https://www.biznews.com/ Rational Radio is the weekly business news show hosted by BizNews editor Alec Hogg. It runs for around an hour and features leading commentators from the investment and financial world, including regular guest David Shapiro. Business News en Fri, 08 Nov 2019 17:34:57 +0200 Mon, 01 Feb 2021 10:00:57 +0200 30 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss iono.fm 2.5.2.0 BizNews no Weekly feeds@iono.fm (Feed Manager) https://cdn.iono.fm/files/p1500/logo_4828_20250910_202836_1400.jpeg https://www.biznews.com/ Rational Radio is the weekly business news show hosted by BizNews editor Alec Hogg. BizNews episodic BizNews alec@biznews.com false ZA https://iono.fm/e/989377 https://iono.fm/e/989377 Business News Fri, 29 Jan 2021 09:50:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Making the most of your money in 2021 0 0 BizNews full 58:39 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/989363 https://iono.fm/e/989363 Business News Fri, 22 Jan 2021 09:29:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday: Making the most of your money in 2021 - expert insights 0 0 BizNews full 53:13 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/967291 https://iono.fm/e/967291 Business News Fri, 04 Dec 2020 09:53:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Your money after the year of Covid-19 0 0 BizNews full 1:03:58 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/964358 https://iono.fm/e/964358 Business News Mon, 30 Nov 2020 09:52:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: A must-listen Naspers discussion with CFO Basil Sgourdos 0 0 BizNews full 1:07:40 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/964346 https://iono.fm/e/964346 Business News Fri, 27 Nov 2020 09:38:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Investment insights - at home and offshore 0 0 BizNews full 47:19 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/960822 https://iono.fm/e/960822 Business News Mon, 23 Nov 2020 12:44:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: The Great Covid Debate 0 0 BizNews full 1:07:01 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/959976 https://iono.fm/e/959976 Business News Fri, 20 Nov 2020 09:39:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday Webinar - Offshore investing from your SA armchair 0 0 BizNews full 55:13 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/956907 https://iono.fm/e/956907 Business News Mon, 16 Nov 2020 07:54:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: Paul O'Sullivan on Ace; political Covid; the Anchor journey 0 0 BizNews full 1:03:56 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/956418 https://iono.fm/e/956418 - Schalk Malan, the qualified actuary who is the main architect behind BrightRock’s unique human-centric life insurance. He’ll be sharing some interesting developments on innovative financial services offerings with us;
- Joburg-based financial advisor Dawn Ridler, who is popular among BizNews community members for her fiercely independent approach and incisive views on investing and personal finance; and,
- Rob Macdonald, who specialises in training financial advisors, and will share insights on the influence of behaviour on investment outcomes and why he thinks life planning is so important to financial planning. ]]> Business News Fri, 13 Nov 2020 12:28:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Innovative insurance, your money and your behaviour 0 0 BizNews full 1:00:52 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/956296 https://iono.fm/e/956296 Business News Mon, 09 Nov 2020 09:43:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: In conversation with Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie 0 0 BizNews full 1:03:59 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/956288 https://iono.fm/e/956288 Business News Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:33:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: SA investment opportunities, risks and challenges 0 0 BizNews full 56:03 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/956284 https://iono.fm/e/956284 Business News Mon, 02 Nov 2020 09:28:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio - Big Tech on the shopping block 0 0 BizNews full 1:06:22 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/954926 https://iono.fm/e/954926 Business News Fri, 30 Oct 2020 12:24:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Making the most of your assets in SA 0 0 BizNews full 59:04 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/946392 https://iono.fm/e/946392 Business News Mon, 26 Oct 2020 12:11:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: In conversation with Sasol CEO Fleetwood Grobler 0 0 BizNews full 59:40 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/946364 https://iono.fm/e/946364 Business News Fri, 23 Oct 2020 11:48:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Fractional property ownership and long-term investing 0 0 BizNews full 53:42 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/946346 https://iono.fm/e/946346 Business News Fri, 16 Oct 2020 11:26:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Helping you identify ways to build your wealth 0 0 BizNews full 52:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/946313 https://iono.fm/e/946313 Business News Mon, 12 Oct 2020 10:31:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: In discussion with Sanlam CEO Paul Hanratty 0 0 BizNews full 1:06:15 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/946305 https://iono.fm/e/946305 Business News Fri, 09 Oct 2020 10:12:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Building wealth for the long-term 0 0 BizNews full 59:57 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/935424 https://iono.fm/e/935424 Business News Tue, 06 Oct 2020 12:18:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: Tongaat Hulett on the comeback trail 0 0 BizNews full 53:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/946336 https://iono.fm/e/946336 Business News Sat, 03 Oct 2020 10:53:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Passive investing and your long-term savings 0 0 BizNews full 51:31 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/931494 https://iono.fm/e/931494 Business News Mon, 28 Sep 2020 20:25:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: The Purple Group's global disruption with Easy Equities 0 0 BizNews full 1:02:54 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/928079 https://iono.fm/e/928079 Business News Mon, 21 Sep 2020 19:41:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio - FirstRand in focus 0 0 BizNews full 1:12:03 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/927016 https://iono.fm/e/927016 Business News Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:41:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Prescribed assets and your retirement savings 0 0 BizNews full 52:28 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/924594 https://iono.fm/e/924594 Business News Tue, 15 Sep 2020 09:06:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: Aspen CEO Stephen Saad, plus the pharmaceutical giant's investment case 0 0 BizNews full 59:33 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/926919 https://iono.fm/e/926919 Business News Fri, 11 Sep 2020 14:54:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Investing in SA and abroad 0 0 BizNews full 43:57 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/923283 https://iono.fm/e/923283 Apart from David, this week's webinar also featured:
* Phil Craig, co-founder of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group on the Western Cape's desire to separate itself from the rest of SA.
* Irnest Kaplan, SA's leading independent tech stock analyst on Altron's proposed offshore listing of its Bytes UK assets in London.
* Sean Peche, the London-based owner of Ranmore Fund Management, on the great opportunities in value shares. ]]> Business News Mon, 07 Sep 2020 17:47:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: SoftBank behind Nasdaq share punt; Western Cape wants to break up with SA; Altron; value shares 0 0 BizNews full 1:10:56 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/926932 https://iono.fm/e/926932 Business News Fri, 04 Sep 2020 15:10:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Make the most of your money 0 0 BizNews full 47:46 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/926902 https://iono.fm/e/926902 * Volker Schuette, investor in Hulamin who roasted the management team at last week's Annual General Meeting.
* Patrick Duff, private equity transactor who is advising Mary Oppenheimer and Daughters in the bid for Phumelela - an offer which appears to have been trumped by UK gambling group BetFred.
* Sean Emery and Mark Barnes of the Kisby Fund, which is raising capital to assist Covid-19 stressed South African SMEs. ]]> Business News Mon, 31 Aug 2020 14:26:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: Shapiro on Satrix China; Property; Hulamin; Phumelela; Kisby 0 0 BizNews full 1:13:30 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/926954 https://iono.fm/e/926954 Business News Fri, 28 Aug 2020 15:20:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Your SA investments in era of Covid-19 0 0 BizNews full 53:51 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/927023 https://iono.fm/e/927023 Business News Fri, 21 Aug 2020 17:36:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Investing for global South Africans 0 0 BizNews full 38:02 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/911281 https://iono.fm/e/911281 Business News Thu, 20 Aug 2020 15:26:00 +0200 0 0 Phumelela's Business Rescue plan for horseracing 0 0 BizNews full 1:05:04 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/926887 https://iono.fm/e/926887 * Piet Viljoen, executive chairman of RE:CM shared his "local is lekker" perspective of South African investment opportunities.
* Nick Hudson, co-ordinator of PANDA shared insights into Lockdown Level 2 and the concept of Herd Immunity.
* Dave Woollam, former banker and CA who blew the whistle on Tongaat Hulett, with a progress report after the group's last set of numbers which included news that the former CEO and other executives are about to be criminally charged.
* Kokkie Kooyman of Denker Capital on Warren Buffett's latest surprise changes to his portfolio - selling Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs; buying Bank of America and Barrick Gold. ]]> Business News Mon, 17 Aug 2020 14:03:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: Swapping banks for gold; local is lekker; Tongaat and Herd Immunity 0 0 BizNews full 1:17:48 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/926988 https://iono.fm/e/926988 Business News Fri, 14 Aug 2020 16:19:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Investing for global South Africans 0 0 BizNews full 39:46 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/908073 https://iono.fm/e/908073 Business News Fri, 14 Aug 2020 15:17:00 +0200 0 0 Tim Modise asks law-enforcers: where are we on arresting corruption in South Africa? 0 0 BizNews full 1:01:54 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/908047 https://iono.fm/e/908047 Business News Fri, 14 Aug 2020 14:42:00 +0200 0 0 OrbVest: Peace of mind that while living locally, your wealth can build in the USA 0 0 BizNews full 52:35 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/907953 https://iono.fm/e/907953 Business News Fri, 14 Aug 2020 14:03:00 +0200 0 0 Reimagining post-pandemic SA with Discovery founders - Adrian Gore and Barry Swartzberg 0 0 BizNews full 1:12:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/908063 https://iono.fm/e/908063 Business News Fri, 07 Aug 2020 15:07:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Investing offshore 0 0 BizNews full 49:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/926973 https://iono.fm/e/926973 Business News Fri, 31 Jul 2020 15:44:00 +0200 0 0 BizNews Finance Friday webinar: Investing offshore 0 0 BizNews full 50:47 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/894974 https://iono.fm/e/894974 Apart from David, this week's webinar also featured:
* Shayne Krige of PANDA - Director at Werksmans and member of PANDA, the independent group of actuaries and professionals, on the latest mortality numbers for South Africa and the Press Council complaint lodged by Prof Boulle of UCT, who wants Biznews to apologise for publishing PANDA's supplied articles.
* Rob Rose, editor of Financial Mail, who spent part of his weekend working through Judge Sunet Potterill's 54 page judgement lashing basic education minister Angie Motshekga and eight provincial education heads who froze the feeding scheme for 9m children. Rose described this as "the most shameful moment of SA's lockdown."
* Johann van Loggerenberg the former head of investigations at SARS was the only African invited to participate in a Euromonitor Round Table on Illicit Trade in a Covid-19 Era with none other experts from around the world. The conclusions were shocking - Johann shared them with us and provided insights into how the cigarette and alcohol bans are giving billions to organised crime in SA too. ]]> Business News Mon, 20 Jul 2020 20:20:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: 9m kids go hungry; Shapiro on vaccine-fuelled markets; Illegal trade boom; PANDA 0 0 BizNews full 1:13:36 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/890459 https://iono.fm/e/890459 * Nick Hudson of PANDA - responding to the oblique mention in president Cyril Ramaphosa's speech last night (and projections of 40,000 to 50,000 covid-19 deaths) and whether the new regulations like banning alcohol and a night-time curfew actually help fight the pandemic;
* Grant Back and Glen Smith - SAA Pilots Association chairman and chief negotiator provide context on their battle with the Department of Public Enterprises. ]]> Business News Mon, 13 Jul 2020 20:30:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: David Shapiro calling spades shovels; Lockdown contractions; SAA pilots rescue plan 0 0 BizNews full 1:10:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/886847 https://iono.fm/e/886847 * Duncan Artus - Long-time portfolio manager at Allan Gray who was last week promoted as the money managing giant's Chief Investment Officer.
* Nick Hudson - Co-founder of PANDA, the group of actuaries and other professionals who're using data to question modelling of Covid-19 pandemic in SA.
* Sean Emery - Founder of Rainfin and director of the innovative Kisby SME Fund which was launched on Thursday. ]]> Business News Mon, 06 Jul 2020 14:50:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: David Shapiro on 'crazy markets'; Allan Gray's new CIO; Covid-19 modelling; Kisby 0 0 BizNews full 1:07:40 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/869093 https://iono.fm/e/869093 The other guests June 1 included:
* Denker Capital's Kokkie Kooyman, SA's leading financial services investment analyst who revisited his brilliant call of a few weeks ago to buy banking shares (which have surged since).
* Retired airline pilot and ex chairman of the SAA Pilot's Association Jimmy Conroy who was instrumental in bringing the court case against former SAA chair Dudu Myeni. He spent days working on the case and was in court every day of the trial.
* Anthony Levine who published a fascinating piece on Biznews last week unpacking how economics doesn't conform to the wills and desires of politicians who ignore it at their peril - and how the God of Economics has been snubbed by South Africa's Labour Relations Act. ]]> Business News Mon, 01 Jun 2020 16:07:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: SAA uncut, snubbing God of Economics and local banking insights. 0 0 BizNews full 1:16:09 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/865661 https://iono.fm/e/865661 Business News Mon, 25 May 2020 19:47:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio 25 May: Disrupters vs Disrupted, Tiger Brands and Lockdown's 'burden of proof' 0 0 BizNews full 1:05:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/858504 https://iono.fm/e/858504 * The threat to 100,000 horse racing jobs is very real, with no guarantee a R100m Oppenheimer bailout will save the teetering sector from a Government that refuses to allow 65 people on course to conduct a race meeting; and
* Business for South Africa's Martin Kingston - who heads Rothschilds in SA - addresses the tough question about the stifling Level 4 lockdown; why B4SA is calling for a lifting to level 2; and why president Cyril Ramaphosa doesn't trust his fellow citizens to act responsibly. ]]> Business News Mon, 11 May 2020 15:55:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio - full show: Blocked racing threatens 100,000 jobs; Lockdown logic unpacked by B4SA's Martin Kingston 0 0 BizNews full 1:21:23 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/855005 https://iono.fm/e/855005 Business News Mon, 04 May 2020 15:47:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: MJ picks SA's post-lockdown winning, losing sectors; Sygnia's big stake in Oxford's Covid-19 vaccine 0 0 BizNews full 1:18:57 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/852276 https://iono.fm/e/852276 Business News Tue, 28 Apr 2020 13:26:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio 28 April, the full show: David Shapiro on Sasol; GG Alcock, Prof Whiteside and Chris Yelland 0 0 BizNews full 59:56 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/848144 https://iono.fm/e/848144 Business News Mon, 20 Apr 2020 15:30:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio 20 April: Shapiro/Alcock on what happens after lockdown; A new way for SAA; Making respirators in PMB 0 0 BizNews full 1:02:27 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/841872 https://iono.fm/e/841872 Business News Mon, 06 Apr 2020 14:58:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio 6 April 2020: Covid-19 story that scared Shapiro; GG warns on township riots; Bonang the White Knight 0 0 BizNews full 53:06 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/838520 https://iono.fm/e/838520
* SA's favourite market commentator David Shapiro;
* Kasinomics author GG Alcock on how the informal sector is being hit by SA's 21 day lockdown;
* PingAn Health deputy CEO Alain Peddle (from Shanghai) providing visibility from China on how long the Covid-19 Crisis is likely to last;
* Mary Vilakazi, COO of FirstRand sharing details of how the group's R100m donation to fight Covid-19 will be applied - the first R20m already has been;
* Philip Geromont of ENS unpacks the obligations of businesses to continue paying rent during the 21 day lockdown (hint: bad news for landlords); and
* Brendan Mullen of impact investor Secha Capital explains how SMEs are being hit by the lockdown - and an easy way to unlock the credit freeze ]]> Business News Mon, 30 Mar 2020 16:05:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: The full show March 30, 2020 0 0 BizNews full 58:25 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/836112 https://iono.fm/e/836112 Business News Wed, 25 Mar 2020 06:05:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio 23 March - Investing in world at war with germs; Sol Kerzner; Ocean Basket; maths for all. 0 0 BizNews full 1:15:05 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/836109 https://iono.fm/e/836109 Business News Wed, 25 Mar 2020 06:02:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio 16 March: Coronavirus fever hits SA; plus Estate Duty ripoff 0 0 BizNews full 1:01:25 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/836108 https://iono.fm/e/836108 * New Nampak CEO Erik Smuts;
* SA's favourite market commentator David Shapiro on Sasol, Anglo, Pioneer and more;
* Acting CEO George Manyere gives his side of the Ecsponent story; while Brenthurst Wealth's Magnus Heystek pokes a few holes;
* First Avenue's Hlelo Giyose on the group's innovative recruitment policies;
* BDO's Jabulani Debedu on coronavirus and the impact on travel;
* Scenario planner Clem Sunter unpacks three potential coronavirus outcomes;
* Alisson Collier, the MD of Endeavour SA on supporting the country's entrepreneurs; and
* Chris Logan on Nampak and the sale of coal fired power stations. ]]> Business News Wed, 25 Mar 2020 05:55:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio 9 March: New Nampak CEO; Ecsponent from two sides; Coronavirus scenarios; Sasol and more 0 0 BizNews full 1:19:27 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/826775 https://iono.fm/e/826775 Business News Thu, 05 Mar 2020 21:48:00 +0200 0 0 Alec Hogg's roadshow presentation: Investing after Budget 2020 0 0 BizNews full 1:07:46 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/824715 https://iono.fm/e/824715 * David Woollam, accountant and shareholder activist gives perspective on Tongaat's R5.35bn sale of its Starch business - selling the crown jewels?
* Former Google SA boss and successful tech entrepreneur Stafford Masie explains why he decided to leave the start-up world to run WeWork SA.
* Kevin Shames of Bright Light Solar report back on the capital raise for this 12J company which closed last week - and what happens next.
* Brian van Rooyen, former SARFU chief and founder of Labat Africa shares his two year plan that has created the JSE's first Cannabis company.
* Wikus Marais, co-founder of Citadel and now director of Classic Personal Wealth, gives perspective on why Coronavirus has hit markets so hard.
* David Shapiro, SA's favourite market commentator, explains why he sees such amazing value in some JSE listed stocks, and the ones he likes most.
* KFC South Africa's best franchisee, 41-store owner Burt Gunning emerges from his self imposed low profile to share his story. ]]> Business News Mon, 02 Mar 2020 15:41:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: WeWork's SA ambitions, JSE's Cannabis play; Buy on Coronavirus dip?; KFC's top gun; and more 0 0 BizNews full 1:41:48 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/821262 https://iono.fm/e/821262 Durban schoolteachers Gary and Andy Cronje who provide an on the ground feedback from a China returning ti normal after the Coronavirus;
SA's favourite market commentator David Shapiro who sees bargains in Sasol and Discovery after a broad selloff in the JSE;
Electrical engineer Chris Yelland explains where blame lies for the possible 5 years of loadshedding via the disasters called Medupi and Kusile;
Bright Light Solar's Kevin Shames updates us on the soon to close Prospectus offering top marginal rate taxpayers a 21% effective rate;
In our fortnightly Bookworm slot, FirstRand chairman Roger Jardine shares what he is reading now and recommends Malcolm Gladwell's latest;
Entrepreneur Pierre vd Hoven shares his thoughts on SA's evolving Cannabis industry post the boost it got from Cyril Ramaphosa in last week's SONA;
And shareholder activist Dave Woollam assesses the explosion of unsecured lending, asking whether Capitec's model is morally sustainable. ]]> Business News Mon, 24 Feb 2020 16:09:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: China normalising; Sasol, Discovery bargains; FSR chair's book tips; 5 years of Eskom loadshedding? 0 0 BizNews full 1:41:50 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/813675 https://iono.fm/e/813675 * David Shapiro on Tesla, the Coronavirus, confused politicians and what should be in Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation address;
* Grant Back, chairman of the SAA Pilot's Association explains that what the airline needs is an experienced CEO - the sooner the better;
* Bernard Hotz, partner at Werksmans provides the back story to the National Prosecuting Authority withdrawing charges against Johan van Loggerenberg;
*Rene Bekker COO of SARIPA provides background to the Special Investigations Unit being told to get into Master's offices, liquidations sector;
* Cathy Khoury-Prinsloo of the all-woman run feed business Groenvoer blows whistle on a captured Dept of Agriculture which is protecting counterfeiters; * Historian Michael Charton, creator of "My Father's Coat" is this week's Bookworm with a couple of must-read suggestions. ]]> Business News Mon, 10 Feb 2020 13:49:00 +0200 0 0 Alec Hogg's Rational Radio 10 Feb - SAA; Tesla; State rips off Groenvoer; and much more 0 0 BizNews full 1:02:12 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/810285 https://iono.fm/e/810285 * David Shapiro - Tongaat v Brait; Tiger Brands; Apple, Amazon, Netflix results
* Gary and Andy Cronje - Saffers living in the middle of Coronavirus Land
* Chris Yelland - The public debut of Eskom CEO; how Joburg can ignore Eskom's loadshedding directive.
* Pierre van der Hoven - Why Canadians have the jump on SA's potentially huge cannabis industry, and what must be done to catch up.
* Lydia Petersen - An activist at the NERSA hearing representing civil society that's taking on Eskom - fighting the proposed 15% tariff increase
* Francois Nortje - Visionary behind the Port of Gauteng - could be the answer to Transnet's new broom Portia Derby ]]> Business News Mon, 03 Feb 2020 13:51:00 +0200 0 0 Alec Hogg's Rational Radio - Incl. Saffers in Coronavirusland; Eskom; Tiger Brands; Cannabis; Transnet 0 0 BizNews full 1:18:59 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/807091 https://iono.fm/e/807091 * SA's favourite market commentator David Shapiro applies his mind to whether prescribed assets are coming back, NHI and Discovery, and the shareholder revolt at the Phumelela AGM;
* Opportune SA's Chris Logan with feedback from Friday's Tongaat AGM;
* Author and former head of the SARS investigative unit Johann van Loggerenberg explains the relevance of the fall of the once all powerful Tobacco Institute of SA
* Bright Light Solar's Kevin Shames explains how his 12J company is able to deliver an effective 21%pa return to investors; and
* Rudolph du Plessis of Herbert Smith Freehills looks into the major investment trend of the future through his firm's report on the growing importance of ESG in mergers and acquisitions. ]]> Business News Mon, 27 Jan 2020 14:27:00 +0200 0 0 Alec Hogg's Rational Radio - Focus on prescribed assets, NHI, Tongaat, tax fraud and ESG 0 0 BizNews full 59:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/803822 https://iono.fm/e/803822 * David Shapiro on Naspers, Richemont, Davos and where he'd invest
* Editor and author Rob Rose on the FM's legal challenge to Steinhoff
* Paul O'Sullivan explains why Markus Jooste, Martin Levick aren't in jail
* Kevin Shames unpacks appeal of solar power combining with 12J benefits
* Collen Dlamini warns SA risks R34bn in US exports with proposed new law
* Nick Binedell shares what he's reading - and other books he loved
* Arran Kerkvliet explains why buy-to-rent returns much better in UK than SA ]]> Business News Mon, 20 Jan 2020 14:36:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio Jan 20th - this week's full show 0 0 BizNews full 1:24:46 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/803082 https://iono.fm/e/803082 Business News Sat, 18 Jan 2020 11:58:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Prosus’ failed bid for JustEat & why it pays to go global 0 0 BizNews full 18:03 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/800442 https://iono.fm/e/800442 Business News Mon, 13 Jan 2020 14:21:00 +0200 0 0 This week's full show - Rational Radio focus on Eskom, Prosus, Comair, MTN and more 0 0 BizNews full 1:11:32 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/799991 https://iono.fm/e/799991 Business News Sun, 12 Jan 2020 12:04:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: A deep dive into the darkness at Eskom 0 0 BizNews full 22:23 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/793425 https://iono.fm/e/793425 Business News Thu, 19 Dec 2019 11:31:00 +0200 0 0 SLR's on Boris, Corbyn, Scotland and impact on SA of massive UK election swing. 0 0 BizNews full 20:16 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/791913 https://iono.fm/e/791913 Business News Sat, 14 Dec 2019 12:07:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Looking back at 2019… and ahead to 2020 0 0 BizNews full 16:44 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/788939 https://iono.fm/e/788939 Business News Sun, 08 Dec 2019 12:05:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Forget Ramaphoria, it’s time to get real 0 0 BizNews full 19:12 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/786052 https://iono.fm/e/786052 David Shapiro, who unpacks similarities between Tongaat and Steinhoff, assesses SAA and explains Discovery founder and CEO Adrian Gore's R1.4bn share option transaction.
Chris Logan of Opportune who has been on the Tongaat management case for the past five years so is well placed to explain how the tragedy occurred.
Tracey Davies of shareholder activist NGO JustShare who reports back on the Sasol and FirstRand AGMs.
Johann van Loggerenberg, the crimefighter who paid heavily for his efforts, tells us why Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is on the money when calling for "intrusive" investigative units at SA Revenue Services.
Duncan Artus, director of Allan Gray, applies his mind to Sasol, Naspers, Impala Platinum and the man who interviewed him for his job, the late Allan Gray himself.
Azar Jammine, chief economist at Econometrix, explains why the IMF sent a surveillance team to SA last month and why their findings are hugely relevant - and a timeous warning that economics must trump politics this time. ]]> Business News Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:03:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: Tongaat, Sasol, Adrian Gore's shares and SARS Investigative unit 0 0 BizNews full 1:10:08 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/785432 https://iono.fm/e/785432 Business News Sat, 30 Nov 2019 11:59:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Tongaat and companies run by and for managers 0 0 BizNews full 14:51 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/781397 https://iono.fm/e/781397 Business News Mon, 25 Nov 2019 22:24:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: The FirstRand unbundling & SA’s junk rating 0 0 BizNews full 20:16 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/781186 https://iono.fm/e/781186 SA's favourite market watcher David Shapiro on ESG investing, Sasol and Naspers/Prosus;
Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine warns that the S&P rating report on SA has major implications for long-term interest rates;
SABC chairman Bongumusa Makhathini attacks the Sunday Times's weekend report by defending his board's call to engage with the State Security Agency;
Forensics For Justice founder Paul O'Sullivan explains why he's gunning for Absa accused of aiding and abetting money launderers;
Tracey Davies, director of shareholder activist Justshare previews the questions she will be posing to Sasol and FirstRand at this week's AGMs;
and Re:CM founder Piet Viljoen talks about former boss Allan Gray's passing, former employer Investec Asset Management's renaming, the FirstRand unbundling, and the disaster called Tiger Brands.  ]]> Business News Mon, 25 Nov 2019 15:22:00 +0200 0 0 This week's Rational Radio - Sasol, Shapiro, O'Sullivan, S&P and SABC 0 0 BizNews full 1:03:28 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/777723 https://iono.fm/e/777723 David Shapiro on Sasol, Eskom, SAA and the markets.
Jared Watson explains why he laid criminal charges against former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi - and got landed with a defamation suit for his trouble.
Jean-Pierre Verster takes a close look at the latest news from Steinhoff and explains why Richemont's planned assault on China won't work.
Magnus Heystek tells us why the Rugby World Cup victory might have been one of the worst things to happen for SA's financial future.
Perry Feldman explains how the Free Market Foundation has intervened to get 8 500 title deeds to give under-privileged South Africans ownership of the houses they have occupied, sometimes for decades.    
Independent financial advisor David Melvill explains why he is at war with an unyielding Sanlam threatening to have him debarred because he employed his errant (but since officially rehabilitated) son as a personal assistant. ]]> Business News Mon, 18 Nov 2019 18:13:00 +0200 0 0 This week's Rational Radio: Eskom, Sasol, Richemont, Steinhoff and bully-boy Sanlam 0 0 BizNews full 1:16:30 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/776941 https://iono.fm/e/776941 Business News Sat, 16 Nov 2019 12:11:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Orbvest and SAA and the DA, oh my! 0 0 BizNews full 18:38 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/772518 https://iono.fm/e/772518 Business News Sat, 09 Nov 2019 13:12:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Inside the Biznews/Lebashe deal and what’s next 0 0 BizNews full 17:49 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771211 https://iono.fm/e/771211 Business News Sat, 19 Oct 2019 11:10:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: What can we learn from Metaco and Comair? 0 0 BizNews full 16:18 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771212 https://iono.fm/e/771212 Business News Sat, 12 Oct 2019 11:05:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: The Guptas, Angelo Agrizzi, and Iqbal Survé 0 0 BizNews full 16:05 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771213 https://iono.fm/e/771213 Business News Sat, 05 Oct 2019 11:49:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Behind our apology to Minister Fikile Mbalula 0 0 BizNews full 23:24 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771214 https://iono.fm/e/771214 Business News Fri, 04 Oct 2019 08:29:00 +0200 0 0 Meet Masa Son - the "crazy" Vision Fund founder backing WeWork and Uber 0 0 BizNews full 22:18 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771215 https://iono.fm/e/771215 Business News Sat, 28 Sep 2019 11:08:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Behind the failures of WeWork, Uber, et al 0 0 BizNews full 16:12 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771216 https://iono.fm/e/771216 Business News Fri, 27 Sep 2019 13:58:00 +0200 0 0 Nutshell: Agrizzi - chess master or genuine; O’Sullivan’s unwavering mission; Trump Impeachment? WeWork or WeDon'tWork 0 0 BizNews full 29:58 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771217 https://iono.fm/e/771217 Paul O'Sullivan, founder of Forensics For Justice, reports back after a morning at the courts where he is defending himself in a harassment charge levelled by a businessman he accuses of paying R60m in bribes to land R4bn in contracts from Eskom.
South Africa's favourite market commentator David Shapiro applies his mind to the prospect of SA's highly rated Capitec Bank eyeing its UK lookalike Metrobank, whose market value has plummeted 95% in just over a year to a very affordable £300m. Shapiro also looks at similarities in the fall from grace of the WeWork and Uber CEOs.
Chartered accountant Jared Watson joins the dots in the Bosasa Files, explosive documentary evidence which his uncle Gavin was due to hand to the authorities in the week he died. Watson also shares his views on Zondo Commission "whistleblower" Angelo Agrizzi's cosy relationships with leading officials in the DA and News24 editor Adriaan Basson. ]]> Business News Wed, 25 Sep 2019 14:12:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio - the full show featuring O'Sullivan, Shapiro, Watson. 0 0 BizNews full 1:02:18 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771218 https://iono.fm/e/771218 Business News Sun, 22 Sep 2019 11:17:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Alec Hogg on prescribed assets & Mboweni's plans 0 0 BizNews full 18:00 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771219 https://iono.fm/e/771219 Business News Fri, 20 Sep 2019 11:36:00 +0200 0 0 Nutshell: Rush for US visas; Prescribed Assets debate; Search Fund investing; Richemont, Prosus and superfast 5G 0 0 BizNews full 29:25 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771220 https://iono.fm/e/771220 Bernie Wolfsdorf, the Durbanite who has been the top US immigration lawyer for seven of the last ten years;
Willem Roos, chief executive of the data-only mobile phone company Rain which today launched 5G - the first in Africa to do so.
Brendan Mullen, former consultant who discovered the hot new concept of Search Investing which is sweeping across the world - and SA.
David Shapiro talks about Sasol, Naspers, Prosus and much more in his regular slot on the markets;
Andrew Canter makes a very strong case against the proposal by the ANC government to re-introduce Prescribed Asset requirements for pension funds;
And Valance Watson on why his brother Gavin's "suicide" wasn't - the family has compelling new evidence showing he died before the car crashed.  ]]> Business News Wed, 18 Sep 2019 14:10:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio 18 Sept 2019 - The Full Show 0 0 BizNews full 1:02:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771221 https://iono.fm/e/771221 The Naspers spin-off, Prosus arrived with a bang in Amsterdam with its share price soaring and we have CFO Basil Sgourdos explaining what will happen next. The interim CEO of Absa, Rene van Wyk looks at where the banking group plans to expand in the future. As South Africa struggles to overcome its economic woes, with the latest business confidence index at the lowest in 20 years; there are increasing calls for an IMF bailout but economist Dawie Roodt says the country does not need IMF help. Labour lawyer, Michael Bagraim tells the story of how junior doctors who took two chairs from a junk heap got into trouble. And there is a story of how Gary Hopkins tries to bridge the gap between the world of the hearing and the deaf by employing mostly deaf barristers. - Linda van Tilburg ]]> Business News Fri, 13 Sep 2019 13:36:00 +0200 0 0 Nutshell: Prosus soaring debut; Absa CEO; IMF bailout unnecessary; Chair theft debacle; Barista jobs for the deaf 0 0 BizNews full 29:58 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771222 https://iono.fm/e/771222 In the lineup: Naspers listing in Amsterdam this morning - commentary from Naspers FD Basil Sgourdos who was there when the bell was rung.
More on the debate around Discovery allegedly overstating its assets with SA's financial services icon Kokkie Kooyman of Denker Capital.
Investment markets with David Shapiro who praises Naspers but had some very different thoughts about Sasol, Aspen and Old Mutual.
Lawyer Michael Bagraim on the tale of three young medical doctors at the Tygerberg Hospital - one of whom was fired and two others suspended - when they retrieved a couple of chairs from the hospital's dump to fix and use in the doctor's tea room.
Plus the uplifting story of social entrepreneur Gary Hopkins whose "I Love Coffee" franchise is helping to change prospects for deaf people, one barista at a time. ]]> Business News Wed, 11 Sep 2019 13:59:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio - the full show: 11 September 2019 0 0 BizNews full 1:04:28 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771223 https://iono.fm/e/771223 Since 2013, historian Peter Hennessy has picked four of his country’s highest profile politicians for in-depth interviews that explore their formative influences, experiences and impressions of people they had known.
The final interview of the Seventh Series’ of Reflections with Peter Hennessy featured South African-raised anti-apartheid icon Lord Peter Hain. Aired last month, the interview provides unique insights into Hain, whose family were ejected from their homeland because of their political activism. Although best known for leading the sports boycott against white South Africa, Hain also became British MP for 24 years, served in the cabinets of two Prime Ministers and was knighted after his retirement in 2015.
The peerage opened the door for Hain’s participation in the House of Lords, where his contribution to his former homeland has been immense through exposing the Guptas, Bell Pottinger and multinational companies which participated in the pillage of State Capture.  
Here, with kind permission of the BBC, are the two Peters – Hennessy and Hain…… ]]> Business News Tue, 10 Sep 2019 14:30:00 +0200 0 0 BBC goes in-depth with SA anti-apartheid hero Peter Hain 0 0 BizNews full 44:22 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771224 https://iono.fm/e/771224 Business News Sat, 07 Sep 2019 11:23:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: The WEF, the Joburg riots, and the President 0 0 BizNews full 19:47 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771225 https://iono.fm/e/771225 Xenophobia and femicide protests dampened President Cyril Ramaphosa investment drive at the World Economic Forum in Africa which is taking place in Cape Town but it gave Alec Hogg the opportunity to put questions from the Biznews community to some of the business leaders at the forum. Deloitte's Martyn Davies said the protests outside the conference centre were a sign of people wanting to see action in Southern Africa. There was widespread support among business leaders attending the WEF including that of Absa's Jeff Gable's for Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's economic turnaround plan. The Gordon Institute of Business founder, Nick Binedell probes the issues of robots and jobs, education policy and the intended National Health Insurance. PWC's African Head Dion Shango sees opportunities in population growth, not only challenges. We also tap into the issue of psychopaths and business with prof Heidi Maibom from the University of Cincinatti and get a preview of the annual Apple reveal. - Linda van Tilburg
  ]]> Business News Fri, 06 Sep 2019 10:44:00 +0200 0 0 WEF - SA wants direction; Opportunities in robots, population growth; Support for Tito’s plan; Psychopaths; Apple 0 0 BizNews full 29:26 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771226 https://iono.fm/e/771226 Business News Sun, 01 Sep 2019 10:55:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Steinhoff, the Watsons, & the need for balance 0 0 BizNews full 16:42 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771227 https://iono.fm/e/771227 The mystery surrounding Bosasa CEO, Gavin Watson's death deepens with Judge Zondo revealing that he had asked Watson for an affidavit, as his nephew Jared speaks to Alec Hogg about his role in helping Gavin. Bernard Mostert talks about the decision of his CEO Braam van Huyssteen to forgive Markus Jooste and their quest to get Tekkie Town back. Dawn Ridler gives advice on how to grow your wealth with ETF's, while Candice Paine lifts the lid on loan sharks. And Allan Knott-Craig explains why he has adopted the attitude of "Don't worry, be happy" that got so many from the Biznews community talking. - Linda van Tilburg ]]> Business News Fri, 30 Aug 2019 08:54:00 +0200 0 0 Watson mystery deepens; Jooste forgiven; Tito’s turnaround plan; ETF wealth growth; Manage loan sharks 0 0 BizNews full 29:53 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771228 https://iono.fm/e/771228 Tech entrepreneur Alan Knott-Craig gives us the back story to his well-read piece on why he has no intention of joining those on SA's emigration bus.
Independent financial advisor Candice Paine makes her first of what we hope are many appearances answering a tough financial problem being faced by a member of the Biznews Community.
Chartered accountant Jared Watson, who spent months helping put together a 400 page submission that his now late uncle Gavin, Bosasa CEO, was to hand into the SARS tax inquiry on his scheduled appearance today.  
SA's favourite market commentator David Shapiro takes a deep dive into an analysts report which criticises Discovery's accounting policies; with commentary on two other newsmakers - Sasol and Naspers.
A fascinating interview with former Tekkie Town CEO Bernard Mostert on how he and founder Braam van Huyssteen had their R3.3bn business stolen by Steinhoff, which has adopted a "Stalingrad Defence" in the courts, despite overwhelming evidence. The interview contains some surprises. ]]> Business News Wed, 28 Aug 2019 11:18:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: August 28 - the full show 0 0 BizNews full 1:11:00 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771229 https://iono.fm/e/771229 Business News Sun, 25 Aug 2019 20:05:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Listen in as Alec & Felicity argue about GG Alcock 0 0 BizNews full 28:42 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771230 https://iono.fm/e/771230   ]]> Business News Fri, 23 Aug 2019 07:46:00 +0200 0 0 Nutshell: Worldview on Eskom finances; Jobless or township entrepreneurs; Beware company cockroaches; Agrizzi vs Watson 0 0 BizNews full 29:32 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771231 https://iono.fm/e/771231  
Nick Smith-Saville of Debtwire (London) on Eskom - debt, recovery prospects and tax burden.
Ram Ottapathu, founder of retailer Choppies, who has been accused of using the now suspended JSE-listed company's money to buy shares for himself in a private business
Mike Wylie, outgoing chairman of WBHO on how the once tiny company has grown to be the last major construction business still standing in SA - the secret sauce (hint: five qualities they look for in people)
David Shapiro on Markets, as always and casting his eye at Discovery, Aspen, Sasol and other fallen angels... today....
GG Alcock, following up on his excellent article on Biznews which explained why SA unemployment is more like 12% than 29% - it's the informal sector...
And James Styan, author of the new book The Bosasa Billions which has sold out of its first print run within a few days of it being on the shelves. ]]> Business News Wed, 21 Aug 2019 14:41:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio - The full show, 21 August 2019 0 0 BizNews full 1:09:27 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771232 https://iono.fm/e/771232 Business News Wed, 21 Aug 2019 13:49:00 +0200 0 0 Alec Hogg: "Why South Africa is a fat pitch for long-term investors." 0 0 BizNews full 32:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771233 https://iono.fm/e/771233 On inquiring, a story emerged that the construction of a massive mixed use development had been stalled for so long that the corrosive effects of the sea air meant the entire structure might need to be demolished. I passed on the scuttlebutt during our July 27 episode of From The Editor’s Desk with my colleague Felicity Duncan.
On Friday, at the invitation of Vivian Reddy, the central character in the R3.4bn Oceans development, I heard the real story. And got a lot more than bargained for.
It provided a rare opportunity to ping tough questions at the media-shy billionaire who worked his way up from poverty to owning the largest electrical contracting business on the African continent. And from his responses, was left with the impression that the tall poppy Reddy attracts far more malignant attention - and gossip - than he deserves.
To begin Reddy was justifiably testy, but the conversation improved and ended in a real highlight as you’ll hear as we close… ]]> Business News Mon, 19 Aug 2019 16:14:00 +0200 0 0 Meet billionaire Vivian Reddy: If you can dream it, you can live it.... 0 0 BizNews full 34:47 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771234 https://iono.fm/e/771234 Business News Sat, 17 Aug 2019 13:01:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Looks like we owe you an apology, Vivian Reddy 0 0 BizNews full 18:16 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771235 https://iono.fm/e/771235 Ideology including land expropriation and a national health service looms over the South African economy with a warning from Bloomberg that President Ramaphosa's left-wing alliance members are hampering reform.
Expropriation without compensation is reaching its last phase; the Institute for Race Relations' Terence Corrigan explains why he thinks it may be opening the door to amending other laws with a simple majority.
The bill providing for National Health Insurance is scrutinised and Dawn Ridler gives insight on steps to take to mitigate its damaging effect.
The NHI ravaged shares in medical service companies with Discovery bearing the brunt. Analyst David Shapiro suspects more may lie behind the large drops.
Steinhoff CEO Louis du Preez lifts the lid - a little - on what is going on in the company in the aftermath of large scale corruption.
And Wilhelm Hertzog from Rozendal partners unpacks what it all means. ]]> Business News Fri, 16 Aug 2019 10:12:00 +0200 0 0 Ideology trips Ramaphosa; Anti-expropriation drive ramps up; NHI deflates Discovery; Steinhoff 0 0 BizNews full 29:49 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771236 https://iono.fm/e/771236 Terence Corrigan of the IRR on the basics of why Expropriation Without Compensation will be an economic disaster;
Econometrix's Azar Jammine explains why emigration from SA is picking up and what it will mean for the country's already small personal income tax base;
Rhanzo Mukansi of Futuregrowth looks at what a world of negative bond yields (Germany is there, US following) tells us about the state of the world;
Money manager Wilhelm Hertzog reports back from the Steinhoff Investor Presentation, explaining why buying the JSE-listed shares is a "coin toss";
David Shapiro on Discovery's R15bn financial "hole" that isn't, but why he is still not buying the stock at its current bargain basement price;
ex-Sunday Times journalist Malcolm Rees explains why he made a public apology to former SARS investigations chief Johann van Loggerenberg.  ]]> Business News Wed, 14 Aug 2019 18:25:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio - The full show: 14 August 2019 0 0 BizNews full 1:00:05 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771237 https://iono.fm/e/771237 Business News Sun, 11 Aug 2019 11:12:00 +0200 0 0 Editor’s Desk: Shining a light on the Stellenbosch Mafia exposé 0 0 BizNews full 18:52 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771238 https://iono.fm/e/771238 Pieter du Toit, the author of theThe Stellenbosch Mafia, provides interesting insights with his interviews with Johan Rupert and former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste;
Forensic investigator Paul O'Sullivan says he won't rest until law firms and the companies that helped state capture come clean;
Paul Hoffman from Accountability Now, says Parliament should hang its head in shame that they are allowing the Public Protector, Busi Mkhwebane to continue;
CemAir's Miles van der Molen, a the victim of SA Express; and
Amanda Maidman, an ice cream entrepreneur from Kwazulu-Natal who not only tries to perfect fabulous flavours; is also a firm supporter of Work4ALiving. ]]> Business News Fri, 09 Aug 2019 08:16:00 +0200 0 0 Nutshell: The Stellenbosch Mafia; Hogan Lovells SA disintegrates; Parliament's shame over PP; CemAir strangled 0 0 BizNews full 29:59 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771239 https://iono.fm/e/771239 Paul Hoffman of Accountability Now who has fired two three more salvos at the embattled Public Protector who, in his words, has five fires burning under her bum....... it was a criminal charge laid by Hoffman which has led to Busiswe Mkhwebane being investigated by the Hawks. The advocate says she faces a stiff jail sentence for perjury. 
Miles van der Molen founder and CEO of Cemair is an entrepreneur after all of our hearts; his 20 aircraft business which flies to smaller centres like Hoedspruit, Plett, Sishen and Richards Bay was almost put out of business by an illegal grounding order (the courts have ruled it such) by the Civil Aviation Authority - and is dragging its feet on allowing the airline back into the skies. As if that's not enough, his competitor SA Express has been predatory pricing against  Cemair - an airline heavily subsidised by the State, having received R1.5bn in the past year according to the Free Market Foundation....
Paul O'Sullivan who is delighted to see another multinational implicated in State Capture hit hard - last week legal firm Hogan Lovells lost three quarters of its SA partners and lawyers who have set up independently......O'Sullivan wants punitive damages and explains why he will be like a "hyena" tracking those lawyers who facilitated State Capture.
David Shapiro on the turbulent markets, the downward spiral of Aspen ("sell" he advises) and shares how he came to dub the Afrikaner business leaders who congregate in a Western Cape town a name that's now become the title of SA's best selling book. 
And Pieter du Toit (pictured), author of Sa's best-selling book of the moment, The Stellenbosch Mafia, provides the back story. we soon realise he's the perfect person to have written about Rupert, Jooste, Wiese and Co.......and proves equally adept as an interviewee.   ]]> Business News Wed, 07 Aug 2019 17:03:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio - the full show, August 7 0 0 BizNews full 59:54 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771240 https://iono.fm/e/771240 Business News Sat, 03 Aug 2019 11:13:00 +0200 0 0 Editor’s Desk: Truth & lies in the Agrizzi & state capture story 0 0 BizNews full 22:19 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771241 https://iono.fm/e/771241 The revelations of Johann van Loggerenberg on the tobacco industry wars with SARS;
Nedbank lay-offs with some insight into the Old Mutual-Peter Moyo stand-of;
The prospects of Portugal as a residential property investment destination;
The impact of electrical vehicle on the mining industry; and
Efforts to bring business and the government closer together. ]]> Business News Fri, 02 Aug 2019 10:19:00 +0200 0 0 No innocents in tobacco industry; Big Bank challenges; Portugal property pull; Business supports Thuma Mina 0 0 BizNews full 27:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771242 https://iono.fm/e/771242 After that meeting, the great investigative journalist spent time getting to know Valence and his brothers, the now apparently infamous Watson clan from the Eastern Cape. It’s instructive that Barry's initial hostility and deep scepticism went full circle – first in the story that I was mediating over, and, later, on a broader scale.
In his excellent book about whistleblower Kevin Wakeford who exposed how Deutsche Bank trashed the South African Rand, Barry wrote warmly about the Watsons.
I knew the uniquely talented Sergeant literally from the day he entered journalism in the mid 1980s. We worked closely for years and I remain in awe of this trained advocate’s ability to dispense with the fiction and question perceived facts. 
There is no doubt in my mind that were Barry alive, he’d be providing balance to the popular narrative that casts the Watsons as rogues who bribed ANC politicians to secure inflated state contracts.  And it would be he, not me, who would be giving their side of a story that until the other side gets exposed, makes little sense.
Through live transmissions of the Zondo Commission into State Capture, South Africa became enthralled with the testimony of self-confessed criminal Angelo Agrizzi. But as I discovered over the past couple of days, listening and checking documentation, all is not what it seems.
In the end, either the super-rich, Ferrari-obsessed Angelo Agrizzi has conned the commission, the media and South Africa. Or Valence and the other three Watson brothers, committed Christians and ANC operatives during the country’s darkest hours, have not only lost their moral compasses, but also their minds. ]]> Business News Thu, 01 Aug 2019 20:05:00 +0200 0 0 Valence Watson: My brother Gavin, Agrizzi and Bosasa 0 0 BizNews full 28:32 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771243 https://iono.fm/e/771243 Gavin Montgomery of WoodMcKenzie who shares his insights into the way electric vehicles will take over from internal combustion engines - and how that will impact the price of metals like nickel, cobalt and lithium.
Kokkie Kooyman of Denker Capital, a global expert on financial services, applies his mind to Nedbank's retrenchment of 1 500 staff and its travails with the 20% stake in turbulent Ecobank.
Nick Binedell, former dean at GIBS and a key player in the Public Private Growth Initiative shares some good news on its progress - and how South Africa has imported a formula from Japan that is showing early success.
SA's favourite market commentator David Shapiro applies his mind and experience to the fracas between Old Mutual and its former CEO Peter Moyo which it is now being forced by the courts to re-hire.
Star play for the show, former head of SA Revenue Services investigations team Johann van Loggerenberg talks about his new book, Tobacco Wars, which blows the top off an industry wracked by fraud and tax cheating - including at market leader BAT. ]]> Business News Wed, 31 Jul 2019 19:24:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio - The full show - 31 July 2019 0 0 BizNews full 1:07:11 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771244 https://iono.fm/e/771244 Brenthurst founder and chairman Magnus Heystek who likes the appeal of Mauritius but warns against indiscriminate purchasing as not every property project is created equal.
Orbvest director Justin Clarke who updates us on the mushrooming company which focuses on medical properties in the USA, applying knowledge acquired in this specialised niche back home.
Cape property icon Johnny Rabie - whose company with his name developed the massive Century City project - whose first offshore development, in Portugal, is going gangbusters. ]]> Business News Tue, 30 Jul 2019 13:54:00 +0200 0 0 PF Live : The full show focusing on global property investments for SAs 0 0 BizNews full 57:33 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771245 https://iono.fm/e/771245 Business News Sat, 27 Jul 2019 11:07:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Johnny Clegg embodied our hopes for SA 0 0 BizNews full 17:08 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771246 https://iono.fm/e/771246 Former SARS spokesman and co-author of the "Rogue: The inside story of SARS's elite crime busting unit." He talks about what happened at SARS, the rolling back of State Capture - and the shadowy antibodies fighting it.
Whistleblower Juan Lerena who was sued by former employer Sime Darby after he reported the company and Unilever to the Competition authorities for collusion. He has paid a hefty price for his action.
Fasie Malherbe, co-founder of Lobster Ink, which was recently sold to multinational Ecolab for well north of R1bn. He shares his entrepreneurial journey and offers some advice for fellow SA business builders.
Whistleblower Cynthia Stimpel, former treasurer at SAA, who was dismissed for standing in the way of a corrupt deal that would have cost the airline R250m. She shares what happened and her journey since July 2016.
SA's favourite market commentator David Shapiro takes a closer look at the impact of the electric car revolution and lets us in on what he is thinking about investable opportunities right now.
Advocate and legal activist Paul Hoffman of Accountability Now who is petitioning the Legal Practice Council to have Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane de-frocked over this week's scathing ConCourt judgement.   ]]> Business News Wed, 24 Jul 2019 14:55:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio: The full hour's show - 24 July 2019 0 0 BizNews full 1:04:30 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771247 https://iono.fm/e/771247 Biznews.com's London-based "take no prisoners" columnist Simon Lincoln Reader shares what friends and associates of say makes new UK prime minister Boris Johnson tick - and how the UK will fare under his leadership;
Orbis head of UK Dan Brocklebank shares his thoughts on investing in that country, the pound, stocks (and bonds) to be wary of and why his favourite share is Chinese; and
South African forensic investigator Paul O'Sullivan unpacks what got the country's embattled Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane into the mess she's in - and how the Forensics for Justice investigation into a corrupt contract at Transnet is linked to yesterday's arrest of the Kenyan finance minister. ]]> Business News Tue, 23 Jul 2019 13:47:00 +0200 0 0 PF Live: the full show - UK under Boris; O'Sullivan's take on the PP (warning - it's not pretty) 0 0 BizNews full 53:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771248 https://iono.fm/e/771248 Business News Sat, 20 Jul 2019 10:52:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: EOH, Hulamin & the rot in SA’s corporate world 0 0 BizNews full 14:36 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771249 https://iono.fm/e/771249 Business News Sat, 20 Jul 2019 09:25:00 +0200 0 0 Lyndsey Duff: Ex-diplomat bringing cutting edge tech back home to SA 0 0 BizNews full 11:12 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771250 https://iono.fm/e/771250 Business News Thu, 18 Jul 2019 19:29:00 +0200 0 0 Winde: Soldiers are policing the Western Cape because SAPS is a mess 0 0 BizNews full 12:06 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771251 https://iono.fm/e/771251 Business News Thu, 18 Jul 2019 12:19:00 +0200 0 0 Chris Logan: Hulamin managers even worse than at former parent Tongaat. 0 0 BizNews full 8:26 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771252 https://iono.fm/e/771252 Business News Wed, 17 Jul 2019 21:43:00 +0200 0 0 Peter Hain targets Bain & Co over premeditated capturing of SARS 0 0 BizNews full 7:57 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771253 https://iono.fm/e/771253 Business News Wed, 17 Jul 2019 21:27:00 +0200 0 0 David Shapiro: Mourning Clegg, JSE's fallen angels and finding value 0 0 BizNews full 10:26 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771254 https://iono.fm/e/771254 David Shapiro reminisces about the late Johnny Clegg who died yesterday; addresses the reasons for Impala and Aspen's fall from grace; and offers some juicy investment options.
Lord Peter Hain speaks to us from London where he is putting pressure on global consulting firm Bain & Co, which has been fingered as the instigator of the decimation of SA Revenue Services.
Investec's head of private equity Peter Baird unpacks the rationale behind the bank's Africa fund's first investment into Egypt - a controlling stake in 92 year old quality food retailing group Spinneys for a rumoured $100m.
Veteran money manager and activist investor Chris Logan has been taking a very close look at Hulamin - pointing out parallels with its embattled former parent Tongaat. Logan reckons shareholders need to get involved to fix it.
The day before his State of the Province address, Western Cape Alan Winde explains the thinking behind bringing the military into gang-controlled areas of the province - explaining how it will work and for how long.
SA head Lyndsey Duff unpacks how the revolutionary business What3Words has divided the world into 3m x 3m blocks and given them three words - a far easier address to use than GPS numbers or street addresses. ]]> Business News Wed, 17 Jul 2019 20:16:00 +0200 0 0 The full hour of Rational Radio: 17 July 2019 0 0 BizNews full 1:02:52 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771255 https://iono.fm/e/771255 The Zondo Commission has been adjourned until tomorrow after former President Jacob objected to being cross-examined.
The Democratic Alliance has asked the Zondo commission to investigate the ANC role in cadre-deployment at the SOEs.
Former PIC chairman Dan Matjila denies having taken bribes.
South Africa’s retail-sales grew by 2.2% in May.
1,200 new jobs have been created at Ford’s plant in Silverton.
Elon Musk has unveiled Neuralink, a data transmission system between people and computers. ]]> Business News Wed, 17 Jul 2019 19:54:00 +0200 0 0 Zuma testimony halted; Matjila - no bribes; retail sales grow; rate cut expected; Ford jobs; Musk’s brainwave 0 0 BizNews full 4:30 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771256 https://iono.fm/e/771256 The once-great Tongaat Hulett is fighting for survival. The KwaZulu-Natal corporate giant wants an interest repayment holiday on R11bn worth of debt and is cutting costs and restructuring, says Bloomberg.
Anglo American Platinum is set to dazzle investors when it unveils its financial results on July 22.
One of South Africa’s biggest shareholders of South African listed companies, the Government Employees Pension fund, wants to invest more of its R2 trillion under management outside the country.
Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel has lashed out at Google for cosying up to the Chinese government, with US President Donald Trump moving quickly to support the billionaire silicon valley entrepreneur. ]]> Business News Tue, 16 Jul 2019 19:30:00 +0200 0 0 EOH lifts lid on R1bn scandal; Tongaat wants debt holiday; Amplats dazzles; GEPF looks offshore; Thiel targets Google 0 0 BizNews full 5:10 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771257 https://iono.fm/e/771257 Business News Tue, 16 Jul 2019 16:39:00 +0200 0 0 Why Milestone's Oscar Phoku wants R80m in damages from the CCMA 0 0 BizNews full 7:32 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771258 https://iono.fm/e/771258 Business News Tue, 16 Jul 2019 15:58:00 +0200 0 0 Juan Lerena: Whistleblower who brought two colluding multinationals to heel 0 0 BizNews full 4:21 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771259 https://iono.fm/e/771259 Business News Tue, 16 Jul 2019 15:33:00 +0200 0 0 Nick Dreyer: Making SA's iconic Veldskoen into a global champion 0 0 BizNews full 8:48 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771260 https://iono.fm/e/771260 Business News Tue, 16 Jul 2019 15:06:00 +0200 0 0 EOH's Van Coller on the record: "Clearly, today is not a great day." 0 0 BizNews full 14:32 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771261 https://iono.fm/e/771261 Former president Jacob Zuma appeared at the Zondo commission to discuss allegations of corruption and state capture.
Andre Pillay, who joined Eskom in 2011 and was made treasurer in 2016, will leave at the end of August.
Inflation in Zimbabwe hits an eye-watering 176%, according to data released on Monday. 
China's second-quarter annual GDP growth fell to a 27-year low of 6.2%, as expected, but its quarterly growth reading of 1.6% beat forecasts, says Reuters.
The big winner on the Johannesburg stock exchange on Monday was mining holding company Assore, which moved up nearly 8%. The big loser was pharmaceutical company Aspen, which shed nearly 4% of its stock price.
Currencies: Late on Monday R13.92 would buy you one greenback, the rand was trading at R17.44 to the British pound and at R15.68 to the Euro. ]]> Business News Mon, 15 Jul 2019 19:54:00 +0200 0 0 Zuma's Zondo song and dance; Eskom treasurer jumps ship; Zim inflation heads for 200%; China boosts rand 0 0 BizNews full 3:56 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771262 https://iono.fm/e/771262 Business News Mon, 15 Jul 2019 18:09:00 +0200 0 0 Zuma at Zondo: Odds shorten on another BRICs president behind bars 0 0 BizNews full 12:00 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771263 https://iono.fm/e/771263 Business News Mon, 15 Jul 2019 16:52:00 +0200 0 0 SA's ETF scene explodes: What's hot, what's the next big thing in trackers - ETF heavyweight speaks to BizNews Radio 0 0 BizNews full 12:25 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771264 https://iono.fm/e/771264 Business News Mon, 15 Jul 2019 12:11:00 +0200 0 0 Orbvest's story: SA Entrepreneurs turn offshore idea into a winning formula 0 0 BizNews full 15:57 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771265 https://iono.fm/e/771265 There’s been another twist in Mozambique’s $2bn Tuna Bond scandal. South Africa’s new justice minister, Ronald Lamola, has blocked the release of former Mozambiquan finance minister Manuel Chang, who is deeply implicated in the scandal.
China’s Huawei Technologies is planning extensive layoffs at its US operations, as a direct consequence of its blacklisting by US president Donald Trump.
Embattled Tongaat’s one-time stablemate Hulamin has been hitting obstacles of its own with the share price losing almost 6% on Friday. ]]> Business News Sun, 14 Jul 2019 21:40:00 +0200 0 0 Zuma in spotlight; $2bn Tuna Bond twist; Hulamin slumps to loss; Huawei lays off US staff 0 0 BizNews full 4:36 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771266 https://iono.fm/e/771266 Business News Sat, 13 Jul 2019 11:11:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: The strange truth about the SA housing market 0 0 BizNews full 16:34 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771267 https://iono.fm/e/771267  
  ]]> Business News Fri, 12 Jul 2019 17:39:00 +0200 0 0 Cyril's soldiers go marching in to tackle gang crime on Cape Flats 0 0 BizNews full 11:34 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771268 https://iono.fm/e/771268 A proposal by the PIC has become a rescue option for embattled Eskom;
The Rand strengthened as the Eskom proposal soothes nerves and a global rally following dovish US Fed outlook;
Bitcoin shares battered after US Fed poured cold water on Facebook's Libra;
Woolworths shares rose by 5.99% to their highest level in 6 months;
South Africa may escape a recession in the second quarter and;
SAA Chair departs. ]]> Business News Thu, 11 Jul 2019 20:57:00 +0200 0 0 Eskom PIC rescue; Rand rebound; Woolies improved outlook; SAA chair flies off; Q2 recovery? 0 0 BizNews full 4:10 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771269 https://iono.fm/e/771269 Business News Thu, 11 Jul 2019 18:00:00 +0200 0 0 Woollam on Tongaat latest: Auditors must be more Bloodhound, less Labrador 0 0 BizNews full 12:16 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771270 https://iono.fm/e/771270 Business News Thu, 11 Jul 2019 11:36:00 +0200 0 0 David Shapiro: Take Naspers offshore option and pay the tax now 0 0 BizNews full 10:50 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771299 https://iono.fm/e/771299 Business News Wed, 10 Jul 2019 19:07:00 +0200 0 0 Jean Pierre Verster: Advice on Naspers offshore listing, property - and Abil 0 0 BizNews full 11:38 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771300 https://iono.fm/e/771300 Oscar Phoku, CEO of Milestone Proeprty, which successfully sued the CCMA after the State organ reneged on a R100m deal to lease 1 Heerengracht in Cape town;
Ace money manager Jean Pierre Verster who explains how Abil pref shareholders got screwed; what Naspers shareholders should do to avoid a big tax bill; and a sober assessment of bombed out SA property stocks;
The story of citizen activist Jaun Lerena who seven years ago blew the whistle on a couple of market abusing multinationals - one has admitted liability and paid a R35m fine; Dutch group Unilever gets its day in the spotlight on Friday;
The Veldskoen Story with Nick Dreyer, co-founder of the company which attracted a 49% investment from SA entrepreneurial giant Brian Joffe's vehicle Long4Life;  
MyBroadband editor Marius Hollenbach who explains the site's research project which concluded that the title of SA's better connection belongs once more to MTN;     
SA's favourite market commentator David Shapiro is back home from his adventure in New York and reckons the best move on Naspers is to take the capital gains tax burden now - and save paying more later;
And we close off a cracking show with Tongaat whistleblower, chartered accountant Dave Woollam, who assesses some conspiracy theories, gives us an update on the embattled sugar company and provides insights into how the UK's Brydon Commission will change the auditing profession (and investing).        ]]> Business News Wed, 10 Jul 2019 18:45:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio 10 July - The full show 0 0 BizNews full 1:04:27 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771302 https://iono.fm/e/771302 A lifestyle audit has failed to turn up evidence that Daniel Matjila, former CEO of the country's biggest fund manager, is corrupt, a probe into irregularities at the Public Investment Corporation has heard.

