar first half performance pushing up export sales by 39% and backing that up with higher off-take from Eskom.

The end result was that thermal coal sales rose 10.7% to 22.8 million tons, which flowed through to an 18% rise in total revenue of R14.1bn, and an 11% increase in core headline earnings to R13.39/share, and the consolidation of energy revenue relating to Cennergi from April

CEO Mxolisi Mjogo spoke to Michael Avery about how the coal major responded when the massive Indian market said they were not taking the coal for international export due to Covid; whether the Cennergi EBITDA margin of 80%, is this sustainable; and the early value strategy and how we the market should reconcile that with the dearth of expansion capex over the next few years that Exxaro outlined.

Jeremy Sampson, MD of Brand Finance Africa

Prof Adrian Puren, head of the Centre for HIV and STIs at NICD

Alex Cook, CEO of wealth management firm GCI Group

Caroline Cremen, portfolio manager at Adviceworx & Charl Bester, Wealth & Portfolio manager at Kruger International

A lot of people – even those in branding – struggle with answering the question: So what’s a brand, anyway? The term “brand” first emerged more than half a century ago as a way for cattle ranchers to identify their animals. In the late 1880s, packaged goods like Coca-Cola started taking off. Brands were used to differentiate them from the generic competition.

But as branding progressed, marketers realized there was more to the brand of Coca-Cola than just a non-generic name.

David Ogilvy, the “Father of Advertising,” defined brand as “the intangible sum of a product’s attributes.” The Dictionary of Brand defines brand as “a person’s perception of a product, service, experience, or organization.”

Marty Neumeier, author and speaker on all things brand, defines brand by first laying out what a brand is not: “A brand is not a logo. A brand is not an identity. A brand is not a product.” Neumeier goes on to say that “a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.”

Prof Adrian Puren, head of the Centre for HIV and STIs at NICD

The JSE has been and continues to be very challenging for money managers and shareholders. Over the past five years to July 21, nine companies listed on the JSE have lost nearly a trillion rand (R974.9bn) in combined market value, according to Corion Capital. This represents 39% of the total Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) industry in South Africa.

Michael Avery talks to Nadir Thokan, portfolio manager at Corion Capital, about the string of poor capital allocation by management teams.