The independence of the South African reserve bank is back in the spotlight with its deputy governor Kuben Naidoo moving to reassure investors by highlighting the importance of an independent central bank.

Investing in space travel to Mars is about to get easier for smaller investors, with
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic unveiling plans to become the first publicly listed human spaceflight company.

As political tension continues to build north of the Limpopo River, Zimbabwean authorities have charged a senior official of the country’s main opposition party with treason for comments attributed to him in a newspaper report.

The UK's mid-cap index, the FTSE 250, fell on Tuesday, reflecting a deteriorating economic outlook and Brexit tensions.

The major movers on Johannesburg's stock exchange were Sibanye and Aspen, both inching up not far off 2%, while the losers were Sappi, which fell more than 6%, and Italtile, which dropped in value by more than 3%.
Late on Tuesday, R14.18 was trading for one US dollar, while R17.65 could buy you a British pound and R15.89 was the rate for one Euro. ]]> Business News Tue, 09 Jul 2019 19:59:00 +0200 0 0 Eskom chair joins MultiChoice; PIC’s Matjila cries foul; Zim politician treason charge; Branson space tourism IPO 0 0 BizNews full 6:22 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771303 https://iono.fm/e/771303 Business News Tue, 09 Jul 2019 16:20:00 +0200 0 0 How to make your money last in retirement - Schalk Louw 0 0 BizNews full 9:35 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771304 https://iono.fm/e/771304
President Cyril Ramaphosa has criticised Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula and the premier of Gauteng province, David Makhura, for “unbecoming” behaviour on social media after a Twitter spat on electronic road tolls in country’s richest province, reports Bloomberg.

As inflation in Zimbabwe hits a 10-year record of close to 100% and the country battles 17-hour power cuts, the Zimbabwean government is ready to raise civil servants’ pay for the second time in three months, says The Guardian.
The Deutsche Bank share price fizzled, with the shares down more than 6% as the global banking giant started shedding one-fifth of its 90 000-plus employees, reports Bloomberg.

Saudi Arabian budget carrier Flyadeal reversed a commitment to buy as many as 50 Boeing 737 Max jets, becoming the first airline to officially drop the plane since its grounding following two deadly crashes, says Reuters.

Leading stock price upwards on the JSE on Monday, were mining holding company Assore, which gained about 5%, and gold miner Harmony and retailer Woolies, both up more than 4%. The biggest loser was budget retailer Mr Price, down nearly 3%.
Late on Monday, R14.15 would buy you one US dollar, while the Rand was trading at R17.70 to the British pound and R15.87 to the Euro. ]]> Business News Mon, 08 Jul 2019 20:13:00 +0200 0 0 Steinhoff's new CFO; Stop being Twits - Cyril; Zim inflation horrors; Deutsche Bank fizzles; Boeing gets dropped 0 0 BizNews full 4:01 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771305 https://iono.fm/e/771305 One time global trading powerhouse Deutsche Bank has announced plans to radically shrink its investment bank, the company’s long-time dominant revenue generator. 
Eskom will only name a new acting chief executive at the end of July when incumbent Phakamani Hadebe physically steps down. 
On the JSE Friday, the share price of diamond producer Transhex jumped 12% to 88c after an announcement that a consortium which holds almost 80% of the equity is offering to buy out minority shareholders at 100c a share.  ]]> Business News Sun, 07 Jul 2019 18:54:00 +0200 0 0 Matjila's dirty laundry; Deutsche closing trading division; Eskom CEO delay; Market movers TSX, ASP, KIO 0 0 BizNews full 4:55 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771306 https://iono.fm/e/771306 Business News Sat, 06 Jul 2019 11:03:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Oilgate & SARS – how SA’s getting its own back 0 0 BizNews full 13:54 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771307 https://iono.fm/e/771307 Business News Fri, 05 Jul 2019 16:04:00 +0200 0 0 How to change your short-term thinking to build wealth Dawn Ridler 0 0 BizNews full 6:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771308 https://iono.fm/e/771308 With only three months of salaries secured for the SABC, its COO says its future now lies with the banks;
A sharp increase of more than 20% is expected in Comair’s earnings thanks to a court settlement;
The rand strengthened to below R14 to the dollar yesterday, its best level against the greenback since late April;
Glencore is one of at least three companies interested in buying Rio Tinto’s aluminium assets in Europe;
Nigeria has told its banks that they should use at least 60% of their deposits for loans by the end of September;
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago converse again to douse Reserve Bank interference fires. ]]> Business News Thu, 04 Jul 2019 21:10:00 +0200 0 0 SABC's 3-month cover; Comair gets SAA boost; Rand breaks 14; Glencore wants Rio's aluminium; more SARB fire dousing 0 0 BizNews full 4:24 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771309 https://iono.fm/e/771309 Business News Thu, 04 Jul 2019 11:17:00 +0200 0 0 Paul O'Sullivan: Corrupt Eskom managers took their cue from rotten CEO 0 0 BizNews full 10:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771310 https://iono.fm/e/771310 Business News Thu, 04 Jul 2019 11:08:00 +0200 0 0 A chat with big spending King Price founder Gideon "42 pitches" Galloway 0 0 BizNews full 8:47 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771311 https://iono.fm/e/771311 Business News Thu, 04 Jul 2019 10:36:00 +0200 0 0 Trevor Manuel's winning libel lawyer Dario Milo on SA's mushrooming defamation suits 0 0 BizNews full 13:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771312 https://iono.fm/e/771312 Business confidence ticks up slightly;
Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo says the government will not consider quantitative easing;
Naspers appoints Phuti Mahanyele-Dabengwa as CEO of its South Africa business;
Tesla returns to growth mode; and
Nestlé ditches plastic for paper. ]]> Business News Wed, 03 Jul 2019 21:09:00 +0200 0 0 Miners pollute Mpumalanga water; Naspers gets SA CEO; No QE in SA; Business Confidence ticks up 0 0 BizNews full 5:22 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771314 https://iono.fm/e/771314 Business News Wed, 03 Jul 2019 18:51:00 +0200 0 0 David Shapiro in NYC: Soaking in US mood, a Nasdaq listing, what to buy 0 0 BizNews full 14:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771315 https://iono.fm/e/771315 Business News Wed, 03 Jul 2019 18:34:00 +0200 0 0 Rational Radio 3 July - O'Sullivan, Shapiro, Milo, Galloway and Markets 0 0 BizNews full 54:42 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771316 https://iono.fm/e/771316 Zimbabwe has paid back some of the money it owes for electricity provided by Eskom.
South African retail giant Steinhoff wants its former CEO Markus Jooste to repay millions he received in salary and bonus payments.
Medical snake oil is an age-old problem, but the internet has dramatically extended the reach of bad actors peddling fixes for complex conditions that don’t always have cures. The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook is tweaking its algorithms and cutting down on advertising that directs traffic to bogus cancer treatment claims.
AMCU has asked for a pay increase of as much as 48% as higher palladium and rhodium prices boost company earnings, but some producers say that would lead to job losses and mine closures.
The rand was trading at R14.08 to the dollar, R17.75 to the British pound and R15.92 to the Euro late on Tuesday. ]]> Business News Tue, 02 Jul 2019 20:09:00 +0200 0 0 World Bank backs Eskom; Zim pays Eskom some; Steinhoff targets Jooste’s assets; SA miners want 48% 0 0 BizNews full 5:08 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771317 https://iono.fm/e/771317 South Africa's rand started the week stronger after the United States and China agreed to restart their troubled trade talks, lifting the mood across emerging markets.
The improvement in the relationship between China and the US also helped lift Wall Street's main indexes, with the S&P 500 hitting an all-time high.
The South African economy has been shrinking, but rand hedge stocks have been powering up returns from JSE shares, says Bloomberg.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is considering whether to back a proposal to improve troubled Eskom’s debt terms by closing polluting coal plants early to make way for renewable energy, reports Bloomberg. ]]> Business News Mon, 01 Jul 2019 20:04:00 +0200 0 0 Moyo dishes dirt on Manuel; Trade war talk boosts rand; Eskom coal plants face closure 0 0 BizNews full 4:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771318 https://iono.fm/e/771318 On Friday, international mining company Anglo American plc disclosed in its 2018 tax and economic contribution report, that South Africa remains the group’s most important area of operations. 
Still with mining, South African diamond producer Trans Hex, posted a strong turnaround in the year to end March, delivering profit of R144m compared with a loss of R229m in the previous 12 months. 
Another major step was taken on Friday in the unwinding of the collapsed Abil group, with the sale of its insurance arm Standard General. 
South African shares ended slightly firmer on Friday with the JSE’s all share index rising a quarter of a percent, taking its gain in the first half of 2019 to a healthy 11.5%.  ]]> Business News Sun, 30 Jun 2019 18:30:00 +0200 0 0 Trade war "off"; US shares 1H surge; Anglo's $8.5bn to SA; King Price swoops; Transhex rebounds 0 0 BizNews full 4:51 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771319 https://iono.fm/e/771319 Business News Sat, 29 Jun 2019 11:11:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Discovery Bank is on to a winner & where to for Tiso 0 0 BizNews full 19:22 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771321 https://iono.fm/e/771321 Business News Fri, 28 Jun 2019 07:43:00 +0200 0 0 Adrian Gore: R6bn invested, pilot done, Discovery Bank moves to next level 0 0 BizNews full 10:12 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771322 https://iono.fm/e/771322 Business News Thu, 27 Jun 2019 21:36:00 +0200 0 0 Oilgate: Glencore caves on steps of the court as cost to SA exceeds R4.5bn 0 0 BizNews full 10:41 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771323 https://iono.fm/e/771323 Business News Thu, 27 Jun 2019 21:22:00 +0200 0 0 James Edward: How to get your SA inheritance if you're living abroad 0 0 BizNews full 6:01 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771324 https://iono.fm/e/771324 Tiso Blackstar has sold its media, broadcast and content businesses to the Lebashe Investment Group
Glencore shares fell sharply as at least 19 miners are killed in the DRC 
The South African economy is stuck in a long downward cycle but investment is starting to flow in
July could bring a price drop for motorists
Swiss stocks will be barred from trading in the European Union from next week which could have a ripple effect on the London Stock Exchange ]]> Business News Thu, 27 Jun 2019 21:00:00 +0200 0 0 Tiso Blackstar billion rand deal with Lebashe; Glencore shares drop; Recession fear but investment flows in; Fuel price 0 0 BizNews full 4:52 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771325 https://iono.fm/e/771325 Business News Thu, 27 Jun 2019 19:51:00 +0200 0 0 Bloemfontein teen racer Stuart White setting his sights on Formula 1 0 0 BizNews full 7:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771326 https://iono.fm/e/771326 Business News Thu, 27 Jun 2019 19:18:00 +0200 0 0 SA entrepreneurs open Orbvest to others, US medical property fund at 8% yield 0 0 BizNews full 15:54 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771327 https://iono.fm/e/771327 Business News Thu, 27 Jun 2019 19:11:00 +0200 0 0 Wendy Machanik: Buyer's market for SA homes - and banks are loosening up 0 0 BizNews full 4:21 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771329 https://iono.fm/e/771329 Steinhoff wants R850 million back from the company’s former CEO Markus Jooste. 
Irregular expenditure at municipalities has reached R25 billion in the 2017/18 financial year with only 7% returning clean audits.  
Eskom unveils restructuring plans to London investors while Treasury indicates saving the power utility is more important than ratings
A bit of the shines comes off for miners as their winning streak ends and
Bitcoin continues its upwards climb ]]> Business News Wed, 26 Jun 2019 21:18:00 +0200 0 0 Steinhoff wants R850m from Jooste; Dodgy bookkeeping at municipalities; SOE rescue plans; Bitcoin keeps soaring 0 0 BizNews full 5:26 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771330 https://iono.fm/e/771330 Business News Wed, 26 Jun 2019 08:30:00 +0200 0 0 Grow investments in a slow economy: Think like a wealth ecologist - Dawn Ridler 0 0 BizNews full 10:13 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771331 https://iono.fm/e/771331 Gold prices surged to a five-year high on Tuesday, extending gains for a sixth straight session, on the back of expectations of monetary easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve and a subdued dollar.
South Africa’s state-owned arms manufacturer Denel will not be able to pay its staff full salaries this month. 
Mass protests loom in Harare, where the government has banned the use of foreign currencies. Zimbabweans have been trading in currencies on a black market to survive in the dysfunctional economy.
Ireland has warned that it will run a budget deficit of up to 1.5% if the UK exits the European Union (EU) with a "no-deal Brexit
Late on Tuesday, the Rand was trading at R14.33 to the dollar, R18.19 to the British pound and R16.30 to the Euro. ]]> Business News Tue, 25 Jun 2019 21:33:00 +0200 0 0 Amplats shines; Denel can’t pay staff; Zimbabwe currency anger; Gold keeps running; Brexit will nail Ireland 0 0 BizNews full 4:39 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771332 https://iono.fm/e/771332 Business News Tue, 25 Jun 2019 18:13:00 +0200 0 0 People died in “fairly large numbers” because of State Capture. – Corruption Wat 0 0 BizNews full 12:49 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771333 https://iono.fm/e/771333 South Africa is growing in popularity as a tourism destination, with a marked rise in the number of international visitors.
Gold rallied to a near six-year high on Monday as the US-Iran dispute intensified.
Johannesburg-listed mining companies. Sibanye, Harmony and Anglo Gold were the major movers upwards, JSE Ltd was the big loser.
The Zimbabwe Dollar has returned, a decade after it became worthless.
R14.26 would buy you one US dollar, R18.29 would buy you a pound, while the rand was trading at about R16.37 to the euro. ]]> Business News Tue, 25 Jun 2019 08:06:00 +0200 0 0 KPMG auditor banned for state capture; SA tourism in growth spurt; Gold soars; JSE revenue plummets; Zim dollar returns 0 0 BizNews full 4:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771335 https://iono.fm/e/771335 Business News Mon, 24 Jun 2019 10:28:00 +0200 0 0 CFO shares the Naspers playbook: Another Tencent on the horizon? 0 0 BizNews full 27:04 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771336 https://iono.fm/e/771336 Over the weekend, Ethiopia’s reformist government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, foiled a coup attempt that killed several senior government officials, including its military chief. 
Late on Friday afternoon, South Africa’s global internet group Naspers Ltd announced that it will be delaying the Amsterdam listing of Prosus NV, the newly created company which will own the group’s international internet assets. 
Still with SA's global internet group, the six year old, 2.7m user cryptocurrency platform Luno, which Naspers supports, is planning to increase its workforce by more than half to expand its South African headquarters.  ]]> Business News Sun, 23 Jun 2019 19:23:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Bitcoin breaks $10k; Naspers delays Prosus listing; Luno on hiring spree; Ethiopian coup foiled. 0 0 BizNews full 4:38 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771337 https://iono.fm/e/771337 Business News Sun, 23 Jun 2019 11:00:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: SA’s Multichoice winners & exotic game losers 0 0 BizNews full 13:49 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771338 https://iono.fm/e/771338 Business News Sun, 23 Jun 2019 08:44:00 +0200 0 0 Billions you've allocated are still not enough to save Eskom, Mr President 0 0 BizNews full 12:21 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771339 https://iono.fm/e/771339 Business News Sun, 23 Jun 2019 08:34:00 +0200 0 0 FNB property economist predicts house prices will keep falling 0 0 BizNews full 8:17 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771340 https://iono.fm/e/771340 Business News Fri, 21 Jun 2019 08:47:00 +0200 0 0 SONA 2018: Cyril Ramaphosa starts with keeping on the lights 0 0 BizNews full 1:14:36 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771341 https://iono.fm/e/771341 President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the Government is going to bail out Eskom.
Gold has surged to its highest level in five years after the US Fed signals turned dovish.
Naspers has made its first local tech investment in SweepSouth, a cleaning service business.
Group Five says shareholders are not getting anything out of the rescue process.
Lord Peter Hain says the international community should bring back the money looted by the Guptas. ]]> Business News Thu, 20 Jun 2019 21:52:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Eskom bailout ready, Rand steady; Gold at 5-year-high; Naspers Sweeps South; Hain - bring back the money 0 0 BizNews full 4:23 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/771342 https://iono.fm/e/771342 Business News Thu, 20 Jun 2019 19:10:00 +0200 0 0 Bernard Swanepoel: Anatomy of a collapsed bubble - unpacking exotic game market 0 0 BizNews full 8:18 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782665 https://iono.fm/e/782665 Business News Thu, 20 Jun 2019 18:58:00 +0200 0 0 Dave Woollam: A Tongaat whistleblower breaks cover 0 0 BizNews full 8:36 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782666 https://iono.fm/e/782666 Business News Thu, 20 Jun 2019 18:44:00 +0200 0 0 Allan Gray's Duncan Artus: Why I love MultiChoice - plus gold shares, Naspers and Tongaat 0 0 BizNews full 12:11 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782671 https://iono.fm/e/782671   ]]> Business News Tue, 18 Jun 2019 08:59:00 +0200 0 0 Audiobook of Ramaphosa biography - sample before you acquire 0 0 BizNews full 7:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782673 https://iono.fm/e/782673 Business News Mon, 17 Jun 2019 15:49:00 +0200 0 0 Bruce Williamson: Tongaat hit by "perfect bad news storm", probably not fraud 0 0 BizNews full 7:51 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782674 https://iono.fm/e/782674 Business News Mon, 17 Jun 2019 15:30:00 +0200 0 0 WEF's Han Yik: Most of us will outlive our retirement savings - by many years 0 0 BizNews full 7:10 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782675 https://iono.fm/e/782675 Business News Mon, 17 Jun 2019 15:09:00 +0200 0 0 Tony Fabian: Finding Good Hope for SA - and telling the world about it 0 0 BizNews full 7:52 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782676 https://iono.fm/e/782676 Business News Sun, 16 Jun 2019 20:21:00 +0200 0 0 Kulula creator Gidon Novick thriving in entrepreneurship, opens first hotel 0 0 BizNews full 7:07 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782677 https://iono.fm/e/782677 Business News Sun, 16 Jun 2019 11:20:45 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Truth and lies at Tongaat Hulett 0 0 BizNews full 20:34 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782679 https://iono.fm/e/782679 Business News Thu, 13 Jun 2019 19:46:00 +0200 0 0 Paul O'Sullivan on fresh accusations against Ramaphosa; Here's my verdict 0 0 BizNews full 9:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782680 https://iono.fm/e/782680 Business News Thu, 13 Jun 2019 18:35:37 +0200 0 0 David Shapiro on Tongaat, was it hit by perfect bad news storm, or malfeasance 0 0 BizNews full 11:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782686 https://iono.fm/e/782686 Business News Sun, 09 Jun 2019 10:42:43 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: The economy is tanking, what now? 0 0 BizNews full 16:01 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782687 https://iono.fm/e/782687 Business News Fri, 07 Jun 2019 10:07:02 +0200 0 0 Russell Loubser, who led 2012 board walkout: "Here's how to fix SAA" 0 0 BizNews full 9:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782688 https://iono.fm/e/782688 Business News Fri, 07 Jun 2019 09:53:59 +0200 0 0 Bernard Swanepoel: Set small businesses free and the result will shock SA 0 0 BizNews full 10:31 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782689 https://iono.fm/e/782689 Business News Fri, 07 Jun 2019 09:34:27 +0200 0 0 Roelof Botha: here's why SA's interest rates should be at least 2% lower 0 0 BizNews full 10:46 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782691 https://iono.fm/e/782691 Business News Thu, 06 Jun 2019 19:20:50 +0200 0 0 David Shapiro on the big winners from Southern Cape gas strike 0 0 BizNews full 9:18 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782692 https://iono.fm/e/782692 Business News Thu, 06 Jun 2019 19:10:27 +0200 0 0 AlphaCode's Maseko: Wanted - next generation of financial services giants 0 0 BizNews full 9:33 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782698 https://iono.fm/e/782698 Business News Tue, 04 Jun 2019 17:18:22 +0200 0 0 SA Govt seeks help finding solution to "biggest threat to economy" 0 0 BizNews full 5:11 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782699 https://iono.fm/e/782699 Business News Tue, 04 Jun 2019 16:56:03 +0200 0 0 Gwede guides miners towards SA's unexploited mineral riches 0 0 BizNews full 6:31 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782700 https://iono.fm/e/782700 I went along to the opening of the Junior Mining Indaba at Johannesburg’s Country Club in Auckland Park, joining a packed room of miners who were mostly grateful to have an industry veteran fighting their corner in cabinet debates. Mantashe confirms that a breath of fresh air is blowing through relationships between government and business - here are some of the highlights… ]]> Business News Tue, 04 Jun 2019 15:19:19 +0200 0 0 Mantashe confirms business friendly face of new Ramaphosa Era 0 0 BizNews full 13:04 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782703 https://iono.fm/e/782703 Business News Sat, 01 Jun 2019 11:02:09 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: The new Cabinet and the future of the DA 0 0 BizNews full 20:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782705 https://iono.fm/e/782705 Business News Thu, 30 May 2019 18:48:47 +0200 0 0 David Shapiro goes shopping - shares unexposed stocks he likes 0 0 BizNews full 12:35 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782706 https://iono.fm/e/782706 Business News Thu, 30 May 2019 18:40:20 +0200 0 0 Derek Sumption goes live - "Investing's not all or nothing, Magnus" 0 0 BizNews full 9:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782707 https://iono.fm/e/782707 Business News Thu, 30 May 2019 18:29:55 +0200 0 0 Ramaphosa's biographer Anthony Butler scopes the new cabinet 0 0 BizNews full 8:06 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782711 https://iono.fm/e/782711 The Deputy President is David Mabuza.The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development is Thoko Didiza.The Deputy Ministers are Sdumo Dlamini and Mcebisi Skwatsha.The Minister of Basic Education is Angie Motshekga.The Deputy Minister is Dr Regina Mhaule.The Minister of Communications is Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams.The Deputy Minister is Pinky Kekana.The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs is Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.The Deputy Ministers are Parks Tau and Obed Bapela.The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans is Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.The Deputy Minister is Thabang Makwetla.The Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheriesis Barbara Creecy.The Deputy Minister is Maggie Sotyu.The Minister of Employment and Labour is Thulas Nxesi.The Deputy Minister is Boitumelo Moloi.The Minister of Finance is Tito Mboweni.The Deputy Minister is Dr David Masondo.The Minister of Health is Dr Zwelini Mkhize.The Deputy Minister is Dr Joe Phaahla.The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology is Dr Blade Nzimande.The Deputy Minister is Buti Manamela.The Minister of Home Affairs is Dr Aaron Motsoaledi.The Deputy Minister is Njabulo Nzuza.The Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation is Lindiwe Sisulu.The Deputy Ministers are Pam Tshwete and David Mahlobo.The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation is Dr Naledi Pandor.The Deputy Ministers are Alvin Botes and Candith Mashego-Dlamini.The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services is Ronald Lamola.The Deputy Ministers are John Jeffery and Inkosi Phathekile Holomisa.The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy is Gwede Mantashe.The Deputy Minister is Bavelile Hlongwa.The Minister of Police is General Bheki Cele.The Deputy Minister is Cassel Mathale.The Minister in the Presidency is Jackson Mthembu.The Deputy Minister in the Presidency is Thembi Siweya.The Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities is Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.The Deputy Minister is Prof Hlengiwe Mkhize.The Minister of Public Enterprises is Pravin Gordhan.The Deputy Minister is Phumulo Masualle.The Minister of Public Service and Administration is Senzo Mchunu.The Deputy Minister is Sindy Chikunga.The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure is Patricia De Lille.The Deputy Minister is Noxolo Kiviet.The Minister of Small Business Development is Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.The Deputy Minister is Rosemary Capa.The Minister of Social Development is Lindiwe Zulu.The Deputy Minister is Henrietta Bogopane-Zulu.The Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture is Nathi Mthethwa.The Deputy Minister is Nocawe Mafu.The Minister of State Security is Ayanda Dlodlo.The Deputy Minister is Zizi Kodwa.The Minister of Tourism is Nkhensani Kubayi-Ngubane.The Deputy Minister is Fish Mahlalela.The Minister of Trade and Industry is Ebrahim Patel.The Deputy Ministers ... ]]> Business News Wed, 29 May 2019 22:03:22 +0200 0 0 Ramaphosa announces his cabinet - balanced with continuity 0 0 BizNews full 16:57 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782712 https://iono.fm/e/782712 Business News Wed, 29 May 2019 19:16:26 +0200 0 0 Naspers CEO: Amsterdam listing date set, impact on SA shareholders 0 0 BizNews full 11:36 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782714 https://iono.fm/e/782714 Business News Tue, 28 May 2019 12:37:58 +0200 0 0 Simon Lincoln Reader: UK's Raab v Boris - SA's noxious choices for Ramaphosa 0 0 BizNews full 11:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782720 https://iono.fm/e/782720 Business News Sun, 26 May 2019 11:45:36 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Here’s what Alec Hogg has to say to SA bears 0 0 BizNews full 14:57 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782722 https://iono.fm/e/782722 Business News Fri, 24 May 2019 09:02:39 +0200 0 0 Magnus Heystek: Need proof of SA's New Dawn before I'll believe 0 0 BizNews full 11:23 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782725 https://iono.fm/e/782725 Business News Thu, 23 May 2019 18:39:32 +0200 0 0 David Shapiro on double digit price reverses for Sasol, Brait, Massmart 0 0 BizNews full 11:23 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782727 https://iono.fm/e/782727 The Rand gained on news that Deputy-President David Mabuza will not be sworn in as MP.
Corruption busting at Prasa gathers momentum with suspensions.
South Africa has decided to extradite Mozambican Manuel Chang wanted for the tuna bond scandal to his home country not the US.
Sasol shares fall by almost 13% due to ballooning costs at the Lake Charles project.
Eskom bond holders kept in the dark about funding and restructuring. ]]> Business News Wed, 22 May 2019 22:47:07 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Mabuza fuels rand; Prasa's anti-corruption steam; Tuna Bond minister heads home; Sasol, Eskom 0 0 BizNews full 4:16 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782729 https://iono.fm/e/782729 Morgan Stanley sees Tesla at $10 as market for electric cars goes soft.
Huawei goes to EU warning it could happen to any international company.
Ex-Credit Suisse banker pleads guilty in Tuna Bond scandal.
Jamie Oliver restaurants in the UK declared insolvent.
JSE is flat with Rand holding on despite emerging market jitters of US-China trade war. ]]> Business News Wed, 22 May 2019 09:28:06 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Tesla Code Red; Tuna Bond first netted; Jamie Oliver's UK 0 0 BizNews full 4:10 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782733 https://iono.fm/e/782733 Business News Tue, 21 May 2019 16:11:55 +0200 0 0 Entrepreneur's survival toolkit from the banker to business owners 0 0 BizNews full 18:26 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782735 https://iono.fm/e/782735 Restaurants are an endless juggle between innovation, logistics, staff motivation and profit margins; the hours are impossibly long; customers can be insufferably difficult; and everyone with a recipe book is a potential competitor. And then there’s the ever present existential threat of accidentally poisoning your customer.
Not for the faint hearted. But this heady cocktail is also addictive, as you’ll hear from entrepreneur extraordinaire Brian Altriche, who has a net worth north of half a billion rand.
He's also the man behind a business which, although not yet six years old, can already be certified a massive success.
I love swapping ideas with fellow entrepreneurs, so jumped at the opportunity when invited to lunch at the original RocoMamas in Malibongwe Drive where Brian and co-founder, chef Paul Dempsey hang out.
So kick back and eavesdrop on an hour of discourse on the way South African icon Nando’s influenced him; how a road accident - and books - changed Brian’s life; some straight talking advice for young entrepreneurs and a whole lot more. In short, an entrepreneurial masterclass. - Alec Hogg ]]> Business News Mon, 20 May 2019 17:31:26 +0200 0 0 Entrepreneurial masterclass: On location with Brian Altriche 0 0 BizNews full 57:25 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782736 https://iono.fm/e/782736 The share price of JSE heavyweight Richemont rose almost 5% after Friday morning’s release of its financial results to end March.
Personal finance education has gone mainstream in the United States.
It was a softer end to the week for share prices around the world with South African stocks losing an average of two thirds of one percent. ]]> Business News Sun, 19 May 2019 19:12:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Richemont jumps on results; Aussies move Right; Personal Finance hits the Ivy League; 0 0 BizNews full 4:02 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782737 https://iono.fm/e/782737 Business News Sat, 18 May 2019 10:56:00 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Times are tough, but Ramaphosa is ready 0 0 BizNews full 16:21 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782738 https://iono.fm/e/782738 Moody’s outlook on South Africa more gloomy as it includes Eskom in its calculations.
South Africa dodges the emerging market bond jinx.
Investors are hoping for a streamlined Ramaphosa cabinet with Mboweni in charge of Finance.
Cosatu wants Ramaphosa to cut the size of the Cabinet to 26 ministers and 6 deputies.
The DA should learn from British Prime Minister May's mistakes.
And Anglo American will be building a new diamond-mining boat to operate off the coast of Namibia. ]]> Business News Thu, 16 May 2019 22:20:07 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Eskom weighs down Moody's; SA bonds sidestep EM jinx; Cosatu wants cabinet cut; Anglo 0 0 BizNews full 4:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782739 https://iono.fm/e/782739 South African banking’s great disruptor, Capitec, was yesterday given the green light to acquire a ready-made vehicle to enter the business banking market.
More action will play out at the Competition Tribunal today where two large players in the cigarette sector, Gold Leaf Tobacco and Philip Morris South Africa, will be petitioning for a blocking of the proposed merger between their competitor BAT and the country’s leading Vaping brand, Twisp.
South African share prices ended yesterday’s trading session slightly lower with a half percentage point drop reflected in 182 shares falling and 155 finishing higher. ]]> Business News Wed, 15 May 2019 20:45:15 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Discovery #2 insurance brand globally; Capitec business banking green light; BAT's Twisp deal challenged; MSM, Netcare still falling 0 0 BizNews full 4:34 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782740 https://iono.fm/e/782740 The share price of German chemicals group Bayer took another hit yesterday after a California court awarded $2bn in punitive damages to a couple claiming weed killer Roundup caused their cancer.
The world’s largest crypto currency, Bitcoin, is on the hop again, the price rising above $8 000 in Asia yesterday.
South African share prices edged lower towards yesterday’s close with the overall index ending 0.25% down and losing shares outpointing winners by 235 to 151. ]]> Business News Tue, 14 May 2019 18:56:53 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Bitcoin jumps 33% in week; WhatsApp hacked; $2bn Roundup award; Discovery, Shoprite, Vodacom, Kumba, Pepkor. 0 0 BizNews full 4:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782744 https://iono.fm/e/782744 French oil major Total is doubling down on its African bet. It has agreed to acquire Anadarko’s assets in Mozambique, South Africa, Algeria and Ghana for $8.8bn.
Ride hailing business Uber Technologies, whose shares made their long-awaited debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, is off to a slow start as a public company.
The struggle for once flourishing Net1 is laid bare in its quarterly results to end March which were released on Friday. ]]> Business News Sun, 12 May 2019 19:07:19 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Investors cheer SA election; Total bets $8.8bn more on Africa; Uber; Net1 0 0 BizNews full 4:54 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782745 https://iono.fm/e/782745 Business News Sun, 12 May 2019 11:06:51 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Our big, fat election wrap-up 0 0 BizNews full 19:11 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782754 https://iono.fm/e/782754 South Africa’s national and provincial election dominated the local news yesterday with investors a little concerned by the ANC’s inability to poll at their hoped-for 60% level.
Anglogold Ashanti yesterday announced that it is in the early stages of a process to sell Mponeng, the last mine it owns in South Africa.
Remgro-controlled chicken company RCL continued its recent run, picking up another 3% to close the session at R15.28. The shares have risen 18% in the past two weeks. ]]> Business News Thu, 09 May 2019 20:28:19 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Anglo selling last SA gold mine; RCL gains 18% in fortnight; Markets hit by US aggression. 0 0 BizNews full 4:30 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782763 https://iono.fm/e/782763 Steinhoff’s restated financial results were dire, with a R65bn net loss causing a stock which lost over 90% from its peak to decline even further in Frankfurt yesterday.  
Adding to Jooste’s woes was the release on Tuesday a dynamite report into horseracing by the Public Protector. The former Steinhoff CEO and close associates effectively controlled the sport for much of the period where the report claims abuses were perpetrated. 
The South African stock market gave up 1% on Tuesday led lower by heavyweight Naspers – off 1.6% - and most of the major retailing stocks.  ]]> Business News Wed, 08 May 2019 19:06:20 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: A nightmare trifecta for Steinhoff, Jooste; Massmart's price drop continues. 0 0 BizNews full 4:56 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782765 https://iono.fm/e/782765 The global softening of share prices had an impact in South Africa where dominant stock Naspers lost 3.5%, mirroring a 3% drop in the price of its major asset, Hong Kong-listed Tencent Holdings.
In the wake of a 45% slump in the Massmart share price over the past year, chief executive Guy Hayward yesterday announced he would be leaving the company before the end of 2019.
Troubled construction company Group Five, once a leading South African conglomerate, is preparing to sell its three biggest subsidiaries in an attempt to stave off liquidation. ]]> Business News Mon, 06 May 2019 18:21:37 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Massmart CEO leaving; Naspers drags JSE lower; Trump hits shares; Group 5 asset sales 0 0 BizNews full 4:33 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782767 https://iono.fm/e/782767 Business News Mon, 06 May 2019 10:52:56 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: A last look at what may happen this election 0 0 BizNews full 16:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782768 https://iono.fm/e/782768 Still in the US, president Donald Trump’s prospects for re-election in 2020 could be higher than most pundits are predicting.
The South African election gets the full treatment in the Wall Street Journal this morning where our US partner reckons support for the ANC is the lowest since democracy began in 1994.
In a strong signal of the country’s shift to the east, from September South African Airways will initiate another direct service to China. ]]> Business News Sun, 05 May 2019 18:30:16 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Changes coming to Berkyville; New SAA flights to China; How word sees SA election; Majority support Trumponomics 0 0 BizNews full 3:50 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782769 https://iono.fm/e/782769 *This is one of the highlights from the five hours of Q&A at the 2019 Berkshire Hathaway AGM in Omaha where chairman Warren Buffett and his deputy Charlie Munger field queries from shareholders. ]]> Business News Sun, 05 May 2019 12:14:09 +0200 0 0 BRK 2019 AGM Highlight: Why retirement funds should stay away from private equity 0 0 BizNews full 8:15 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782770 https://iono.fm/e/782770 *This is one of the highlights from the five hours of Q&A at the 2019 Berkshire Hathaway AGM in Omaha where chairman Warren Buffett and his deputy Charlie Munger field queries from shareholders. ]]> Business News Sun, 05 May 2019 12:06:24 +0200 0 0 BRK 2019 AGM Highlight: Munger on Amazon purchase - we're trying to atone 0 0 BizNews full 6:30 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782771 https://iono.fm/e/782771 * This is one of the highlights from the five hours of Q&A at the 2019 Berkshire Hathaway AGM in Omaha where chairman Warren Buffett and his deputy Charlie Munger field queries from shareholders.  ]]> Business News Sun, 05 May 2019 11:33:19 +0200 0 0 BRK 2019 AGM Highlight: Buffett addresses debate on Capitalism v Socialism 0 0 BizNews full 6:41 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782772 https://iono.fm/e/782772 * This is one of the highlights from the five hours of Q&A at the 2019 Berkshire Hathaway AGM in Omaha where chairman Warren Buffett and his deputy Charlie Munger field queries from shareholders.  ]]> Business News Sun, 05 May 2019 11:23:23 +0200 0 0 BRK 2019 AGM Highlight: Buffett's most fun investment 0 0 BizNews full 3:03 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782773 https://iono.fm/e/782773 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s anti-corruption drive has claimed another two scalps - National Laboratory Service Chief Executive Officer Joyce Mogale and Chief Financial Officer Sikhumbuzo Zulu.
Gold fell to its lowest in a week on Thursday, reports Reuters, as the US Federal Open Market Committee doused expectations of a near-term rate cut and on lack of physical demand in Asia.
In New York, the Tesla share price perked up on an announcement it would seek to raise about $2bn through debt and stock offerings. ]]> Business News Thu, 02 May 2019 21:43:06 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Fossil jaw found in Tibet; Cyril's clean up claims 2 more; Tesla raise sparks shares 0 0 BizNews full 3:12 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782774 https://iono.fm/e/782774 Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party has called for workers to be given shares in all strategic sectors within the economy, including the financial sector.
On the US stock markets, Apple was a winner, rising about 6% and pulling Wall Street indices up with it in early trade on 1 May.
Most European markets were closed for the May Day holiday as was the JSE. ]]> Business News Wed, 01 May 2019 21:50:19 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Caster loses legal battle; Malema wants your business; Apple drives Wall Street 0 0 BizNews full 2:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782775 https://iono.fm/e/782775 Mining stocks took a knock with Amplats dropping by nearly 6% with Implats not far behind. Mining analysts are concerned that a move by the government to deregister trade union AMCU could create chaos in the mining sector.
President Ramaphosa’s anti-corruption strategy has claimed fresh scalps - this time by hitting graft-tainted politicians and officials where it hurts most - in the pocket.
And in the US, the ongoing investigation into the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes has seen the Boeing share price fall 10% since March 10. ]]> Business News Mon, 29 Apr 2019 21:36:34 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: JSE food producers perk up, mining stocks take a hit; Boeing drifts on safety deactivation 0 0 BizNews full 2:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782778 https://iono.fm/e/782778 This comes after the firing of two senior prosecutors implicated in bribes.
AMCU is meeting the Labour Minister to discuss the government's threat to deregister the group.
It has come to light that certain safety features on Boeing 737 Max jets were turned off.
The UK's ‘fracking tsar’ Natascha Engel resigned after just six months.
South African expats get to vote in the country's May elections. ]]> Business News Sun, 28 Apr 2019 22:01:17 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: SARS eyes Bosasa beneficiaries; AMCU fights back; Boeing turned safety features off; expats vote 0 0 BizNews full 3:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782779 https://iono.fm/e/782779 Business News Sun, 28 Apr 2019 12:26:32 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: SA is finally cleaning up its NPA mess 0 0 BizNews full 16:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782780 https://iono.fm/e/782780 As a result, Holomisa finds himself on the wrong end of a libel suit. But the UDM political party president’s colourful language and skilful media management has had an upside.
Last October, a Commission of Inquiry was established to look into his allegations of impropriety at the R2 trillion Public Investment Corporation, or the PIC. And in hearings since January the commission has exposed two unexpected warts: the dictatorial management style of the PIC’s now suspended chief executive Dr Dan Matjila; and likely fraud around the PIC’s R4.3bn investment in Ayo, a wanna-be African tech giant promoted on vapourware.
The great paradox, however, is the supposedly pillaging businessmen described by Holomisa as “hyenas” are coming through the interrogation as honest agents. Indeed, testimony heard by Judge Lex Mpati and his commissioners Gill Marcus and Chief Lediga reveals their businesses have actually generated billions in profit for State pensioners.
For those in the know, this is no surprise. That includes anyone who heard my interview with the central character, Harith’s founder Tshepo Mahloele. I was looking for the other side to an incredulous story shortly after Holomisa’s allegations were publicised.
At the PIC Commission these past two weeks, Holomisa fared poorly under cross questioning. But those he targeted - Mahloele, his chairman Jabu Moloketi and business partner Warren Wheatley - appeared voluntarily and delivered a consistent and believable version of events.
Last weekend, I caught up with Mahloele at the National Portrait Gallery in London… ]]> Business News Sat, 27 Apr 2019 18:24:18 +0200 0 0 Tshepo Mahloele: The great paradox of the PIC Commission 0 0 BizNews full 15:43 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782781 https://iono.fm/e/782781 The head of the Government Employees Pension Fund says the fund is financially sound and there is no need for an increase in contributions by employers.
Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane says she is investigating Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordham to help him.
The labour department is planning to deregister AMCU just weeks before crucial platinum-industry wage talks are expected to begin.
Brent crude reached $75 a barrel which is not good news for motorists who could face higher petrol and diesel prices.
Mark Zuckerberg's fortune is bouncing back. ]]> Business News Thu, 25 Apr 2019 21:34:21 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: GEPF 'financially' sound; PP 'helping' Gordhan; AMCU on watch; Zuckerberg fortune rises 0 0 BizNews full 3:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782783 https://iono.fm/e/782783 The Jannie Mouton created investment company PSG announced solid financial results for the year to end February, disclosing recurring earnings per share up 9% and a 10% increase in the year’s dividend, to R4.56 per share.
Life Healthcare shares were one of the biggest losers on the JSE yesterday after the group released a trading update for the half year to end March disclosing that profit margins have fallen from 23.6% to 22% knocking headline earnings per share by around 50%.
The South African Rand took a pasting yesterday, influenced by a continuing slide for emerging market currencies worldwide. It lost 18c against the US Dollar and 21c against the Pound to R14.43 and R18.65 respectively. ]]> Business News Wed, 24 Apr 2019 20:58:03 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Bidding war for Moz gas giant; PSG at 20% discount; Rand falls sharply; Life Healthcare slumps 0 0 BizNews full 4:42 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782785 https://iono.fm/e/782785 South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom “isn’t on the brink of financial collapse” and the government has the problem “well under control,” according to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
The founder of Japan’s massive new-age focused venture capital fund Softbank lost more than $130m on a personal bitcoin bet he took when the cyber currency’s price peaked at $19 000 in December 2017.
South African share prices followed global markets higher yesterday, gaining half a percent overall with winning shares beating losers two to one. ]]> Business News Tue, 23 Apr 2019 20:50:54 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: US shares new high; Eskom OK - Gordhan; Son loses $130m on Bitcoin; Omnia rebounds 0 0 BizNews full 4:55 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782788 https://iono.fm/e/782788 Tributes continue pouring in for the 76 year old inventor of mind mapping, Tony Buzan, who passed away earlier this month after heart attack.
The Capitalist Party of South Africa, ZACP, last night tabled a plan to hand over direct ownership of the country’s 715 state owned enterprises to citizens. 
Brazilian investment company 3G Capital, has moved one of its more favoured executives into the CEO post at food giant Kraft Heinz.  ]]> Business News Mon, 22 Apr 2019 20:02:54 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Tributes for Buzan; ZACP wants to gift SOEs; 3G ejects Kraft boss; US blocks Iranian oil 0 0 BizNews full 4:28 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782790 https://iono.fm/e/782790 The South African Reserve Bank says the damage done by state capture is worse than previously understood.
South Africa’s Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has agreed to end a five-month strike at Sibanye's gold mines.
Apple could have a 5G iPhone ready to bring to market as soon as this year.
Shares in Juventus fell by 24% after the Italian Club lost the Champion’s League quarter-finals.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s name has appeared on the list of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the World. ]]> Business News Wed, 17 Apr 2019 22:30:45 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Eskom sheds growth forecast; Sibanye strike over; 5G Apple; Juventus, NPN, TKG, CPI 0 0 BizNews full 3:39 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782793 https://iono.fm/e/782793 The chief executive of the world’s biggest asset manager predicts global stock markets are poised for what he calls a “melt-up” as signs of economic health in the US and China encourage investors back into the markets.
The share price of embattled tech business EOH yesterday surged on heavy trading volumes as investors gave a thumbs up to its decision to shed R1bn of non-core businesses and investments.
The recent strength of South African share prices was evident again yesterday with the overall index gaining more than 1% with buying focus shifting this time to telecoms stocks.  ]]> Business News Tue, 16 Apr 2019 19:34:31 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: SARB independence "insurance"; Markets will "melt-up"; EOH, MTN, TKG, DSY, INT 0 0 BizNews full 4:19 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782794 https://iono.fm/e/782794 Despite the controversy that surrounds his erratic actions at electric car maker Tesla, South African born and raised entrepreneur Elon Musk still possesses plenty of money pulling power.
After reporting a 21% drop in its latest quarterly profit, the share price of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs lost 3% yesterday, interrupting its gain of one fifth so far this year.
The Rand’s good recent run ended yesterday with the currency losing 7.5c against the US dollar to trade slightly above R14 to the greenback. ]]> Business News Mon, 15 Apr 2019 20:16:29 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing; Sudan, Algeria celebrate end of dictators; Aspen, Investec, Absa gain; SpaceX seeks $500m; Goldman profits reverse. 0 0 BizNews full 4:38 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782795 https://iono.fm/e/782795 Business News Mon, 15 Apr 2019 14:00:48 +0200 0 0 The Joburg hedge fund manager behind English soccer's latest fairlytale 0 0 BizNews full 31:09 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782797 https://iono.fm/e/782797 Controversial South African entrepreneur Mzi Khumalo’s gold mining company Metallon has halted production at three of its four Zimbabwean mines because of debt that exceeds $200m. 
South Africa’s one-time go-go stock EOH, whose share price has lost almost two thirds of its value this year, confirmed the shareholders’ worst fears when announcing a headline earnings per share reverse from positive 319c to a negative 993c for the six months to end January.
South African stocks ended the day slightly firmer on Friday with the JSE all share index closing a third of a percent better. ]]> Business News Sun, 14 Apr 2019 20:53:52 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Jet Airways faces bankruptcy; Mzi owes millions; EOH heps plunge; Shoprite shines 0 0 BizNews full 3:59 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782798 https://iono.fm/e/782798 Business News Sun, 14 Apr 2019 11:22:50 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Chris Steyn, Brexit & the tale of Lincoln City 0 0 BizNews full 24:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782800 https://iono.fm/e/782800 Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has been subpoenaed by the Public Protector to submit an affidavit related to the so-called SARS rogue unit.
Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange is facing extradition to the United States after he was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Global Economist at Schroders, Azad Zangana says the extension to the Brexit deadline reduces the incentives for the UK Parliament to compromise on a deal.
Sudan’s military has seized power from the country’s long-time dictator, Omar al-Bashir
EY has lifted South Africa’s Fintech out as positive development.
and two South African scientists were part of the international team that took a picture of a black hole.  ]]> Business News Fri, 12 Apr 2019 00:40:08 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Public Protector goes after Gordhan; Americans want Assange; Britain in limbo; SA fintech gets thumbs-up; South Africans help film bla.. 0 0 BizNews full 3:05 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782803 https://iono.fm/e/782803 The Johannesburg Stock Exchange has urgently requested that the external auditors of Ayo Technology Solutions investigate the company’s reported financials for the six months to end February 2018 and February 2019 .
On the day when Israel is set to celebrate becoming only the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon, the nation also digests its collective decision to elect a political leader facing corruption charges.
A South African currency strengthening to better than R14 to the US dollar sparked another big day for retailing shares on the JSE, led by a 7.4% surge for discounter Mr Price whose stock has risen 17% in a fortnight.  ]]> Business News Wed, 10 Apr 2019 19:28:37 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Sibanye shares tank; JSE wants Ayo audited; Bibi wins in Israel; Mr Price, Banks; Platinums. 0 0 BizNews full 4:22 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782805 https://iono.fm/e/782805 Debenhams, the 241 year old British retailer whose initial boost came from dominating the sale of family mourning clothes during the strict Victorian era, yesterday attended to its own funeral.
One of the world’s big three rating agencies S&P yesterday left South Africa’s credit score unchanged at two levels below investment grade.
South African share prices lost a little ground yesterday with the JSE’s overall index closing a quarter percent lower. It was dragged down by a 4% drop in the price of heavyweight Richemont after analysts at Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to “underperform”. ]]> Business News Tue, 09 Apr 2019 20:29:51 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: IMF drops SA growth rate; Debenhams; S&P; Richemont; Brimstone; SA retailers 0 0 BizNews full 4:51 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782806 https://iono.fm/e/782806 The $2bn Tuna Bond scandal which involves state officials and Credit Suisse bankers, took an interesting turn yesterday when the Kempton Park magistrate’s court ruled against former Mozambiquan finance minister Manual Chang’s attempt to resist extradition.
Leading South African retailing group Pick n Pay yesterday gave notice that it will be delivering good news when publishing financial results for the year to end February.
On the JSE yesterday, precious metals stocks rose strongly with Royal Bafokeng Platinum jumping 9%; Harmony 7.5%; Sibanye 5.5%, Anglo Platinum up 5%; Goldfields 4% and Anglogold 3.5%. ]]> Business News Mon, 08 Apr 2019 20:23:10 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: CIO claims Ayo "manufactured" financials; Gold, Plat shares surge; Strong Pick n Pay results; Tuna Bond scandal. 0 0 BizNews full 3:22 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782807 https://iono.fm/e/782807 Another round of trade talks between the US and China wrapped up in Washington over the weekend with both sides happy with the progress.
South Africa’s leading food group Tiger Brands is to unbundle to shareholders its remaining 49m shares in South Africa’s biggest fishing group, Oceana.
Steinhoff announced late on Friday that its auditors Deloitte have pushed out the projected date for publication of the financial results for 2017 and 2018. ]]> Business News Sun, 07 Apr 2019 20:24:38 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Added pressure on Magashule; Steinhoff results delayed; Brimstone lines fishing merger; Trade talks positive. 0 0 BizNews full 4:04 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782808 https://iono.fm/e/782808 Business News Sat, 06 Apr 2019 11:04:50 +0200 0 0 From the Editor’s Desk: Brexit on the ground – an economic slow puncture 0 0 BizNews full 19:09 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782811 https://iono.fm/e/782811 BP has been found guilty in the Pretoria High Court of environmental crimes in a private prosecution.
Ethiopia concluded that their pilots repeatedly followed procedures recommended by Boeing.
Tesla Inc. shares fell by 11% as a record decline in deliveries during the first quarter stoked concern.
 United Kingdom has lost £6.6bn in economic activity every quarter since it voted to leave the European Union.
Countries with the lowest levels of corruption collected nearly 5% of GDP more than those low on the list,
The ANC's Ace Magashule says he is not a crook. ]]> Business News Thu, 04 Apr 2019 21:19:32 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: BP's SA environmental crime, Tesla shares fall, Ethiopia backs pilots, Magashule hits back 0 0 BizNews full 3:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782814 https://iono.fm/e/782814 Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan told a media briefing on Eskom that there will be little or at worst only Stage 1 load shedding in the winter.
Foreign investors have bought a net R6.8bn of government bonds since Friday after outflows of R81m in March.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May held two hours of "constructive" talks with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn on Brexit.
The Ethiopian airline pilots involved in the crash near Addis Ababa did follow the Boeing emergency procedures.
The FDA is investigating a link between e-cigarettes and seizures among young vapers.
And the ANC's Integrity Committee will not investigate Ace Magashule. ]]> Business News Wed, 03 Apr 2019 21:46:28 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Eskom to avoid dark winter, May shedding hard Brexit, ANC's integrity committee Aced 0 0 BizNews full 3:06 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782815 https://iono.fm/e/782815 British MPs wants to break up the Big Four auditing companies, PWC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte.
The software upgrade for the Boeing 737 Max is not ready.
Lyft saw shares slump to below its IPO of $72.
Penguin Random House says they will not withdraw Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s book on ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule. ]]> Business News Tue, 02 Apr 2019 22:02:18 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: May turns to Corbyn; UK wants Big 4 breakup; Boeing upgrade not ready; Lyft shares fall below IPO; Penguin stands firm on Ace book 0 0 BizNews full 3:13 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782817 https://iono.fm/e/782817 Two former employees of Barclays Bank were sentenced to jail for their roles in rigging of a European benchmark interest rate.
The South African rand rallied strongly yesterday after Friday’s non-statement from Moody’s, which simply stated that the rating was not adjusted with the next review on November 1.
It’s now four winning sessions in a row for South African shares as the JSE picked up 1.1% yesterday led higher by financial and industrial shares.  ]]> Business News Mon, 01 Apr 2019 21:15:07 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Rand, SA bonds jump; Saudis unveil Aramco; Barclays bankers jailed; Coro, Sygnia, Ayo. 0 0 BizNews full 3:48 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782820 https://iono.fm/e/782820 China’s Purchasing Manager’s Index, the official gauge of activity in the country’s manufacturing sector of the world’s second biggest economy, rebounded strongly in March.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has called on global lawmakers to introduce more regulation on his own and other internet companies across areas including user privacy.
South African shares closed the week with three successive winning sessions with the JSE’s All Share Index rising three quarters of a percent on Friday. ]]> Business News Sun, 31 Mar 2019 19:15:18 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Shares' best qtr since 2009; Moody's SA non event; Zuckerberg wants privacy; China manufacturing rebounding 0 0 BizNews full 3:18 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782821 https://iono.fm/e/782821 A second Barclays ex-trader has been convicted for Euribor rigging.
Another US state is suing Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family for the opioid crisis after an Oklahoma settlement.
The Reserve Bank held the repo rate at 6.75% and the growth forecast has been lowered from 1.7% to 1.3%.
President Cyril Ramaphosa's son Andile's deal with Bosasa may have legal implications. ]]> Business News Thu, 28 Mar 2019 21:17:26 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Repo rate held, May's round three, profits over patients, Andile Ramaphosa fall-out 0 0 BizNews full 2:51 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782824 https://iono.fm/e/782824 Bloodletting at the UK’s Barclays Bank continued yesterday with the sudden departure of corporate and investment banking head Tim Throsby, in the position for barely two years.
In South African news, Edward Kieswetter has been appointed the new head of the SA Revenue Services.
South African stocks yesterday enjoyed a second winning session with the JSE All Share index rising just under one percent, pulled higher by its leading stock Naspers which gained 2.5% in a delayed reaction to Monday’s offshore listing announcement. ]]> Business News Wed, 27 Mar 2019 20:47:36 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Naspers pulls up JSE; Kieswetter to run SARS; China's shades of Selebi; More blood at Barclays. 0 0 BizNews full 3:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782827 https://iono.fm/e/782827 Britain’s leading Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has led much of the fight against prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, yesterday switched sides after it became apparent that the UK may not leave the EU after all.
The Public Investment Corporation, custodian of the R2trn state employee retirement fund, yesterday suspended its acting chief executive Matshepo More.
A late afternoon rally lifted the JSE all share index to a half percent better close with gaining shares outnumbering losers by almost two to one. ]]> Business News Tue, 26 Mar 2019 21:18:39 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Rees-Mogg switches sides; Kumba, Old Mutual gain; Uber buys Dubai rival; PIC suspends boss 0 0 BizNews full 3:36 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782830 https://iono.fm/e/782830 It has been a good 48 hours for both US president Donald Trump and British prime minister Theresa May.
In South African news, the stock which accounts for 25% of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s SWIX index weighting and 20% of the daily trade, is to list its major assets in Amsterdam.
The JSE struggled yesterday with the overall index losing 1.3% and losers outscoring gainers by three to one. ]]> Business News Mon, 25 Mar 2019 20:13:08 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: JSE struggles - market and stock; Lyft IPO this week; Naspers bets big; Smiles for Trump, May. 0 0 BizNews full 3:52 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782831 https://iono.fm/e/782831 Business News Mon, 25 Mar 2019 18:47:09 +0200 0 0 Naspers to list assets in Amsterdam - bonanza for SA shareholders, taxman 0 0 BizNews full 13:49 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782832 https://iono.fm/e/782832 Apple Inc, which at $900bn shades Microsoft as the world’s most valuable company, will today unveil a years-in-the-making strategy to install video and news subscription services as its top priority.
British Prime Minister Theresa May faces another difficult week with Conservative Party colleagues calling for her head.
Italy became the first major economy to sign an agreement with China to cooperate on Beijing’s global infrastructure plan, the Belt and Road Initiative.
In South Africa, traders are taking bets on two big events coming at the end of the week - the MPC meeting and an announcement from Moody's. ]]> Business News Sun, 24 Mar 2019 19:51:33 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Apple's new strategy; Mrs May teetering; Italy shocks allies; SA awaits Moody's 0 0 BizNews full 2:59 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782833 https://iono.fm/e/782833 Business News Sat, 23 Mar 2019 12:02:31 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: Can’t trust politicians, can’t trust business 0 0 BizNews full 17:24 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782834 https://iono.fm/e/782834 Eskom is waiting for a diesel delivery from Petro SA to ease loadshedding.
Brexit has been delayed by the EU, but became even more confusing.
Boeing says software fixes for Boeing 737 Max will be ready in weeks.
New Zealand has banned assault rifles.
An emergency of catastrophic proportions is unfolding in Mozambique as 15,000 people are waiting to be rescued from flooded areas. ]]> Business News Fri, 22 Mar 2019 09:28:05 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Loadshedding rides on Petro SA, Brexit delayed, Boeing software fix in weeks , 15,000 people waiting to be rescued after Mozambican fl.. 0 0 BizNews full 2:41 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782835 https://iono.fm/e/782835 British Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday asked the European Union to delay its departure from the bloc by three months to June 30.
In the second such case to go before the courts, a San Francisco jury has found that a man developed cancer from exposure to Roundup weedkiller.
In South Africa, some big construction sites have become a battle ground as armed gangs try to disrupt building operations in the name of radical economic transformation.
 It was a day of mostly red ink for the JSE ahead of the  public holiday, with the all share index losing one and a quarter percent.  ]]> Business News Wed, 20 Mar 2019 18:54:44 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: SA building sites ablaze; Google, Roundup, Investec, Hudaco, Brexit. 0 0 BizNews full 3:54 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782836 https://iono.fm/e/782836 Business News Wed, 20 Mar 2019 09:34:47 +0200 0 0 SLR's political lens: Corbyn, Mazibuko unmasked - what happens next? 0 0 BizNews full 21:03 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782838 https://iono.fm/e/782838 Steinhoff is looking for more answers after PWC report.
Social media giants are under pressure to do more to prevent extremist videos after the New Zealand mosque massacre.
Brexiteers may be caving in to Theresa May as they fear it will never happen.
Electric cars rule at the Geneva motor show where a hypercar as fast as a F1 racer has been unveiled. ]]> Business News Mon, 18 Mar 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: More loadshedding expected; social media giants under pressure after NZ massacre; electric cars rule Geneva 0 0 BizNews full 4:16 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782839 https://iono.fm/e/782839 A motion to delay Brexit initially until the end of June with a possible further extension was passed by a majority of 210 votes in the UK Parliament.
The fate of Boeing 737 Max jets are now in the hands of France.
Fiat Chrysler is recalling more than 800,000 of its gasoline-fuelled vehicles to replace their catalytic converters which is good news for palladium producers.
Standard Bank announces the closure of 91 branches leading to 1,200 job losses.
Morgan Stanley says it's time to bet on South African stocks. ]]> Business News Fri, 15 Mar 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Brexit delay; Morgan Stanley bets on SA; Standard Bank branch closures; Boeing 737 Max grounding in French hands 0 0 BizNews full 4:25 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782840 https://iono.fm/e/782840 Business News Thu, 14 Mar 2019 22:13:34 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Behind the ANC's shocking electoral list 0 0 BizNews full 15:27 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782842 https://iono.fm/e/782842 President Trump grounds the whole fleet of Boeing 737 Max aeroplanes after its last ally Canada banned the jets over its air space.
Business confidence in South Africa fell to the lowest level in two years.
The UK is now less likely to crash out of the European Union with no agreement as Parliament decided in a narrow vote last night to block a no-deal Brexit.
Elon Musk will unveil a cheaper electric car in Los Angeles tonight hoping to crack the mass car market for Tesla.
And a very special auction at Cartier. ]]> Business News Thu, 14 Mar 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Trump grounds Boeing 737 Max fleet; SA BCI hits worrying lows; No-deal Brexit rejected; Musk to unveil cheaper car 0 0 BizNews full 4:18 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782845 https://iono.fm/e/782845 Aircraft maker Boeing’s troubles deepened yesterday as European regulators joined China, Ethiopia and Indonesia in grounding the company’s 737 MAX planes.
German group Volkswagen, which sold almost 11m vehicles worldwide last year, is doubling down on electric cars.
Henley Business School in the UK has cancelled this year’s full-time MBA after demand for the one year course collapsed.
South African construction company Group Five was yesterday put into business rescue. ]]> Business News Wed, 13 Mar 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Group Five collapses; Henley UK cancels full-time MBA; Boeing's troubles deepen; VW doubles down on electric cars 0 0 BizNews full 4:26 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782846 https://iono.fm/e/782846 British Prime Minister Theresa May faces another vote on her Brexit deal in the UK’s Parliament today which commentators expect to once again lose.
Newmont Mining has managed to fend off a hostile takeover bid by agreeing to inject its prized Nevada gold mines into a Barrick-controlled joint venture.
The US Department of Justice is hitting major obstacles in its efforts to bring former Credit Suisse executives to account for Mozambique’s crooked $2bn Tuna Bond deal.
South African airline company Comair, which operates in the country through the British Airways and Kulula brands, has grounded all of its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in the wake of Sunday’s Ethiopia Airlines crash. ]]> Business News Tue, 12 Mar 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Comair grounds 737 MAX; Peace deal for Barrick, Newmont; May's Brexit vote day; Tuna Bond prosecution obstacles 0 0 BizNews full 4:57 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782847 https://iono.fm/e/782847 Germany’s two biggest money lenders, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, have agreed to hold merger discussions after both have suffered extended performance and share price declines.
The respected Pew Research Centre’s investigation into 11 leading emerging markets concludes that over half the adults either own or have access to a smartphone – and over 90% of them use social media like Facebook and messaging Apps like WhatsApp.
In other South African news, the trend to greater transparency accelerated over the weekend with the release of a critical report by the High-Level panel on the State Security Agency. ]]> Business News Mon, 11 Mar 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Zuma abuse of SA Intelligence; Deutsche/Commerzbank talk merger; Ethiopia Airline plane crashes; 77% of SAs use WhatsApp 0 0 BizNews full 4:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782848 https://iono.fm/e/782848 Business News Sat, 09 Mar 2019 12:09:59 +0200 0 0 The Editor’s Desk: SA’s watershed election – will the ANC win it? 0 0 BizNews full 18:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782851 https://iono.fm/e/782851 Shock Eskom hike of 9.4% in electricity prices approved by Nersa with more rises in the pipeline.
Tesla is updating its charging networking claiming a charge in 15 minutes just as competition is starting to move into the electric vehicle market.
Ramaphosa again declines to say how much his son received from Bosasa, but says he is very serious on corruption amid jeers of the opposition.
The European Central Bank has become the first major developed country bank to provide new economic stimulus.
Huawei uses US courts to fight back. ]]> Business News Fri, 08 Mar 2019 01:00:39 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Nersa gives Eskom less; Ramaphosa mum on Bosasa; Fast charging Musk; Euro bank stimulus 0 0 BizNews full 4:36 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782852 https://iono.fm/e/782852 In a year when President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on a range of imports to cut his country’s trade imbalance, the United States posted its largest deficit since 2008.
Pressure on the US’s big tech giants rose a notch yesterday as the French government introduced a 3% tax on online advertising and digital marketplace revenues generated in the country.
Zimbabwean finance minister Mthuli Ncube, who is on an investment roadshow in the US, yesterday said that the country has scrapped the 51% local ownership rule on platinum mines.
In South African news, the day of reckoning drew a little closer yesterday for former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste and his fellow directors. ]]> Business News Thu, 07 Mar 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Jooste's reckoning approaches; Zim ends local ownership; France taxes Big Tech; Record US trade deficit 0 0 BizNews full 4:19 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782853 https://iono.fm/e/782853 The price Tesla shares continued to fall last night, taking its fall in the three trading sessions of March well into double digits.
Although hopes are high for a deal to end the trade war, tensions between America and China are sure to be tested after evidence surfaced of widespread hacking of US military secrets by Beijing.
Former Nissan and Renault chairman Carlos Ghosn was yesterday granted bail of $9m, ending his 107 day jailing after his shock arrest last November.
In South African news, the country’s official economic growth rate for 2018 closed at 0.8%, half that of its population expansion. ]]> Business News Wed, 06 Mar 2019 03:10:32 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Tesla tanks on Musk blog; Ghosn leaves jail; US Unis hacked by China; SA 2018 GDP 0.8% 0 0 BizNews full 4:06 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782855 https://iono.fm/e/782855 The $225bn telecoms and media giant AT&T dominated global business headlines last night after announcing a major overhaul of its operations.
China’s telecoms equipment supplier Huawei retaliated yesterday after months of being on the back foot over allegations that it is collaborating with the Chinese government to spy on western countries.
Barrick, the global gold mining group headed by South African Mark Bristow, yesterday took the wraps off the rationale for its hostile takeover bid for rival Newmont, claiming a deal would deliver over $7bn in synergies.
In South African news, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has appointed Dr Tsakani Mthombeni of Goldfields Limited as the chairman of a Eskom new Technical Review Team. ]]> Business News Tue, 05 Mar 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Huawei hits back at US, Canada; Bristow's $18bn deal "egocentric"; Eskom pulls in private sector; AT&T to slash jobs 0 0 BizNews full 4:06 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782857 https://iono.fm/e/782857 Business News Mon, 04 Mar 2019 15:05:04 +0200 0 0 Deconstructing Angelo Agrizzi, Bosasa kingpin turned State Capture canary 0 0 BizNews full 25:28 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782858 https://iono.fm/e/782858 Chinese share prices, which have risen by a third this year to become the world’s best performers for 2019, have further upside according to a couple of investment heavyweights.
January’s deadly slimes dam burst in Brazil, where 186 people are confirmed dead and another 122 are still missing, has claimed its first corporate casualties with yesterday’s resignation of the chief executive and two lieutenants at Brazilian mining giant Vale.
Still with mining, the American state of Nevada came top of 83 mining jurisdictions in the 2018 Fraser Institute’s annual survey of mining’s most attractive destinations. Nevada, which rose from third in 2017, was followed by Western Australian (5th in 2017) and Canadian province Saskatchewan which fell one place last year.
In South African related news, major retailing group Edcon secured a life-saving deal with creditors almost a year after it began negotiating the refinancing of a debt mountain created in 2007 by private equity investors Bain Capital. ]]> Business News Mon, 04 Mar 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Edcon rescues 30,000 jobs; SA climbs in Fraser mining index; MSCI pushing China shares; Vale CEO resigns 0 0 BizNews full 4:39 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782859 https://iono.fm/e/782859 Negotiations on the US trade war with China is going so well that it has been described as “fantastic” by National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow.
In the UK, Rolls Royce’s troubles with its Trent 1000 engines led to a £2.9bn pre-tax loss compared to profits of £3.89 billion a year ago.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was notified that his attorney general plans to put him on trial for bribery and fraud following a two-year investigation.
The defeat of market-friendly opposition leader Atiku Abubakar in the Nigerian elections was met by the worst slump in stocks since June 2016.
Former South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said at the Zondo Commission of enquiry that Eskom is like an albatross around the neck of the fiscus. ]]> Business News Fri, 01 Mar 2019 02:00:49 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Manuel says Eskom is an albatross, Mbulala felt 'violated'; Netanyahu to be charged; 'fantastic' progress in US/China trade talks 0 0 BizNews full 4:35 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782861 https://iono.fm/e/782861 US president Donald Trump was described as a conman, a racist and a liar by his personal lawyer of 10 years, Michael Cohen in testimony before Congress yesterday.
Six Africans feature on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 500 richest people released yesterday.
The share price of the UK’s Metrobank took another 26% hit yesterday after it merged that the one time London market darling requires a £350m capital injection from shareholders.
In South African related news, the ugly truth emerged yesterday about how the Guptas and their allies at Eskom and in Jacob Zuma’s cabinet strong-armed international mining house Glencore to sell a major South African coal mine.  ]]> Business News Thu, 28 Feb 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Glencore spills Gupta beans; Trump called "a conman"; Six Africans among world's richest; Metrobank shares plunge 26%. 0 0 BizNews full 4:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782864 https://iono.fm/e/782864 Pound Sterling gained more than one percent against the US Dollar yesterday after fears of a No Deal Brexit evaporated.
On the other side of the Atlantic, US president Donald Trump is about to be publicly accused of criminal conduct by his long-time lawyer and confidant Michael Cohen.
Pop star Michael Jackson’s “Neverland” ranch, where he lived for 15 years, is now being offered for sale at an almost 70% discount to the $100m it was listed at in 2015.
In South African related news, well sort of, the country’s most famous entrepreneurial export Elon Musk yesterday slammed the US’s Securities and Exchange Commission after it accused him of breaking an agreement made last year. ]]> Business News Wed, 27 Feb 2019 03:03:04 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Musk swings back at SEC; Jacko's Neverland at 70% discount; Trump's ex-lawyer exposes criminality; Brexit "No Deal" scotched 0 0 BizNews full 4:17 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782865 https://iono.fm/e/782865 Business News Tue, 26 Feb 2019 12:02:17 +0200 0 0 Premium: Full transcript, audio of Alec Hogg's post-Davos SA presentations 0 0 BizNews full 1:05:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782867 https://iono.fm/e/782867 Once universally admired American conglomerate General Electric last night announced a major step towards breaking into smaller chunks by agreeing the $21bn sale of its life sciences business.
Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett admitted during an interview with CNBC yesterday his company overpaid when helping to buy food company Heinz in 2013.
In South African related news, independent UK telecoms infrastructure business Helios Towers yesterday announced it will double up on its recent South African investment by building 1 000 towers in the country during the next three years. ]]> Business News Tue, 26 Feb 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Saffer launches $18bn hostile takeover; Helios Towers investing $100m into SA; Buffett admits over-paying; GE in $21bn biopharm exit 0 0 BizNews full 4:55 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782869 https://iono.fm/e/782869 US private equity group KKR is being tipped as the likely buyer of Walmart’s British supermarket chain Asda after the UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority spiked its proposed £7bn merger with Sainsbury.
Warren Buffett, the world’s most successful investor, was in the news over the weekend after disclosing that for the first time in decades Berkshire has started buying back its own shares.
In South African related news, president Cyril Ramaphosa last night accelerated the process of recovering plundered state resources by establishing a Special Tribunal chaired by Judge Gidfonia Makhanya. ]]> Business News Sun, 24 Feb 2019 23:57:53 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Facebook caught cheating (again); KKR tipped for ASDA; Eskom plunderers attacked; Buffett's share buybacks 0 0 BizNews full 4:28 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782870 https://iono.fm/e/782870 Samsung has revealed its new foldable phone that resembles a conventional cellphone, but it folds open like a book to reveal a small tablet of 18.5 cm.
Warren Buffet is on the hunt for ‘elephants’. No not the big 5 variety, that is what he calls large acquisitions.
Barclays Bank is in the black again as it reported a full-year net profit of  £1.4bn for 2018.
The Catholic Church is finally addressing a decade of scandals that rocked the church in a landmark summit on child sex abuse.
Anglo American posted stronger than expected results driven by higher copper and coal prices with EBITDA rising 4% to $9.2bn. ]]> Business News Fri, 22 Feb 2019 01:00:45 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Foldable Samsung; Buffett goes elephant hunting; Anglo stronger than expected; Barclays Brexit provision 0 0 BizNews full 3:31 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782872 https://iono.fm/e/782872 The Minutes of last month’s US Federal Reserve interest rate meeting, released yesterday, disclose that members agreed to pause the tightening phase until there is more clarity on emerging risks to economic growth.
Swiss bank UBS has been fined a record $4.2bn for encouraging wealthy French citizens to evade tax by helping them launder undeclared money.
Global miner Glencore, the last major group to swim against a carbon energy tide, has finally caved in to pressure from environmental activists.
In South African related news, global business publications are giving prominence this morning to the Ramaphosa government’s $5bn Eskom bailout in yesterday’s Budget. ]]> Business News Thu, 21 Feb 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Eskom bailout in world headlines; UBS hit with record fine; Glencore caves to activists; Dynamite in US Fed Minutes 0 0 BizNews full 3:49 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782881 https://iono.fm/e/782881 On Twitter last night anti-establishment politician Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy to become American President in 2020.
Retail giant Walmart yesterday calmed the nerves of investors worrying about a slowdown in the US economy, announcing a 4.2% rise in revenues for the three months to end December.
The fashion business is today mourning the death of Karl Lagerfeld, the pony tailed, dark glasses-wearing icon who dominated the industry for decades.
In South African related news, the AMCU trade union yesterday called on its members working across the mining sector to join those who have been on strike for over three months at Sibanye’s gold mines. ]]> Business News Wed, 20 Feb 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: AMCU wants sympathy strikes; Sanders for President; Walmart best 4Q in 15 years; Fashion mourns Lagerfeld. 0 0 BizNews full 4:17 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782882 https://iono.fm/e/782882 The UK yesterday experienced its biggest political split in almost 40 years when seven members of the Labour Party walked away from the official opposition, which is led by the controversial Jeremy Corbyn.
Still in the UK, the country’s struggling motor manufacturing sector took another blow yesterday with news that Honda’s 160,000 vehicle a year factory in Swindon will close.
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison says that his country has managed to see off a cyber attack by a foreign state whose hackers attempted to extract confidential information from computer systems in parliament.
In South African related news, the Mozambique government has belatedly moved against those involved in the $2bn Tuna Bond corruption, ordering a series of high-profile arrests this week. ]]> Business News Tue, 19 Feb 2019 01:00:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Split in UK Labour Party; 8 arrests in $2bn Mozam Tuna Bond scandal; Aussie Parly hacked by hostile state; Honda closes in UK 0 0 BizNews full 4:00 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782884 https://iono.fm/e/782884 Fault lines continue to widen between the United States of America and its traditional western allies. In Germany over the weekend, US vice president Mike Pence’s call to ratchet up pressure on Iran was brushed off by the Europeans.
Brexit supporters are celebrating yesterday’s news that Citigroup is negotiating to invest $1.6bn in buying the 42 storey building it occupies in London’s Canary Wharf.
Ride hailing software company Uber generated $3bn in sales during the three months to end December, 25% above the same period a year before.
In South African related news, Eskom continues to dominate the headlines. Yesterday’s Sunday Times newspaper reported that the government is to deploy police and intelligence officers at Eskom power stations to protect against sabotage. ]]> Business News Mon, 18 Feb 2019 01:04:37 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Eskom fears sabotage; Europe ignores Pence; Citi's Brexit boost; Uber growth slows 0 0 BizNews full 4:08 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782885 https://iono.fm/e/782885 The digital age has ushered in a fresh army of influencers, authentically independent individuals including previously unknown youtube video heroes or twitter superstars (think Joe Sugg of Strictly Come Dancing). As their influence mushrooms, so has their ability to turn their newfound fame into full time careers. 
Some South Africans were among the world’s first to spot what has now become a global trend. Five years ago, Webfluential was launched in Johannesburg – a business which now represents 35 000 global influencers with a reach into well over a billion people - including eight from SA who have become millionaires through their influencer marketing efforts. To find out how it all happened,  I caught up with Webfluential's Mike Sharman - who co founded the business with Murray Legg and David Philip.  ]]> Business News Sun, 17 Feb 2019 20:12:15 +0200 0 0 Meet Mike Sharman: Advertising visionary helping to spark a revolution. 0 0 BizNews full 27:31 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782886 https://iono.fm/e/782886 Within three years European aircraft builder Airbus is to abandon its $16bn project which produces the A380, the world’s biggest plane.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s February got even worse yesterday when his group buckled to political resistance and dropped plans to build a new HQ in New York City.
Chinese internet giant Alibaba’s financial services arm is to acquire UK-based money transfer company WorldFirst for $640m.
In South African related news, president Cyril Ramaphosa has launched a charm offensive on Eskom’s trade unions, promising that the electricity utility’s proposed three way split is not the precursor to privatisation. ]]> Business News Fri, 15 Feb 2019 01:02:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: CR trying to charm Eskom unions; Airbus pulls plug on A380; Amazon abandons NYC; AliBaba buys big in UK 0 0 BizNews full 4:00 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782887 https://iono.fm/e/782887 With just six weeks to go before Brexit is enacted, the European Union is reportedly preparing to make further concessions.
Shares in iconic jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co are set to return to the public markets later this year, more than three decades after delisting.
Israeli group Teva Pharmaceutials, the world’s largest maker of generic drugs, is moving into high-price biotech medicines in an attempt to revive its fortunes.
In South African related news, the share price of construction group Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon took a 17% knock yesterday after it warned shareholders that 2018’s profits would be virtually wiped out. ]]> Business News Thu, 14 Feb 2019 01:02:22 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: WBHO shares drop 17%; Levi's to relist; EU to make Brexit concessions; Teva goes for biotech 0 0 BizNews full 3:06 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782888 https://iono.fm/e/782888 US share prices rose strongly last night, with the three major indices gaining almost 1.5%.
After decades of steadfast support for the socialist regime in Venezuela, China is now hedging its bets on tyrant Nicolas Maduro.
Italian energy group Enel SpA has been called in by the South African government to help sort out the country’s two new power stations which the country says have been “badly designed and badly constructed.”
In other South African related news, the controversial Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, which proposed heavy state control over the sector, has been withdrawn. ]]> Business News Wed, 13 Feb 2019 06:40:05 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: US stocks surge; Eskom asks Italians to help; China hedging Venezuela bets; SA withdraws ECA Bill 0 0 BizNews full 3:43 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782891 https://iono.fm/e/782891 Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley yesterday announced its biggest acquisition since the global financial crisis with the $900m purchase of Canadian-headquartered Solium.
While the debate about the impact of global warming continues to rage, ports around the US aren’t taking any chances after the government’s national Climate Assessment concluded that the sea level will rise significantly.
Link sharing internet website Reddit has been valued at $3bn in a successful fund raising issue to inject $300m into the company.
In South African related news, credit rating agency Moody’s says president Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan to fix Eskom is not enough to address the problem. ]]> Business News Tue, 12 Feb 2019 01:02:43 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Moody's says Eskom restructuring not enough; Tencent invests in Reddit; Morgan Stanley buys big; Ports prepare for rising sea levels 0 0 BizNews full 3:31 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782895 https://iono.fm/e/782895 Wall Street analysts are pointing to a raft of technical indicators suggesting the stock market has re-entered a bull trend just four months after September’s sharp reverse.
Brazil is embarking on sweeping free market reforms including an overhaul of pensions, radical tax reform and wide-scale privatisation.
Graca Machel, widow to the first democratically elected presidents of Mozambique and South Africa, has weighed in on her homeland’s mushrooming Tuna Bond scandal.
In South African related news, Bloomberg reported over the weekend that MTN is planning to list online retailer Jumia in New York, raising an estimated $600m to help reduce the group’s $5bn debt. ]]> Business News Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:29:51 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Bulls back for US stocks; MTN to list Africa's Amazon in NY; Write off demanded on corrupt $2bn Mozam loan; Brazil in radical free mar.. 0 0 BizNews full 4:31 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782896 https://iono.fm/e/782896 I made a mental note to revisit the project, and hopefully discover what kind of a person would make such a massive personal investment in South Africa’s commercial capital at such uncertain time.
This week I duly caught up with Gatsby’s creator Steve Pellerade whose company of the same name is the go-to place when South Africa’s super rich are looking for new homes.
He didn’t drop any names – in this business discretion is absolute – but did share enough to give us a useful insight into the lifestyle of an African billionaire, that point one percent of the one percent…
We kicking off by exploring the back story to the mansion he named after the central character in F Scott Fitzgerald’s legendary novel… ]]> Business News Sat, 09 Feb 2019 20:16:23 +0200 0 0 What an African billionaire wants from their Joburg super home 0 0 BizNews full 14:54 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782897 https://iono.fm/e/782897 Business News Sat, 09 Feb 2019 12:16:59 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: The Total gas strike will change SA forever 0 0 BizNews full 22:13 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782899 https://iono.fm/e/782899 South Africa’s wait for a meaningful oil and gas discovery ended yesterday when the consortium headed by Total announced a gas find of about a billion barrels of oil equivalent with four more exciting prospects in the pipeline. 
Twitter yesterday reported its first full year of profitability and record quarterly revenue of over $900m for the three months to end December, but even so the share price fell 10% to just over $30. 
The UK has drawn up a secret plan to boost the UK economy in the event of a no deal Brexit.
In more South African related news, the world’s leading shared office business WeWork has announced it will be opening in Rosebank, Johannesburg during the third quarter of the year.  ]]> Business News Fri, 08 Feb 2019 00:10:18 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: SA's gas strike joy; WeWork opening in Jhb; Twitter drops 10%; Secret Brexit no deal stimulus plan 0 0 BizNews full 4:59 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782900 https://iono.fm/e/782900 US tech stocks have rebounded strongly in the past month and a half, taking the Nasdaq index to its second fastest reversal of a 20% decline – the definition of a bear market.
US president Donald Trump last night nominated senior Treasury official David Malpass to take over as CEO of the World Bank.
In South African related news, ambitious pan African banking giant Atlas Mara has made its first foray into the continent’s most sophisticated financial market. ]]> Business News Thu, 07 Feb 2019 00:10:26 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Last 5 years hottest ever; Atlas Mara buys into SA, dumps Diamond; World Bank critic becoming its MD; US techs beat Bear 0 0 BizNews full 4:21 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782901 https://iono.fm/e/782901 US president Donald Trump’s struck a more conciliatory tone in his 82 minute State of the Nation address last night.
The 14 nation oil cartel OPEC said it wants to strike a formal pact with a 10 nation Russian-led group of producers.
Executives at Saffer-heavy global commodity trading group Glencore will be celebrating this morning’s news that Goldman Sachs will join other Wall Street banking giants who have cut or closed their commodities trading units.
In other South African related news, peace may break out to the north where embattled Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa has launched a détente initiative with the political opposition. ]]> Business News Wed, 06 Feb 2019 11:50:47 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Big Glencore rival exits; OPEC courts Russia; Trump's SONA; Zim Prez launches détente 0 0 BizNews full 4:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782902 https://iono.fm/e/782902 Alphabet shares fell 3% in after-hours trading after the company which owns Google last night delivered quarterly results with disappointed.
The celebrated career of 74 year old fixed interest market guru Bill Gross has come to an ignoble end.
British Prime Minister Theresa May heads for Northern Ireland today in a two day effort to arrange an acceptable divorce with the European Union.
In South African related news, owner of five star Mabula Game Lodge in Limpopo, apparent billionaire Vijay Mallya, has lost his battle against being extradited from the UK to his native India.  ]]> Business News Tue, 05 Feb 2019 11:36:02 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Alphabet disappoints; Mabula's fugitive owner to be extradited; Bond kind dethroned; Canadians buy HMV 0 0 BizNews full 4:44 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782904 https://iono.fm/e/782904 Further evidence of the rapidly changing political world this morning comes from El Salvador where a 37 year old former advertising executive swept to the victory in the first round of the presidential election. 
Momentum continues to grow for ESG factors to receive more attention from public companies.
In South African related news, a consortium led by Israeli group Central Bottling Company has made a R4.8bn offer to acquire control of South Africa’s dominant dairy business Clover.
Also from South Africa, one time JSE heavyweight Impala Platinum is clawing its way back to health with news this morning that it has rebounded back into profit.  ]]> Business News Mon, 04 Feb 2019 11:05:08 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Israelis want to buy SA's Clover; Voters elect another anti-corruption independent; ESG gathers momentum; Impala back in black 0 0 BizNews full 4:27 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782905 https://iono.fm/e/782905 But even by our high standards, there are few like Neil Jacobsohn, who moved on from newsrooms to boardrooms and thence out of the media industry completely to indulge his passion for learning at FutureWorld International.
We have to thank Neil for introducing the fascinating Dr Vivienne Ming to South Africa. California born and bred Dr Ming is a cognitive neuroscientist, entrepreneur and member of the faculty at the pioneering Singularity University. She is also one of the world’s leading experts in artificial intelligence, with a story that is as extraordinary as her insights.
We caught up after she had blown away an appreciative audience at PWC’s new Waterfall City headquarters near Johannesburg… ]]> Business News Fri, 01 Feb 2019 19:54:42 +0200 0 0 Meet the extraordinary scientist Dr Vivienne Ming, global AI seer 0 0 BizNews full 29:07 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782906 https://iono.fm/e/782906 “These are the micropowers,” he wrote, “small, unknown or once negligible actors that have found ways to undermine, fence-in or thwart the megaplayers……”
Naim’s treatise is hugely respected.
In 2015, The End Of Power was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s inaugural pick in his “Year of Books challenge” where he challenged his community to join him in reading one book every two weeks for an entire year. It was also listed as a Financial Times Book of the Year in 2013.
The powerful messages embedded in the book are being felt around the world, including in South Africa where mobile phone giant continues to battle against a now 42 year old former employee over his idea that the company applied 18 years ago.
Kenneth Nkosana Makate fits the bill of the unknown activist who perfectly fits the micropower description,
For context, while in his early 20s, he had the bright idea of a call-me-back SMS service. Makate shared the concept with his ultimate boss, then Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig, who later claimed to have come up with the idea himself.
Makate has steadfastly refused to be fobbed off.
He laid a charge against his former employer and took the matter to court, winning a judgement in 2014 that found he was indeed the inventor of the concept, in the process destroying a reputation that Vodacom’s founder Knott-Craig had built over decades.
When that judgement refused to sanction a payment on the grounds of prescription (where debts expire if three years old) Makate took his plea to the highest court in the land. In a landmark judgement in 2016, the Constitutional Court found in Makate’s favour, ruling that Vodacom should indeed pay reasonable compensation to him for the invention.
For the last two years the parties have been wranging about the quantum - how much Makate should be paid.
Vodacom admits to having made an initial offer of R10m, which Makate rejected. Media reports say the company upped that to R49m. Again Makate says it is not enough.
The ante was upped this week when a group of activists calling themselves the Please Call Me movement – after the name of the concept – picketed Vodacom’s head office. Their protest, well covered by the media, focuses on ... ]]> Business News Fri, 01 Feb 2019 16:52:06 +0200 0 0 Micropower Makate vs megaplayer Vodacom whose Please Call Me misery continues 0 0 BizNews full 34:24 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782907 https://iono.fm/e/782907 Zimbabwe’s travails are back in the headlights this morning with the Financial Times of London declaring the country is heading for a Venezuela style meltdown.
After Amazon’s share price rose strongly ahead of the release of its December quarter’s results, the stock fell in after-hours trading to $1 635 a share, slightly slightly down on Thursday’s close.
US president Donald Trump has called for another summit with “my friend”, his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, to put the seal on a reworked trade arrangement between the countries.
In South African related news, a fresh challenge is looming for its mining companies after the Church of England Investment body was joined by other fund managers in calling for a thorough review of all slimes dams worldwide. ]]> Business News Fri, 01 Feb 2019 11:12:24 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Zim sliding into Venezuela; SA slimes dams also need auditing; Amazon disappoints; Trump wants Xi summit 0 0 BizNews full 3:53 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782908 https://iono.fm/e/782908 Stock markets are cheering after yesterday’s unexpected reversal of US Fed interest rate policy.
Share prices were also buoyed by better than anticipated quarterly results from internet giants Facebook and AliBaba. 
There was more bad news for Tesla from Europe yesterday as the world’s largest car maker, Volkswagen, unveiled an electric car chassis which by 2022 will be the building block for 50 different models. 
The Trump Administration yesterday announced changes designed to increase by around five and a half thousand a year, the H-1B visas issued to highly skilled foreigners. ]]> Business News Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:18:44 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Facebook, AliBaba shares surge; More US visas for the skilled; VW unveils Tesla Killer; Markets cheer Fed 0 0 BizNews full 4:25 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782910 https://iono.fm/e/782910 The UK’s Brexit drama took a new twist yesterday when British Parliamentarians voted to send prime minister Theresa May back to Brussels to try negotiate a new divorce settlement. 
Brazilian iron ore miner Vale has promised to dismantle 10 lookalike slimes dams as the fallout from the Friday’s disaster continues.
In South African related news, the gold price rose to its highest in eight months overnight, touching $1 315 an ounce ahead of today’s US Federal Reserve news conference.  ]]> Business News Wed, 30 Jan 2019 11:04:15 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Apple shares jump 6% after poor 4Q; Vale disaster - 10 dams to close; Gold keeps rising; May sent back to Brussels 0 0 BizNews full 4:22 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782912 https://iono.fm/e/782912 US prosecutors have filed a raft of charges against China’s tech equipment giant and national champion Huawei. 
The end game is fast approaching for Venezuela’s embattled leader Nicolas Maduro with the US imposing sanctions on his last source of income. 
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is distancing itself from the electric car company.
In South African related news, Absa chief executive Maria Ramos this morning announced she will retire next month.  ]]> Business News Tue, 29 Jan 2019 10:35:08 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Venezuela's end game; Absa's Ramos to retire; Saudis dump Tesla; US charges Huawei 0 0 BizNews full 4:32 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782913 https://iono.fm/e/782913 Turnover in the London housing market has fallen to its lowest level since the Global Financial Crisis ten years ago and those who do sell have accepted 11% less than their asking prices.
The world’s largest iron ore producer, Brazilian group Vale, is in the global headlines today after the biggest mining disaster in more than 50 years. 
California’s Stanford’s Graduate School of Business has topped the world’s best MBA list for the second successive year, shading its east coast rival Harvard.
In South African related news, the Naspers share price opened fractionally lower this morning after Friday evening’s announcement it had paid more than a billion dollars to buy the 27% it did not already own in Russian company Avito.  ]]> Business News Mon, 28 Jan 2019 10:32:15 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Stanford world's top MBA; Worst mining disaster since 1966; Naspers spends big in Russia; Brexit hits London houses hard 0 0 BizNews full 4:05 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782914 https://iono.fm/e/782914 Business News Sun, 27 Jan 2019 13:53:42 +0200 0 0 Maria Ramos: Absa's statement of intent in capturing Davos Promenade 0 0 BizNews full 21:00 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782915 https://iono.fm/e/782915 Business News Fri, 25 Jan 2019 20:28:13 +0200 0 0 Naspers' Koos Bekker: Ultimate insider's view of Davos, Facebook, Multichoice and more 0 0 BizNews full 34:35 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782917 https://iono.fm/e/782917 Also in Davos, IMF chief executive Christine Lagarde identified the trade war between the US and China as the biggest threat to economic growth in the world.
Last night 88 year old billionaire philanthropist George Soros used his annual dinner for journalists in Davos to launch a broadside at Chinese president Xi Jinping, calling him the most dangerous opponent of those who believe in open societies.
In South African relates news, it has emerged in private conversations here in Davos that a radical plan is being hatched to address the terminal state of the country’s electricity provider Eskom. ]]> Business News Fri, 25 Jan 2019 00:23:10 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Radical changes coming at Eskom; Soros attacks Xi; IMF warns on trade war; More money laundering scandals likely 0 0 BizNews full 3:17 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782918 https://iono.fm/e/782918 Those twin pieces of fortune brought 16 year old Skye to the 2019 World Economic Forum annual meeting, via the unlikely route as the under 18 winner of the 45,000 entrant World Wildlife photographer competition.
After placing some years ago, he has a dry run until the 2018 competition where his patiently acquired pic of a leopard he had followed for eight years scooped the top prize for this young Durbanite. The WEF invited him to Davos and his engagement alongside iconic Jane Goodall made him the youngest speaker at this year’s event.
At around the same age as Grade 11 learner Skye Meaker is now, I had a life transforming experience sparked by an overseas trip. So was keen to discover whether the exposure to something as overwhelming as Davos would change him…we kick off the interview from the part in our chat where I asked Skye what he was likely to take home… ]]> Business News Thu, 24 Jan 2019 21:09:44 +0200 0 0 Meet Durban's Skye Meaker, photographer extraordinaire, Davos 2019's youngest speaker 0 0 BizNews full 13:43 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782920 https://iono.fm/e/782920 How so? I’ve watched them here in Davos. They are genuinely good friends, which surely helps. But it looks to me that the true catalyst is their humility. They seem to have conquered the ego expansion which too often accompanies those promoted to elevated positions. Click on the link to the audio to hear the conversation. ]]> Business News Thu, 24 Jan 2019 20:31:16 +0200 0 0 Sasol’s CEOs on Davos, Lake Charles and a firmer oil price 0 0 BizNews full 21:03 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782921 https://iono.fm/e/782921 Business News Thu, 24 Jan 2019 13:25:07 +0200 0 0 Investec's Stephen Koseff: How to recover the trillion rand Zumanomics cost SA 0 0 BizNews full 18:12 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782922 https://iono.fm/e/782922 Business News Thu, 24 Jan 2019 13:02:48 +0200 0 0 Meet Popo Molefe: Transnet's corruption-busting chair who wants Guptas back in SA 0 0 BizNews full 27:26 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782923 https://iono.fm/e/782923 Business News Thu, 24 Jan 2019 12:49:23 +0200 0 0 Adrian Gore: Check the data - SA has already improved; better to come. 0 0 BizNews full 15:55 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782924 https://iono.fm/e/782924 Business News Thu, 24 Jan 2019 11:49:38 +0200 0 0 Fascinating Davos moments with "healthy ageing" scientist Constantinos Demetriades 0 0 BizNews full 19:38 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782925 https://iono.fm/e/782925 While the first day was dedicated to global environmental threats, on Wednesday challenges posed by the mushrooming of artificial intelligence took over at the top of the Davos Agenda.
In a brief statement at Davos, Brazil, Peru and Colombia have recognised the Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, as interim president, following an earlier declaration from US President Donald Trump.
And ending on a South African note, president Cyril Ramaphosa delivered another inspiring and unscripted speech to the annual Brand South Africa dinner in Davos last night, re-iterating the need for the country to build on its unique ability to put all the key parties around the table.
(Pic: Greg Beadle) ]]> Business News Thu, 24 Jan 2019 01:46:04 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: SA more popular; New Venezuelan "leader" recognised; Ramaphosa off-piste again 0 0 BizNews full 3:51 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782928 https://iono.fm/e/782928 Sustainability was high on the agenda in Davos yesterday, with Britain’s Prince William’s professional interview with film-maker David Attenborough stealing the show.
The focus on ESG – Environment, Social and Governance – was also a theme of the first foreign address by Brazil’s new president Jair Bolsonaro. 
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who like other Trump cabinet members pulled out last week, was a late addition to the programme. He joined by video conference,
In South African related news, in Davos yesterday Investec joint CEO Hendrik du Toit added his voice to the strong sustainability theme. ]]> Business News Tue, 22 Jan 2019 23:42:12 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing 23 Jan: From Davos - Prince William, Attenborough, Bolsonaro, Pompeo, Du Toit. 0 0 BizNews full 4:54 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782929 https://iono.fm/e/782929 Under Du Toit’s direction, Investec Asset Management is now a multinational company that trades punches on equal terms with the best in the world, with $150bn in assets under management. So this mad keen marathon runner, is an entrepreneurial star in his own right.
Du Toit will soon be getting the opportunity to stretch these muscles when Investec splits into two units, with the asset management listed as a separately investable entity. But that’s a story for another day……
The focus of this episode is all about change. And specifically the mushrooming field of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting which has become a core element of every ambitious business. So important, that Du Toit reckons every public company needs an ESG expert as a board director. ]]> Business News Tue, 22 Jan 2019 23:13:09 +0200 0 0 In Davos: Investec CEO Hendrik du Toit flexing brainpower. Must listen. 0 0 BizNews full 27:12 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782933 https://iono.fm/e/782933 The Ellermans Trust Barometer, which will be officially released in Davos tomorrow, shows a continued worsening of trust in governance institutions - and a growing gap between the way the elites and the general public view the world.
The official result of the DRC's presidential election, which is alleged to have been engineered by incumbent tyrant Joseph Kabila, received the sanction of the country's Constitutional Court - and the tacit approval of the African Union which has cancelled sending a delegation to Kinshasa today. ]]> Business News Mon, 21 Jan 2019 15:20:31 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Zim prez joins Davos no shows; AU backtracks on DRC; Edelmans 2019 Trust Barometer 0 0 BizNews full 5:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782935 https://iono.fm/e/782935 The African Union today broke with an appeasing stance by Cyril Ramaphosa-led SADC, to strongly condemn the official results of the DRC presidential election.
Hopes are growing that the trade war between the America and China, which threatens global economic growth, will be resolved during high level meetings in Washington next month.
Netflix, whose share price was up over 50% in the past month, gave back a few dollars of those gains after quarterly results last night.
In South African-related news, JSE-listed property owner Intu is facing more challenges as one of its major tenants, the 165-store retailer Debenhams, today stated that it needs to close a third of these outlets.  ]]> Business News Fri, 18 Jan 2019 11:30:11 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Historic AU move on DRC; Intu woes grow; Netflix adds 8.8m; US/China war cooling. 0 0 BizNews full 4:58 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782937 https://iono.fm/e/782937 Jack Bogle, the father of index investing and a crusader for private investor’s rights, has died. He was 89.
Theresa May’s Conservative Party government narrowly survived a vote of no confidence last night, thanks to the support of the ten members of its Northern Irish ally, the DUP. 
On Wall Street, stronger than expected December quarter results from US banks saw a rebound in their share prices last night, led by Goldman Sachs.
In South African-related news, president Cyril Ramaphosa today joins the 15 other SADC leaders at a crisis meeting in Addis Ababa to decide their response on the DRC presidential election. ]]> Business News Thu, 17 Jan 2019 11:23:46 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Jack Bogle dies; Mrs May deals; SA holds DRC presidential key; Goldman sets aside $500m for 1MDB 0 0 BizNews full 4:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782940 https://iono.fm/e/782940 Business News Wed, 16 Jan 2019 20:50:36 +0200 0 0 True confessions of a 40-bagging Bitcoin Surfer 0 0 BizNews full 21:57 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782943 https://iono.fm/e/782943 Reports from inside the UK cabinet say British Prime Minister Theresa May was persuaded to withdraw an offer to resign after yesterday’s crushing defeat of her Brexit plan.
Once fierce rivals Volkswagen and Ford, the world’s second and fifth biggest motor manufacturers, are joining forces to build pickups and small vans, and are in advanced stages of a similar alliance on electric and driverless cars.
In one of the most telling examples of a kickback against excessive executive remuneration, Spain’s Bank Santander has dropped plans to appoint Andrea Orcel as its new CEO because he costs too much.
In South African-related news, pressure is growing on the Ramaphosa Administration to follow a call from Angola and Uganda for an independent recount of votes in DRC’s presidential election. ]]> Business News Wed, 16 Jan 2019 11:20:01 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: May won't resign; VW/Ford join forces; Big Bank CEO loses job; DRC election scandal grows 0 0 BizNews full 4:49 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782944 https://iono.fm/e/782944 British Prime Minister Theresa May’s impassioned plea ahead of a key Parliamentary vote this evening appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
US president Donald Trump is sure to draw additional support for his trade war on China after last night’s news that the 10% tariffs, US imports from China rose 11% last year while exports were up less than 1%.
Colorado headquartered Newmont Mining yesterday announced a $10bn all stock deal to acquire Canadian group Goldcorp topping the $6bn Barrick/Randgold merger.
In South African-related news, JSE-listed Brait yesterday secured a way ahead for its disastrous £780m purchase of UK fashion retailed New Look but at a high cost. ]]> Business News Tue, 15 Jan 2019 11:27:04 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: More New Look misery for Brait; New gold giant created; Death knell for Brexit plan; Fresh peak for China's US trade surplus. 0 0 BizNews full 4:35 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782946 https://iono.fm/e/782946 In the wake of the fastest growth in earnings in eight years, America’s biggest public companies are set to report significantly slower growth for the December quarter.
Also in the US, after sending mixed messages ahead of and since his 2016 election victory, president Donald Trump has joined the global search for skilled workers.
SADC, the 16 nation bloc led by South Africa, and the 12 countries of International Conference of the Great Lakes have called for a recount of votes cast in last month’s DRC presidential election.
In other South African-related news, president Cyril Ramaphosa is today making an unscheduled working visit to Maputo to meet Mozambiquan counterpart Filipe Nyusi.  ]]> Business News Mon, 14 Jan 2019 11:20:46 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Trump enhancing US skills-magnet visa; Pressure on SA to act on DRC election, Tuna Bond scandal; US profit growth dropping fast. 0 0 BizNews full 4:38 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782947 https://iono.fm/e/782947 Of the 24 Wall Street firms that cover GM, 13 now rate the stock a buy and two have it overweight in their portfolios. There is only a single firm which recommends selling. Their average target for the stock 12 months hence is $44.14 – an uplift of around 19% on the current price. If Ms Barra keeps delivering messages like Friday’s, that may even prove conservative.
I’ve been getting a good feeling about the investability of GM stock, despite the obvious headwinds of the move to electric cars kills off the internal combustion engine and enormous efficiencies on the horizon as self-driving vehicles threaten to cut the car fleet. But if there is one major manufacturer which could buck the depressing trend, it’s Mary Barra’s outfit. This daughter of a GM lifer has put the company’s survival at the centre of her universe, staring down politicians including her nation’s president, by cutting costs – and jobs – to keep the business healthy.
 
 
O ]]> Business News Sun, 13 Jan 2019 22:57:15 +0200 0 0 GM's pleasant 7% shock for investors, Mary Barra upbeat on future 0 0 BizNews full 17:04 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782948 https://iono.fm/e/782948 Business News Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:03:15 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Davos, Trump, the wall, and the shutdown 0 0 BizNews full 13:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782949 https://iono.fm/e/782949 Ford EMEA is to overhaul its operations with actions including retrenchments, plant closures and stopping the production of low profit models.
US president Donald Trump won’t be going to Davos after all as pressure rises against him on numerous fronts.
Australian house prices fell just over 6% in 2018, the worst result in 35 years and threatening the country's 27 year recession-free record.
In South African-related news, the share price of global luxury goods group Richemont rose more than 2% this morning on the release of strong results for the December quarter. ]]> Business News Fri, 11 Jan 2019 11:23:00 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Trump ditches Davos; Richemont jumps on good 4Q; Aussie housing slump; Ford slashes EU jobs 0 0 BizNews full 4:59 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782950 https://iono.fm/e/782950 Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is to be sworn in for a fresh six year term this morning following his victory in an election last May. 
Amazon’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, is to divorce after 25 years of marriage casting a shadow over the ownership structure of the world’s most valuable company.
German digital bank N26, brainchild of 33 year old Valentin Stalf, is now officially Europe’s most valuable fintech startup.
In South African-related news, the country’s positioning as a responsible actor in its region is in the global spotlight over posponed release of the DRC election results. ]]> Business News Thu, 10 Jan 2019 11:00:58 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Mobile bank N26 now EU's richest startup; Bezos divorce worries Amazon; DRC on tenterhooks; Six more years for Venezuelan tyrant 0 0 BizNews full 4:59 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782951 https://iono.fm/e/782951 US president Donald Trump held his first oval office television broadcast in almost two years last night in an attempt to gather popular support for a proposed $5bn wall along the country’s southern border. 
Trump’s personality is also a major influence on critical trade talks in Beijing which have just ended after an unscheduled third day of meetings between US and Chinese officials.
Computer hardware and services company IBM yesterday unveiled the world’s first commercially produced Quantum Computer at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.
In South African-related news, one of the central figures in Mozambique’s imaginatively named and rapidly developing Tuna Bond scandal was yesterday denied bail by the Kempton Park magistrates court. ]]> Business News Wed, 09 Jan 2019 10:49:25 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: IBM unveils first Quantum Computer; Trump raises heat on Wall, China talks; Jailed Mozam finmin denied bail by SA court; 0 0 BizNews full 4:53 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782952 https://iono.fm/e/782952  
I met him at an RMB conference in Cape Town two years ago, when he explained how his interactions with confidants of then newly elected US President Donald Trump left no doubt that a trade war was coming, it was only a matter of when.  In Trump’s mind, he said, China had to be stopped before it took America’s crown. And best to do it sooner than later.
That was an extreme view back then. Trump was seen as all bluster and no follow through. But as we well know, Bremmer was right on the money. Such is his reputation that Bloomberg’s senior commentator Tom Keene has made it something of a tradition to kick off his own year by interviewing Bremmer on what he sees for the year ahead. He did so again this week and later caught up with Bremmer's colleague, research strategy head Meredith Sumpter, who added some colour and detail. Trump, Brexit, populism, trade wars, tech giant bashing, extremism....looks like 2019 will have lots of 2018's features.  ]]> Business News Tue, 08 Jan 2019 20:23:58 +0200 0 0 Eurasia's Ian Bremmer picks 2019's biggest risks - for investors and citizens 0 0 BizNews full 15:02 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782953 https://iono.fm/e/782953 Apple’s global smartphone rival Samsung came up even shorter in the three months to end December, indicating this morning its revenues fell 11% and operating income was down by a quarter.
Japanese New Economy venture capital group Softbank has cancelled a proposed $16bn deal with shared office space provider WeWork.
A recent rebound in the share price of online retailing giant Amazon has made it the most valuable listed company on earth.
In South African-related news, Xstrata founder Mick Davis, who has been occupying himself of late as the CEO of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party, is quietly expanding his interest in mining. ]]> Business News Tue, 08 Jan 2019 11:09:38 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Mick Davis back mining; Samsung hit worse than Apple; WeWork $6bn cash injection aborted; Amazon world's most valuable. 0 0 BizNews full 4:21 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782954 https://iono.fm/e/782954 Business News Mon, 07 Jan 2019 14:47:13 +0200 0 0 Simon Sinek: What makes great leaders - and bad ones 0 0 BizNews full 31:21 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782955 https://iono.fm/e/782955 Trade officials from the US are meeting their Chinese counterparts in Beijing today in an attempt to hammer out an agreement that will reverse escalating trade war tensions.
A report today from Canada’s Scotiabank says gold exchange traded funds increased their holdings of the metal by 2.25m ounces during December, an increase of around 5%. 
It’s been a rough start to the year for three African dictators.
A lengthy article in today’s Financial Times of London says the economic boom in Ireland has resulted in the country looking to SA to meet a growing skills shortage.  ]]> Business News Mon, 07 Jan 2019 11:07:34 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Booming Ireland seeks Saffers; 3 African dictators pressured; Key trade talks; Gold demanded. 0 0 BizNews full 4:36 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782956 https://iono.fm/e/782956 Business News Sat, 05 Jan 2019 12:23:22 +0200 0 0 The Editor's Desk: Behind the Apple-inspired market chaos 0 0 BizNews full 22:03 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782957 https://iono.fm/e/782957 Anglo American subsidiary De Beers has moved aggressively into synthetic diamonds, dropping prices of the laboratory-made products in a bet that consumers will be prepared to pay premiums for the mined natural stones.
The chances of a no deal Brexit continue to escalate with over half Conservative Party MPs saying they prefer crashing out of the EU to Mrs May's plan.
In South African related news, Mozambique’s fundraising scandal where an alleged $200m in kickbacks were paid on a $2bn loan, continues to grow.  ]]> Business News Fri, 04 Jan 2019 12:01:35 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: More Mozam deal arrests; S&P has worst start since 2000; De Beers flooding fake diamond market 0 0 BizNews full 3:33 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782958 https://iono.fm/e/782958 Business News Thu, 03 Jan 2019 15:28:51 +0200 0 0 SLR's political lens: Looking ahead to a turbulent 2019 for CR, Trump and May 0 0 BizNews full 24:04 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782959 https://iono.fm/e/782959 Computer and smartphone giant Apple Inc’s share price dropped 7% in post market trade after it disclosed iPhone sales for the December quarter will be significantly below its official forecast of just two months ago.
The share price of another US market darling, electric car maker Tesla, also dropped sharply after news that disappointed investors. 
The UK is also reaping the benefit of incentivising lower carbon emissions and a longstanding campaign to reduce energy wastage.
In South African related news, Maritzburg university graduate Mark Bristow features prominently in global media this morning.  ]]> Business News Thu, 03 Jan 2019 10:50:46 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Apple, Tesla punished after missing forecasts; Renewables tops in UK; Mark Bristow's plans 0 0 BizNews full 4:36 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782960 https://iono.fm/e/782960 The gold price had a great finish to 2018 with bullion extending its winning streak to five days, edging towards $1 300, highest in six months.
Brazil’s first right wing president in a generation, Jair Bolsonaro, promised to attack corruption and urged for unity in his inaugural speech yesterday.
South African stocks ended 2018 down 11%, their worst performance in a decade.
In other South African related news, leading entrepreneur Ronnie Lubner has passed away. He was 84 and succumbed last week after a short illness. ]]> Business News Wed, 02 Jan 2019 11:33:14 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Gold booming; SA business icon dies; "Tropical Trump" takes office; SA stocks worst year in a decade 0 0 BizNews full 3:42 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782961 https://iono.fm/e/782961 Analysis by automotive sector intelligence group Jato Dynamics shows the internal combustion engine is running out of steam much faster than expected.
In related news, the world’s leading electric car maker Tesla landed a massive coup with Friday’s appointment of Oracle Group co-founder and executive chairman Larry Ellison to its board of directors.
Another leading American entrepreneur, Michael Dell, is back in the news as the computer company that carries his name relisted on the New York Stock Exchange.
In South African related news, the share price of Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings continues to improve this morning, taking its two month recovery to 25% on more good news. ]]> Business News Mon, 31 Dec 2018 11:08:13 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: More good news for Tencent; Ellison joins Musk; Motor sector hit; Dell back on NYSE 0 0 BizNews full 4:08 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782962 https://iono.fm/e/782962 Extreme recent volatility on Wall Street continued last night with share prices falling sharply before a powerful rally lifted them to the best close in a turbulent week. 
While Brexit has frightened off some investors, French infrastructure operator Vinci regards it differently, describing today’s acquisition of just over 50% of London’s Gatwick airport as a unique opportunity. 
The global swing away from left wing political parties has now hit Spain with the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party, getting a drubbing in the key regional elections. 
South African-born Elon Musk is back in the headlines after being sued for defamation by the British cave diver whose efforts rescued 12 Thai boys earlier this year.  ]]> Business News Fri, 28 Dec 2018 10:38:24 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Wild swings in stocks; Gatwick sold to French; Spain moves right; Musk defends "pedo" tweet 0 0 BizNews full 4:24 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782963 https://iono.fm/e/782963 After a bruising month, US stocks posted their best day in a decade yesterday as the three major indices rose over 5% with the Dow up more than 1 000 points for the first time in history. 
Total UK retail footfall was down 3% year-on-year yesterday, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the British year, but retail tourists arrived in their planeloads. 
Private investors lost more than $8bn through their purchase of new secondary crypto currencies last year.
In South African-related news, the 14-month old challenger stock exchange A2X moves up a level today with the debut of Naspers shares ]]> Business News Thu, 27 Dec 2018 10:53:50 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing; US stocks surge; Foreigners help UK retail; $8bn crypto crash; Naspers boosts A2X 0 0 BizNews full 4:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782967 https://iono.fm/e/782967 British Prime Minister Theresa May saw off the long threatened challenge to her leadership by hard line Brexiteers within her own party, prevailing with 63% of the vote.
American news media is giving blanket coverage to the jailing, for three years, of president Donald Trump’s confidante and former lawyer Michael Cohen.
In South African related news, the shares of Tencent Music had a positive debut on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, the price closing at $14 a share, an 8% uplift for pre-listing buyers.
Also, South Africa features prominently in this morning’s influentual Financial Times of London which carries a lengthy article focusing on “explosive claims emerging about Guptas’ influence over the ANC and government.” ]]> Business News Thu, 13 Dec 2018 10:55:21 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Trump's lawyer jailed; May wins; Tencent Music lists; SA State Capture in FT 0 0 BizNews full 4:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782968 https://iono.fm/e/782968 China has made the first concrete move in the heralded flawing of its trade war with the US by cutting tariffs on US car imports from 40% to 15%.
The world’s fifth biggest motor manufacturer, Korea’s Hyundai, is doubling down on its hydrogen fuel cell bet, announcing that it will be investing $7bn in the technology over the next decade.
In South Africa-related news, the British government’s overseas development arm CDC is to invest $180m for a 10% stake in Zimbabwean entrepreneur Strive Masiyiwa’s Liquid Telecoms.  ]]> Business News Wed, 12 Dec 2018 11:09:39 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Mrs May faces No Confidence vote tonight; Hyundai doubles down on fuel cells; $180m for Liquid Telecoms; Trade war latest 0 0 BizNews full 3:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782971 https://iono.fm/e/782971 Brexit is back in the spotlight with another Referndum mooted after UK prime minister Theresa May postponed a vote on a deal that took 18 months to craft.
Apple’s share price took a hit after a Chinese court ruled in favour of chip maker Qualcomm which accuses Apple of illegally using its intellectual property.
Another of the fabled FANGS, Google, has come under renewed anti-trust pressure after Australia’s competitions regulator has attacked its near monopoly in internet search.
In South African-related news, the owner of the popular Mabula Lodge resort Vijay Mallya (pictured) will soon be extradited back to his native India to face criminal charges.  ]]> Business News Tue, 11 Dec 2018 11:33:05 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Another Brexit Referendum mooted; Problems for Apple, Google and Mabula Lodge's owner. 0 0 BizNews full 4:01 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782974 https://iono.fm/e/782974 For the fourth consecutive weekend, France’s “yellow jacket” protestors engaged in pitched battles with police in Paris and other major cities.
This morning in Tokyo, Japanese prosecutors formally charged former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn with under-reporting his earnings for the last five years.
In London, pressure is building on prime minister Theresa May to abandon tomorrow’s Brexit vote which is widely expected to get the thumbs down from Parliament.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s hopes of a Russian bailout are plummeting.
And in South African related news, KPMG has formally apologised for its misdeeds with SA chairman Wiseman Nkuhlu asking for a second chance so the business can re-establish itself.  ]]> Business News Mon, 10 Dec 2018 10:14:54 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Macron's Yellow Jacket gloom; KPMG asks for another SA chance; Carlos Ghosn; Theresa May; Nicolas Maduro 0 0 BizNews full 4:03 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782975 https://iono.fm/e/782975 A WSJ report disclosed an “evolving” US Federal Reserve view on interest rates which is considering adopting a wait-and-see approach likely to slow down future rate hikes. 
More details have emerged around yesterday’s arrest of Huawei’s CFO, apprehended between connecting flights at Vancouver airport.
In South African related news, Discovery’s appointment of global business heavyweight Mark Tucker as its chairman has drawn some flack.  ]]> Business News Fri, 07 Dec 2018 10:16:53 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Market swings wildly; US interest rates; Huawei caves; Discovery chairman draws flack 0 0 BizNews full 3:39 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782977 https://iono.fm/e/782977 The fragile trade war truce between the US and China came under severe pressure this morning whenCanada arrested the chief financial officer of Shenzhen telecoms group Huawei.
More dark clouds are gathering on the horizon of JSE-listed Glencore which was yesterday named by Brazil’s Operation Car Wash corruption investigation. 
South African lawmakers keen to exact financial revenge from Big Four accounting group KPMG will be salivating after this morning’s release of strong financial results by the audit firm.
In other South African related news, Discovery’s disruptive shared value insurance model is the feature of the major opinion piece in this morning’s Financial Times of London.  ]]> Business News Thu, 06 Dec 2018 11:08:31 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Huawei CFO arrested in Canada; KPMG booms; Glencore woes deepen; Discovery disruption goes global 0 0 BizNews full 3:49 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782979 https://iono.fm/e/782979 This morning Japanese pharmaceuticals giant Takeda got approval from its shareholders to launch a $62bn takeover bid for London listed rival Shire Plc. 
European lawmakers have abandoned a planned digital tax which would have hurt Amazon and Apple.
In South African-related news, ride hailing software company Uber is adding minibus taxis to its network, starting in Cairo.
And after a decade of neglect, value stocks are starting to attract interest from the right places.  ]]> Business News Wed, 05 Dec 2018 11:03:21 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Japan buys British; Uber targets minibuses; EU abandons digital tax; Value stocks tipped. 0 0 BizNews full 3:50 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782980 https://iono.fm/e/782980 Asset prices rebounded overnight with the major US indices rising over 1% on news of a three month trade war truce. Amazon jumped almost 5%. 
JSE-listed mining group Glencore is in the headlines after it announced copper chief Telis Mistakidis (56) will be leaving the group at the end of the month.
Naspers associate Tencent has announced that it will go ahead with the New York listing of its music division next week.
In other South African-related news, Eskom’s travails are getting greater exposure externally, with the London Financial Times reporting the return to load-shedding threatens president Cyril Ramaphosa’s pledge to attract foreign investment to revive the economy.  ]]> Business News Tue, 04 Dec 2018 11:36:54 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Trade truce cracks; Glencore ructions; Tencent listing; Eskom loadshedding. 0 0 BizNews full 4:15 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782982 https://iono.fm/e/782982 As was telegraphed in the run-up to the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, a truce has been called in the trade war between the US and China.
Some tempering of oil’s post-G20 surge is on the cards after Qatar announced at a press conference this morning it is to leave the oil producer cartel OPEC, of which it has been a member since 1961. 
In South African related news, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has repeated his resistance to continue bailing out South African Airways. ]]> Business News Mon, 03 Dec 2018 11:08:14 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Qatar dumps OPEC; Mboweni targets investment grade; US/China Trade War truce 0 0 BizNews full 4:06 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782984 https://iono.fm/e/782984 The reputation of once mighty Deutsche Bank hit a fresh low today after news that dozens of police officers, prosecutors and inspectors raided its Frankfurt offices as part of a money laundering investigation. 
The final results from the US’s mid-term election cane through last night confirming results which were the best for the Democratic party in 44 years.
The Wall Street Journal reports from Buenos Aires ahead of today’s G20 summit, that the US and China are exploring a proposal that will put on hold America’s proposed tariff increase to 25% due in January.
And in South African related news, the share price of JSE-listed British shopping centre owner Intu collapsed yesterday after a consortium which had tabled a takeover offer withdrew its bid. ]]> Business News Fri, 30 Nov 2018 11:29:47 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Deutsche Bank raided; US Blue Wave; Trade war truce?; Intu price collapse 0 0 BizNews full 3:58 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782985 https://iono.fm/e/782985 US stock markets bounced back strongly last night, the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way with a 3% gain, led by a 6% surge for Amazon.
Unilever chief executive Paul Pohlman, one of the champions of business’s move towards a more socially conscious model, is to step down at the end of next month.
London’s influential Financial Times newspaper has changed its mind on Brexit.
And in South African related news, Big Four auditing group KPMG has signalled its intention of not abandoning the embattled Joburg-based business. ]]> Business News Thu, 29 Nov 2018 10:31:59 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: US Tech stocks; Unilever's Pohlman; Brexit's new fan; KPMG and SA 0 0 BizNews full 3:49 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782986 https://iono.fm/e/782986 US President Donald Trump is back into his feisty mode, raising concern that Friday’s Buenos Aires meeting with his Chinese counterpart could further escalate global tensions.
Fallout continues from the Russian money laundering scandal at Danske Bank’s Estonia office, with attention now focusing on the UK’s Scottish Limited Partnerships, long identified as a favourite vehicle for organised crime.
The battle for the world’s most valuable company has heated up with Microsoft closing the gap on Apple to a few billion dollars. 
And in South African related news, Discovery co-founder and CEO Adrian Gore is in London this morning to officially release results of a massive 400 000 person behavioural economics study.  ]]> Business News Wed, 28 Nov 2018 10:21:58 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Trump tantrum; ending SLPs; MSFT v AAPL; Vitality's global breakthrough 0 0 BizNews full 4:26 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782987 https://iono.fm/e/782987 The reality of the US-instigated trade war has started coming home to those who have been cheering it loudest.
Britain’s public is changing its collective mind about Theresa May’s Brexit plan, with the latest opinion polls showing 60% now support it.
Malaysia has adopted its own “pay back the money” chant, with prime minister in waiting Anwar Ibrahim this morning calling on Goldman Sachs to repay over $600m/
In South African-related news, London-listed vanadium miner Bushveld Minerals has launched an innovative scheme for battery makers that has caught the attention of the Financial Times.
The state-backed China National Uranium Company has made its third acquisition of an African uranium mine. ]]> Business News Tue, 27 Nov 2018 10:04:21 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Battery plant for SA; GM; Mrs May's rebound; Goldman Sachs; Rossing 0 0 BizNews full 4:50 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782988 https://iono.fm/e/782988 It took just 38 minutes for the dissolution of Britain’s 45 year marriage to Europe
No rest for Mrs May right now, but she has a new story to share with her global peers when they meet at the G20 gathering in Buenos Aires on Friday and Saturday.
The Crypro Crash continued over the weekend with Bitcoin’s price dropping below $4 000.
Tencent’s on-off New York listing of its streaming music service is on again and is planned for next month.
And pressure on the Big Four audit forms grows with second tier BDO is building scale to show it can compete for the big accounts.  ]]> Business News Mon, 26 Nov 2018 12:17:27 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing 26 Nov: Crypto Crash, G20, TenCent, BDO, Brexit divorce 0 0 BizNews full 3:33 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782989 https://iono.fm/e/782989 From London, Brexit enters another critical phase with agreement having been reached between the UK and the European Union on a 26 page letter of intent and a 585 page Withdrawal Treaty.
From Japan, the scandal over one time business icon Carlos Ghosn continues.
And in Washington, the US is stepping up the war against China, this time by urging allies to stop using Huawei.
In South African related news, focus is on the EFF and Rowan Gormley's Majestic Wines.  ]]> Business News Fri, 23 Nov 2018 11:42:56 +0200 0 0 Flash Briefing: Brexit, Ghosn, Huawei, EFF and Majestic 0 0 BizNews full 3:16 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782997 https://iono.fm/e/782997 At least two would make my top ten of thousands of newsworthy people I’ve met and interviewed in almost 40 years of journalism. A modest German nun, Sister Elisabeth Schiller, is one of them. Another is Tich Smith, a former sportsman who hit the gutter before a spectacular rebound in a different guise.
They achieved great things by serving their fellow human beings and in particular South Africa’s less fortunate – Tich as the founder of the LIV Village in KZN; Sister Elisabeth through her St Joseph’s Care project at Sizanani. Their selfless efforts have literally changed the fortunes of thousands of people.
The woman on whom we focus in this episode of Rational Perspective falls into the same rarified category…. Meet Ursel Barnes, the co founder with Ufa Robertson of the inspirational HIV-related project called Yabonga, which in the past 20 years has quietly transformed thousands of young lives.  ]]> Business News Fri, 09 Nov 2018 16:47:51 +0200 0 0 Ursel Barnes' Yabonga, the Cape project transforming young lives 0 0 BizNews full 17:41 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/782998 https://iono.fm/e/782998 Business News Wed, 07 Nov 2018 17:01:50 +0200 0 0 Denis Worrall: Secrets of the top Apartheid-era diplomat 0 0 BizNews full 22:30 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783003 https://iono.fm/e/783003 Business News Tue, 30 Oct 2018 14:14:00 +0200 0 0 Biznews Global portfolio: After October's 14% wipeout, what now? 0 0 BizNews full 47:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783006 https://iono.fm/e/783006
With that done, Joffe left his creation. But soon after leaving Bidvest he embarked on a second act called Long4Life.

Investors loved the story of this experienced entrepreneur returning to the fray. Especially small punters who saw it as a chance to get in on the ground floor with a partner with legendary deal-making and capital allocating talents.

We are among these fans, having allocated 8% of the Biznews SA Champions portfolio to Joffe’s new creation.

But it’s been a rough ride.

Initially Long4Life shares traded at a generous premium to the pre-listing issue price. But as the South African economy came under increasing pressure, so too has Long4Life’s shares.

This year so far the stock has lost a third of its value and now trades just above the level at which Joffe himself invested R100m, chafing the competitive nature of this one-time golf professional…

Long4Life’s greatest opportunity, perhaps, could lie in its CEO’s unique insight on where its homeland South Africa heading.

For the seven years, from 2005 to 2012, as Bidvest’s CEO Joffe worked closely with the company’s then chairman and now South African president Cyril Ramaphosa. ]]> Business News Thu, 25 Oct 2018 15:34:00 +0200 0 0 Long4Life: Brian Joffe second act is a bet on SA's Rama-recovery 0 0 BizNews full 22:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783009 https://iono.fm/e/783009
The obvious successor to the famous Rattray is chartered accountant turned storyteller Michael Charton, who works off a wider canvass, but like his fellow South African, specialises in forgotten stories drawn from the troubled history of his homeland.

Charton, whose events at home are booked out months in advance, will be addressing London audiences for the first time this month. His first event was sold out within 24 hours. The second one, on Tuesday 30th October, is filling up fast.

I caught up with Charton to tap him on another fascinating topic, the story of Second World War fighter pilot Sailor Malan, a war hero written out of history by the apartheid government. ]]> Business News Sun, 21 Oct 2018 17:08:00 +0200 0 0 Reviving memory of SA WW2 hero and activist that Nats wrote out of history 0 0 BizNews full 26:26 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783013 https://iono.fm/e/783013
The plundering of a small mutual bank created in the Apartheid’s Venda homeland, was very third world in its application. Ditto the reaction of conspirators, whose defence was ignorance, or the concoction of obviously fabricated tales.

But as the saga unfolds, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that kingpins Matodzi, Ramavhunga and Malaba and their VBS stooges like Truter, Nesane, Magula, Ramikosi and others plus a long list of elected municipal officials never stood a chance.

It was as if they had a knife in a gun fight. Or bows and arrows when opponents possessed a Gatling gun.

Lies and subterfuge by those who perpetrated industrial scale plunder of small scale savers and the deposits of municipal ratepayers, were smashed by a very first world tool – South Africa’s Financial Services Regulation Act. This potent act was gazetted last August and brought into effect in April this year.

Four days after Motau’s appointment he applied the act’s comprehensive search and seizure powers – with support of his appointed evidence gathering specialists Basileus Consilium - to raid VBS’s head office at Makhado. Then a few days later did the same at the bank’s Sandton and Thohoyandou branches.

The document gathering exercise was closed out by the 7th of May raid on the Sandton offices of VBS’s ostensible controlling shareholder Vele. So, within a month, Motau had all the documentation he’d ever need.

The Act also empowered him to recruit highly skilled resources to process all of this information.

Enter data specialists FACTs Consulting which scanned and converted the seized documents into a searchable digital format. And Crowe Forensics, the specialised chartered accountants who focus on uncovering crime by crunching suspicious transactions and bank accounts.

Also part of Motau’s force was fellow senior counsel Ross Hutton and two other advocates; plus a team from Werksman’s led by Bernard Hotz, head of the firm’s Business Crimes and Investigations practice.

The ace in Motau’s royal flush, though, was section 140 of the new FSR Act which incentivised those involved to tell the truth.

During interviews conducted over four and a half months, a pattern emerged. Deeply implicated witnesses began by offering brazen lies. But once Section 140, which offered them criminal indemnity, was explained, many of the 30 witnesses requested another hearing.

And second time round their ... ]]> Business News Tue, 16 Oct 2018 15:57:00 +0200 0 0 VBS: A sickening Third World Ponzi scheme fuelled by politicians 0 0 BizNews full 24:41 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783016 https://iono.fm/e/783016
Classically trained Butler, who read a PPE at Oxford and has a PhD from Cambridge, wrote the book in 2008 after taking a nine month sabbatical from the University of Cape Town, where he is a professor in political studies. He used the time to interview those close to this very private, deeply thoughtful politician who has, and is, playing such a massive role in his homeland.

Butler returned to the manuscript in 2013, providing an insightful postscript. He is working on another update, but waiting for the updated edition makes little sense. Because his biography opens an important window into an enigmatic statesman, offering a perfect antidote to the fake news and whispering campaigns of our times – and providing balance to the knee-jerk of event-driven reporting which often misguides perceptions.

I’d wager that, like me, by the end of Butler’s book you'll end up feeling that Project Rebuild South Africa couldn’t be in better hands. ]]> Business News Sun, 14 Oct 2018 15:06:00 +0200 0 0 Biographer Anthony Butler: Decoding enigma that is Cyril Ramaphosa 0 0 BizNews full 24:26 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783020 https://iono.fm/e/783020
The country was headed the same way as Turkey. And if Edrogan’s example is overlaid on SA, the currency would today be trading around R25 rather than R14 to the US Dollar; and interest rates would certainly be well above 20% - and the stock market (and hence citizens' retirement savings) would be substantially lower.

We got a taste of where the country was heading during two insane trading sessions that followed Zuma’s decision on 9th December 2015 to fire his respected finance minister, an action spooked investors, sending shockwaves through the financial system.

The Rand plummeted, bond prices soared and the stock market tanked. I crunched the numbers and quantifiable losses on stocks and bonds totalled over came to R500bn. Those chaotic few days became known as Nenegate – a crash amplified by Zuma’s replacement of Nene with one of his lackeys, an unknown backbencher.

The tailspin only levelled out after Zuma bowed to pressure from an unusually vocal business lobby and ANC insiders. Against his wishes replaced his Weekend Special finance minister with respected Pravin Gordhan – a man he’d fired a few years before (and was destined to do again 15 months later).

This podcast is based on testimony presented by the man who gave Nenegate its name, who has now spoken publicly of the matter for the first time.

After two years in the political wilderness, he was reinstated as finance minister when new president Cyril Ramaphosa took office in January. Nene spent four and a half hours testifying to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, headed by SA's Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. ]]> Business News Thu, 04 Oct 2018 12:41:00 +0200 0 0 Prologue to a Crash: Nene on why he resisted Zuma's nuclear folly 0 0 BizNews full 24:35 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783022 https://iono.fm/e/783022
Adrian Lackay is one of the most obvious examples.

Our paths first crossed more than a dozen years ago when SA’s tax collection agency SARS was in combat with serial entrepreneur Dave King, the once-time billionaire tax fugitive who disputed he owed anything but eventually made a record R706m settlement.

Lackay who was then the SARS communications manager, was subsequently promoted to its spokesman. Judging by our interaction over the years, he was deeply trusted by National Commissioner Pravin Gordhan, who has gone on to play a key role at the very highest level in South African governance first as Finance Minister then in his current role with responsibility for Public Enterprises.

As you will hear in this episode of the Rational Perspective podcast, like his former boss, Lackay’s integrity resulted in him being put through the mill by the forces of darkness which, at one point, appeared to have complete control over the important levers of the South African State.

Last Thursday Lackay’s three year legal fight with the now suspended SARS Commissioner Tom Moyane finally ended when a R12m law suit against him was withdrawn. He is now free to tell the inside story of how the once highly respected institution was brought to its knees by bullying, abuse and deceit - aided and abetted by dirty lawyers and unquestioning "journalists". ]]> Business News Mon, 01 Oct 2018 13:43:00 +0200 0 0 Adrian Lackay: How Tom Moyane used lawyers, media to capture SARS 0 0 BizNews full 20:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783026 https://iono.fm/e/783026
At about two o clock in the afternoon on Tuesday 7th August, while he was on an aeroplane, the boy from Pretoria launched one of the most expensive tweets of all time.

Musk’s assertion that he would be taking Tesla Motor Company private at $420 a share with “funding secured”, sent the share price soaring before a collapse to the current $300 – a market value loss of $7bn from the pre-tweet level and $14bn from its immediate post-tweet peak.

In a throwback to the golden age of news gathering when newspaper assigned specialised “watchers” to major companies, Bloomberg’s San Francisco-based business reporter Dana Hull is charged with focusing all her attention on Elon Musk, and his companies Tesla and SpaceX.

Brad Stone is the best-selling author of a book on Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos that resulted in the discovery of the man who fathered the world’s richest person. That was a New York Times bestseller. So was his latest book, published in 2017, called The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb and the killer companies of the new Silicon Valley are changing the world.

In this superb edition of Bloomberg’s Encrypted, Hull and Stone revisit the Elon Musk story since August 7, and project what comes next. A must listen. ]]> Business News Tue, 25 Sep 2018 13:35:00 +0200 0 0 Unpacking unintended consequences of Elon Musk's $7bn Tesla tweet 0 0 BizNews full 22:27 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783028 https://iono.fm/e/783028
Those hopes have now been dashed. The world awakes this morning to news that from next week roughly half the $500bn in goods which America imports annually from China will cost 10% more. And unless there’s breakthrough in the next three months, that tariff will jump to 25%.

The end of the Trade War’s phoney stage is bad news for emerging markets like South Africa. For ten years developing countries have benefitted from tailwinds of Quantitative Easing and expansion of China’s economy. Those breezes have reversed with liquidity being sucked back out the system and the trade war sure to hurt Chinese economic growth.

What the heck is Donald Trump thinking? That question has been baffling 95% of the world’s population. But for Trump and his cohort, it’s all completely logical.

Trump believes China threatens the very existence of the United States and as there had to be a showdown someday, best to do it while the US is strongest. Can’t say we haven’t been warned. This has been a consistent theme from the day the new administration took office. What Moore shares with us is now that the US has renegotiated with its other trade partners - Mexico, the EU, Canada and Japan – it’s ready for the big fight. ]]> Business News Wed, 19 Sep 2018 17:18:00 +0200 0 0 Next week 10% tariff, next year 25% - Trump's trade war gets real 0 0 BizNews full 13:57 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783033 https://iono.fm/e/783033
This time he hosted me in Royal Gallery, a grand room through which Elizabeth the Second passes en route to her official throne where she delivers the annual Queen’s Speech, the official opening of the British Parliament. Peter Hain, the boy from Pretoria, still can’t quite believe he’s a fully-fledged member of the historic House of Lords…

Our conversation soon moved across Peter Hain’s superb book on his friend, South African leadership icon Nelson Mandela. I loved this punchy, well-written 196 pages on the man who changed his nation’s destiny. But with a veritable library of books on Madiba already available, I asked why Hain believed another was necessary, sparking a fascinating discourse on the concept of how best each of us can make a contribution to the society we serve. ]]> Business News Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:39:00 +0200 0 0 Peter Hain on Mandela, Ramaphosa and white South Africans 0 0 BizNews full 27:04 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783040 https://iono.fm/e/783040
The Bill Browder I met with in London this week was rather different. Self-contained, professional to the point of being a little guarded. Which is hardly surprising. Browder has been through the mill and back in the dozen years since I last saw him. And the change is good. The over-riding sense is of that most rare of our species - a man who is on purpose.

In 2009, Browder’s life changed when his Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was jailed on trumped up charges, and when he refused to break after 11 months of torture, was beaten to death. As you’ll hear in what follows, that put Browder jumped onto a different path. One which accelerated in 2015 with the publication of his bestselling autobiographical book Red Notice…..

Not surprisingly, it’s a story that fascinates South Africans. Less than a year ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin cast a long shadow over this country. Then South African president Jacob Zuma spoke publicly and often about his affection for Putin and regularly fired cabinet minister who refused to follow his direction – particularly over the unaffordable, unnecessary Russian nuclear power deal Zuma was determined to push through. Something Browder has followed rather closely ]]> Business News Thu, 06 Sep 2018 18:50:00 +0200 0 0 Bill Browder, Putin's #1 enemy, warns SA: Recoil from Russia 0 0 BizNews full 37:52 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783043 https://iono.fm/e/783043
Lost Boys of Bird Island hit the South African book reading market like a hurricane, evoking strong emotions both ways. Since its publication, social media has been buzzing non-stop and Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Rapport has devoted hundreds of column centimetres to both sides…Much of the debate being focused on the naming of two Apartheid cabinet ministers, particularly the once all-powerful former Minister of Defence Magnus Malan – a man whose jug-ears were lampooned by cartoonists during his lifetime...and a feared figure referred to by the catamite streetkids as “Ore” ("ears”). ]]> Business News Mon, 03 Sep 2018 17:50:00 +0200 0 0 Meet Chris Steyn author of nation-rocking Lost Boys of Bird Island 0 0 BizNews full 22:35 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783045 https://iono.fm/e/783045
When Richemont restructured a decade ago, its 80m shares in British American Tobacco, some other investments and 350m euros in cash was injected in the newly established Reinet Investments, named after the Rupert’s original Karoo hometown, Graaff-Reinet.

As we hear from Rupert, this company was created as a hedge against a market crash – but because of the lengthy bull market, its share price trades at a discount of 40% to the value of its assets. Rupert reckons that makes the thousands of small shareholders vulnerable to giving up their investments at a discount, so at today’s annual general meeting in Luxembourg, it was announced Reinet will buy back up to 20% of its own shares in the open market, narrowing that discount as the price rises. At the current share price the project could run to almost R10bn. ]]> Business News Tue, 28 Aug 2018 19:33:00 +0200 0 0 Johann Rupert's "aha" moment sparks Reinet's R10bn share buyback 0 0 BizNews full 13:47 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783049 https://iono.fm/e/783049
Musk, you may recall, threw any number of cats among Wall Street’s pigeons at the beginning of the month tweeting that he intended taking the company private at a price of $420 a share. After peaking fractionally below $380, the price has since fallen back to its current $320. Below the pre-tweet level and a long way from the “funding secured” price.

So far, those who bet against Musk have been the big winners, with disclosed short sellers of Tesla stock making over $1bn in profit since his bombshell tweet. These cynics think Ms Wood’s valuations are a figment of an alternative reality. But where they do agree, although for different reasons, is that it’s very unlikely that Tesla will be going private.

The main reason is that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, on which Musk is pinning his buyout hopes, doesn’t actually have the money to help him out - even if it wanted to pay $100 a share more than the current market price. The London Financial Times reported this morning that the Saudi Public Investment Fund has lined up a consortium of global banks to lend it $11bn simply to meet existing obligations. The PIF is quite clearly no white desert charger riding to Elon’s rescue… That’s the last bit of news Musk needs right now. Because a buyout by the Saudis was the only elegant way out of some very serious legal consequences of his ill advised tweet. ]]> Business News Fri, 24 Aug 2018 16:17:00 +0200 0 0 Elon's $420 a share bubble has burst: Why Tesla isn't going private anytime soon 0 0 BizNews full 25:09 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783053 https://iono.fm/e/783053
There was no indication from him that a few hours later he’d be hosting 300 people in a marquee set up between his homestead and the ruins of Mettingham Castle, built by one Sir John de Norwich in 1342. This historical structure might be on his grounds, but there’s nothing baronial about this fellow. As you’ll hear in what became an entrepreneurial masterclass.

That’s Gormley’s style. Relaxed, informal, engaging. So we sat out in his garden during the height of a hot English summer, mercifully cooled by a breeze from the Atlantic a few miles away. In person his style reminded me a bit of Richard Branson, which is not really surprising considering that for some years Gormley worked closely with the famous founder of Virgin.

The story starts in the South African industrial town called Boksburg…….a place better known for producing pugilists – like heavyweight champion Gerrie Coetzee - rather than for disruptors who are changing the world...... ]]> Business News Tue, 21 Aug 2018 08:32:00 +0200 0 0 Disruptor Rowan Gormley: From Boksburg via Branson to Majestic 0 0 BizNews full 30:29 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783058 https://iono.fm/e/783058
According to former public prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach, the appointment of Abrahams was “like taking a child who has learned to ride a bicycle with training wheels and giving him a jumbo jet and expecting everything to be OK.” Shortly after Abrahams took office, the NPA launched a series of unsuccessful actions against Breytenbach, former finance minister Pravin Gordhan and a number of other anti-corruption activists.

Among those most affected by the Abrahams regime was Paul O’Sullivan of Forensics for Justice...O’Sullivan describes the former NPA national director and his appointees as criminals with gowns. He says the tide turned and "it's now my turn " - O Sullivan is determined to see Abrahams and his cohort behind bars. ]]> Business News Mon, 13 Aug 2018 15:50:00 +0200 0 0 Paul O'Sullivan on court ruling ejecting NPA chief Shaun Abrahams: "Prosecution floodgates will now open." 0 0 BizNews full 18:35 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783061 https://iono.fm/e/783061
Musk has attracted fame and fortune through a series of audacious business adventures, always doubling up by risking his millions then billions on something still bigger. He has come close to being wiped out on a number of occasions, most famously when he bet heavily on a fourth Space X rocket after the first three had flopped.

That time, he won. But after an unprecedented takeover offer by tweet this week, his critics believe that this time the boy from Pretoria has finally overreached. ]]> Business News Thu, 09 Aug 2018 17:58:00 +0200 0 0 As authorities start investigating, big bets in wake of Elon Musk's "Tesla going private" tweet 0 0 BizNews full 23:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783062 https://iono.fm/e/783062
After all, over the past 15 years investors have injected billions of dollars into funding the Tesla dream, a company which has yet to make a profit.

The relationship had been on the slide for a while because of missed forecasts, but that slippery slope got a good oiling in May when Musk threw his toys during the official Tesla’s earnings conference call with analysts and then indulged himself for half the call focusing all his attention on the deliciously named YouTube vlogger Galileo Russell who posed one sycophantic question after the other. It was enough to give pause to any investor.

But the pro’s looked beyond that public meltdown. And cared less when Musk belatedly apologised three months later.

Among those who believe Musk’s biggest asset is his hype machine is Steve Eisman, one of the stars of Michael Lewis’s superb book The Big Short. Eisman among the handful of Wall Street iconoclasts who saw through the Collateralised Debt Option bubble that sparked the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. Eisman and his band of brothers sold CDOs in huge volumes at a time when everyone else inflating the bubble to its eventual bursting point. Eisman thinks Tesla is a bubble waiting to burst. ]]> Business News Wed, 08 Aug 2018 19:09:00 +0200 0 0 Another big promise from Musk, but serious investors aren't biting, treat $82bn Tesla buyout as a joke 0 0 BizNews full 15:41 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783067 https://iono.fm/e/783067
But Elon Musk’s Bitcoin-like following among supporters is such that no matter what he does, they keep the faith. Among those who warn they are playing a dangerous game is Steve Eisman, an expert spotter of bubbles, who was immortalised in the Michael Lewis bestseller The Big Short.

Eisman, the managing director of Wall Street investment bank Neuberger Berman, was among a handful of those who bet big and profited hugely ahead of the 2008 financial crash by selling Collateralised Debt Obligations, or CDOs, before they imploded, sparking 2008's Great Financial Crisis. The meltdown that followed required hundreds of billions in central bank bailouts to keep the financial system solvent.

In the movie based on Lewis’s book, Eisman’s name was changed to Mark Baum and his character was played by Academy Award nominee Steve Carell. And In the great money match between Eisman vs Musk, I know where my money would be. ]]> Business News Thu, 02 Aug 2018 19:10:00 +0200 0 0 Man who saw the GFC coming, The Big Short star Steve Eisman, warns Tesla's bubble is going to burst 0 0 BizNews full 14:52 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783071 https://iono.fm/e/783071
Beyond seeing television for the first time and marvelling at how many people drove Peugeots, the thing I remember most from that adventure was a visit to what the whites called the Zimbabwe Ruins, a short drive from the town.

Its symbol, the powerful Zimbabwe bird, made a deep impression. A replica dominates the mantlepiece in my office here in London, a permanent reminder of the continent which will forever own my heart.

I remember my newly minted uncle explaining how Great Zimbabwe’s impressive structures had been built by some ancient civilisation that had mysteriously departed. It was a story that suited the propaganda of the time. But was so absolutely and completely wrong. This material is reproduced with permission of the BBC's Witness podcast. ]]> Business News Sat, 28 Jul 2018 09:56:00 +0200 0 0 The whitewashing of Zimbabwe’s ancient history 0 0 BizNews full 13:02 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783072 https://iono.fm/e/783072
One of my most popular tweets of the past year was the one where I suggested that Magda possessed more testicular fortitude than most male CEOs. But the business community’s highest profile maverick has paid a high personal price, needing full-time bodyguards and being regularly attacked on social media as the system’s antibodies fought back.

We caught up yesterday in London where she is exploring global opportunities for her company – and reflected on how South Africa managed to reverse away from the abyss, what happens next and that infamous conversation with the director of SAP who admitted that in emerging markets, bribery is standard practice for the German multinational. ]]> Business News Fri, 27 Jul 2018 12:26:00 +0200 0 0 Magda Wierzycka: Helping SA back from brink - and that infamous convo on SAP's corruption 0 0 BizNews full 24:42 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783075 https://iono.fm/e/783075
Mabuza’s appointment was an important part of the new broom wielded by Pravin Gordhan, South Africa’s corruption-fighting minister of public enterprises who returned to the national cabinet when new president Cyril Ramaphosa took office in January.

Gordhan was twice dumped as finance minister by former president Jacob Zuma, most famously in a midnight reshuffle last March when the last remaining bulwarks against rampant corruption were removed by then president Jacob Zuma.

Instead of leaving politics, Gordhan spent the next ten months as a back bencher – keeping up pressure on the plunderers with a starring role in numerous Parliamentary inquisitions...

Now back on the saddle, he’s certainly not holding back. Gordhan was on hand to add his comments at the Eskom gathering. The former head of SA Revenue Services is also not in a forgiving mood...certainly not to McKinsey whose new global head Kevin Sneader, then only a week in office, made a special trip to South Africa three weeks ago to say he’s sorry. The apology, apparently, was not accepted. ]]> Business News Tue, 24 Jul 2018 15:59:00 +0200 0 0 Eskom on retribution mission against McKinsey and others which plundered R19bn since 2012 0 0 BizNews full 18:10 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783076 https://iono.fm/e/783076
Adding to this complexity is the double edged sword of its early investment in Tencent, the Hong Kong start-up that has become one of the world’s biggest internet businesses. Because of the huge impact of Tencent’s uplift for Naspers, shareholders fret that executives who weren’t around when the investment was made are now are getting a free ride.

Then there’s the impact of a European-based executive team being paid in hard currency which appear extreme in terms of the rand reporting base.

Naspers’s Chief People Officer Aileen O’Toole has the responsibility for this hot potato. As you will hear in this episode of the Rational Perspective , her approach has been to push for the highest possible level of transparency to encourage rational debate.

The centrepiece is a radically enhanced 25 page remuneration report that was released on Friday alongside the 2018 annual report. Already there's been a fair amount of uninformed comment. ]]> Business News Mon, 23 Jul 2018 20:05:00 +0200 0 0 Naspers CPO Aileen O'Toole on the outperforming group's secret sauce: Executive pay is 90% based on risk 0 0 BizNews full 17:19 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783077 https://iono.fm/e/783077
But forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan falls outside that generality.

Whether we’ve been together in his Johannesburg office, a hotel near Heathrow Airport, or, as here, a pub in Central London, he’s consistent: speaking from the heart, sharing what he knows, holding little back.

South Africa’s most famous private sector crime fighter is in London this week to support his friend Lord Peter Hain, who arranged a series of events to celebrate the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth.

We met last night ahead of a well-attended DA Abroad event. As you’ll hear, the discussion quickly moves onto matters close to the corruption busting O’Sullivan’s heart – like last week’s apology from McKinsey and why he and Hain are determined to force the global legal firm Hogan Lovells to break cover and admit its role in South Africa’s State Capture saga. Fascinating as ever… ]]> Business News Wed, 18 Jul 2018 09:19:00 +0200 0 0 Paul O'Sullivan: We'll force Hogan Lovells to come clean on SA State Capture role 0 0 BizNews full 18:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783082 https://iono.fm/e/783082
Two weeks ago Parliamentarian Bantu Holomisa sent a scathing five page letter on his UDM Party letterhead to president Cyril Ramaphosa urging him to investigate four black businessmen whom he accused of systematically plundering the Public Investment Corporation.

Holomisa names Tshepo Mahloele as the kingpin in a corrupt nexus with PIC chief executive Dan Matjila, former deputy finance minister Jabu Moloketi and Warren Wheatley, a director of Mahloele's rapidly developing financial business Lebashe.

51 year old Mahloele worked for Rand Merchant Bank, CDC, the PIC and the Development Bank of SA before founding of private equity firm Harith. The firm well known in development finance circles having raised $1bn from major financial institutions for investment into infrastructure projects on the African continent, generating a return of 15% a year.

He is also a key player in a Black Economic Empowerment consortium which in 2007 acquired 10m Capitec shares at R30 each. That was a spectacularly successful transaction, with Capitec stock having risen 30-fold to the current R900, creating the base from which Mahloele created Lebashe, a rapidly developing financial business.

The scale of his achievements were recognised by the Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals which, in 2014, named him the CEO of the Decade. Now Holomisa is accusing him of being the mastermind behind "an iceberg of corruption".

Mahloele has responded to the attack by launching an urgent interdict against Holomisa and his political party. I went along to the Harith offices in Johannesburg to find out more about this low profile heavyweight. What emerges is fascinating. ]]> Business News Wed, 11 Jul 2018 10:04:00 +0200 0 0 Meet Tshepo Mahloele - Big Capitec shareholder, ABSIP's "CEO of the Decade" now accused by Holomisa as kingpin of corrupt network 0 0 BizNews full 36:32 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783083 https://iono.fm/e/783083
New global managing partner Kevin Sneader is dealing with what rugby players call a hospital pass. To his credit, he stepped into a fire avoided by other global firms involved in South African State Capture like KPMG, SAP, Hogan Lovells, HSBC and a Chinese locomotive manufacturer.

After witnessing the roasting McKinsey received today, you have to wonder whether CEOs of other multinationals have the bottle to follow Sneader onto this kind of public platform. Or, indeed, whether McKinsey itself will continue on the current course of owning up, profusely apologising, but still taking the hits.

Perhaps now that it has repaid Eskom, the consulting firm will start to reconsider whether it is worth remaining involved in a South Africa that's quite obviously not in a forgiving mood. ]]> Business News Mon, 09 Jul 2018 22:52:00 +0200 0 0 McKinsey’s South African mea culpa bombs as it claims "no corruption", critics reject apology as too little, too late 0 0 BizNews full 19:53 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783084 https://iono.fm/e/783084
It’s a lofty goal. But since opening its first centre in Johannesburg in 2012, the independent non profit has made huge strides. This year it opened its fourth office, in Harare, with the others in Accra and Lagos.

GGA bases its opinions on facts. That makes it an invaluable source for those wanting to understand the back story of the continent and, more specifically, South Africa. This week I was invited to a briefing for its board members and contributors at the IOD in London. ]]> Business News Sun, 08 Jul 2018 16:24:00 +0200 0 0 GGA's Alain Tschudin: Providing context on SA's major flashpoints - history helps with solutions to crumbling municipalities, EWC 0 0 BizNews full 20:20 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783092 https://iono.fm/e/783092 Fabian had spent months meeting with and filming a generation of inspiring South Africans. These mostly young folk saw the future very differently to the popular view which was of an inevitable slide to Zimbabwe-style economic implosion.
His plan was to compile an eight part documentary for the international market, showing them another side to that bleak story. Fabian dubbed his idea the Good Hope Project.
We met again this week for an update. It proved timeous. Earlier this year Fabian spent three more months filming in the country. And last week British television channel ITV aired an hour long feature on South Africa hosted by Sir Trevor MacDonald, the first journalist to interview Nelson Mandela after his release from prison after 27 years. Promoted as what MacDonald saw on his return to the country, the ITV documentary has had mixed reviews. Fabian offers his perspective during the interview. ]]> Business News Fri, 29 Jun 2018 16:03:00 +0200 0 0 After years of deep research, UK film maker Anthony Fabian convinced SA's new dawn will break soon 0 0 BizNews full 20:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783093 https://iono.fm/e/783093 Perfectly timed ahead of December’s ANC Elective Conference, in our interview on the book a year ago, Cilliers shared with us the likely result of that watershed event and what would happen thereafter. His projections were excellent – he as one of the few to call a Ramaphosa victory, but one which brings with it a huge challenge of modernising his party - and the country.
I like engaging with scientists like Cilliers. They trash popular narratives by focusing on the facts and how they are most likely to impact the future. This ability to achieve perspective is a rare gift in a noisy developing country.
But Cilliers achieved it in his book, and has done so again in this excellent interview on South Africa’s hottest potato, the policy of expropriation of land without compensation. Again, he says the real fight on land will be in the rural areas between traditional chiefs and their subjects. And he also dismisses sees notions of a split in the ruling ANC. ]]> Business News Thu, 28 Jun 2018 10:45:00 +0200 0 0 Jakkie Cilliers: We’re missing EWC point – rural chiefs in crosshairs, unleashing growth the priority 0 0 BizNews full 25:13 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783095 https://iono.fm/e/783095
But result’s time opens a window, and today I managed to grab half an hour with Van Dijk and Naspers CFO Basil Sgourdos. What follows is a fascinating half hour with the men who run a business that is so dominant among JSE listings that it accounts for a chunky one fifth of the equity portion of South African retirement funding... ]]> Business News Mon, 25 Jun 2018 23:09:00 +0200 0 0 Global internet champion Naspers hitting top gear with "best set of financials in two decades" 0 0 BizNews full 29:16 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783102 https://iono.fm/e/783102
Thinking about the interview afterwards, it dawned on me its timing was perfect. Now 72, but still learning and improving, Uys is at the peak of his intellectual powers and beyond the point where he counts his words. Also, putting together a 90 minute biographical show, he would have gone through a deeply reflective process, unearthing much new material shared with us here. As you’ll hear in this extraordinary interview, even though admitting it’s tough for his white mouth to now be heard by a black ear, Pieter Dirk Uys hasn’t lost his knack for getting fellow South Africans to ask uncomfortable questions of themselves. Gently opening eyes rather than poking them out with a stick. ]]> Business News Fri, 15 Jun 2018 12:16:00 +0200 0 0 An hour in London with iconoclast Pieter-Dirk Uys, opening up on Mandela, Ramaphosa, courage, madness - and sex 0 0 BizNews full 1:04:17 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783109 https://iono.fm/e/783109
Opera is an acquired taste…….with those who’ve been bitten prepared to travel a long way to enjoy its unique treats. But with its Italian heritage, opera is not the kind of thing you’d expect to find in a developing country with very different musical roots. At least I didn’t before meeting the American who runs Cape Town Opera at my office at WeWork on London’s South Bank.

Elise Brunelle served South Africa’s largest permanent non-profit performing arts organisation for almost a decade as its financial manager before taking over as the acting managing director in February succeeding Michael Williams was poached by the Buxton International Festival, one of the leading events of its type in the UK. Williams had been with the CTO as insiders call it, for 28 years. He and Brunelle worked closely together to install a sustainable business model. She tells us all about it in this fascinating look at the business of the arts. ]]> Business News Thu, 07 Jun 2018 07:00:00 +0200 0 0 Meet the unheralded American introducing African talent onto global opera stages 0 0 BizNews full 18:03 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783112 https://iono.fm/e/783112
Superbly facilitated, the full day conference is built around keynote addresses from leading proponents of the value investment craft who share their best ideas.

In the seven years since the conference started, around 100 stocks have been picked by the presenters. Although there were a few dogs among them, most of the recommendations have worked out well, some spectacularly so.

Clearly, times are tough in the value camp. Worse even than during the dot com boom. Back then criticism of this approach of buying stocks when they were cheapest, cheap resulted in even the Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffett was being publicly labelled a has-been. Opinions swiftly reversed after the Nasdaq bubble burst, with shares like Amazon losing over 90% of their value. But there’s no guarantee of a repeat anytime soon because, as the great economist John Maynard Keynes once quipped: Markets can remain irrational a lot longer than you and I can remain solvent.

This episode kicks off, as did the conference, with rock star fund manager Nick Kirrage of Schroders who showed us how value investing had underperformed alternative styles for the past decade…..As a result, 90% of equity investments has now switched into growth stocks, introducing enormous risk… ]]> Business News Mon, 04 Jun 2018 07:00:00 +0200 0 0 Six great shares to look at now. London's best value investors share their best ideas. 0 0 BizNews full 16:34 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783113 https://iono.fm/e/783113
Graham, who changed his surname from Grossbaum in recognition of those anti-Semitic times, likens some shares to a mostly smoked cigar. They are shares in companies whose circumstances have changed significantly for the worse so have been shunned by most investors.

But often this neglect can push the unloved orphan’s share price below what is realistic, providing an opportunity for the smart analyst to see value where others don’t. Hence the analogy with a cigar butt that still has a couple of good puffs left.

Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private sector coal miner, was one of many coal companies that hit the wall after the mineral’s price plunge. Shareholders in Peabody were wiped out, but thanks to $800m in financing from banks led by Citigroup, the company’s coal mines continued producing running.

Last April, a year after opting for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a rehabilitated Peabody re-emerged onto the New York Stock Exchange. While off the market it raised fresh capital at $25 a share. Those who jumped into the stock at that level when it relisted a year ago have enjoyed a 64% paper profit. And judging by the Orbis stock picker, that’s only the start. While its track record and coal’s poor long-term prospects will ensure many will keep seeing Peabody as a cigar butt, shareholders may well be smoking away luxuriously for many years to come. ]]> Business News Thu, 31 May 2018 07:00:00 +0200 0 0 Coal miner Peabody: A fast-rising phoenix - from bankruptcy to top value manager's stock pick 0 0 BizNews full 14:27 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783117 https://iono.fm/e/783117
I met Krige earlier this year and was immediately struck by the old adage of an apple not falling from the tree. I got to know Niel Krige, Dawid’s father, through our numerous media engagements when he was the managing director of Momentum, one of South Africa’s top three life assurers.

Niel, who left the corporate world for a professorship, is a qualified actuary who aced all his degrees cum laude. The last time we saw each other was in Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway AGM – the cathedral of value investing, a passion shared by his over-performing son.

The younger Krige’s talent is now being recognised on a bigger stage. His keynote was second up at the annual London Value Investor conference last week, where he shared his two best ideas. I caught up with him over the tea break... ]]> Business News Mon, 28 May 2018 07:00:00 +0200 0 0 Dawid Krige's best ideas - buying shares in two giant Chinese companies you've never heard of 0 0 BizNews full 16:28 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783118 https://iono.fm/e/783118
Chopra, a 71 year old who looks 20 years younger, is a best selling author whose books have made him a household name worldwide. A licensed physician, he has become a massively disruptive force in traditional medicine by preaching the benefits of meditation, sleep and reducing stress over pharmaceuticals.

Van Wyk is probably the pre-eminent living expert on Holism, a concept promoted in the 1920s by South African polymath Jan Smuts, who was the Prime Minister of his country, an Allied Field Marshall in World War Two and the only non British chancellor of Cambridge University. Smuts is one of a handful of foreigners (Mandela, Gandhi and Lincoln are others) whose statue is in Parliament Square in London.

In this deeply insightful podcast, Van Wyk draws together the links between Holism, Deepak Chopra's philosophies and the South African concept of Ubuntu, an ethical concept of humanity which, loosely translated, means "I am because we are." ]]> Business News Fri, 25 May 2018 16:51:00 +0200 0 0 Claudius van Wyk uncovers links between Deepak Chopra, Jan Smuts's Holism and Ubuntu. 0 0 BizNews full 18:32 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783121 https://iono.fm/e/783121
This complexity tends to deliver a minefield of unintended consequences for those who under-estimate or are ignorant of this reality. Trump is finding this out the hard way as one seemingly idea after another, things that looked perfectly do-able on the campaign trail, have bombed, usually ending up in another senior aide being blamed and fired.

But Trump is finally starting to realise this isn’t reality TV. After trumpeting by presidential tweet inanities like “trade wars are good and easily winnable”, the president is discovering simplistic conclusions rarely work in the real world. Latest humiliation is the realisation that the proposed trade war with China will hurt America and its allies far more than the intended target. So once again a roll-back on a campaign promise.

Also in this edition, we try to answer the key questions of how America got into such a chaotic place? How was it possible that the leader of the free world, the largest economy on earth, the home of the great technological innovations become better known for its blunders than leadership?

Bill Schneider, who served as CNN’s senior political analyst for two decades before joining Third Way, a Washington Think Tank, has just written a book called Standoff – How America Became ungovernable. In his quest to understand how America ended up with a populist president, Schneider examined elections over the last 50 years. And tracked the US’s path to a unique brand of populism that is economically progressive – think tax cuts – and culturally conservative – anti-immigration and isolationist. ]]> Business News Wed, 23 May 2018 15:52:00 +0200 0 0 Educating The Donald – “Trade War” on hold as adults start surrounding Oval Office incumbent 0 0 BizNews full 16:10 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783130 https://iono.fm/e/783130
Among the leaders of this flotilla of activists which achieved this unlikely victory are South African-raised British politician Lord Peter Hain; and Irish-raised forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan.

They got together in London this week to share notes on their latest crusade – a concerted attack on global law firm Hogan Lovells.

The say that just like accountants KPMG, management consultants McKinsey and software multinational SAP, the law firm is deeply implicated in the network of institutionalised corruption, popularly referred to as state capture.

Since the new president Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment in January, the pressure has been cranked up on those implicated in the industrial scale pillaging of at least R100bn worth of South African publicly owned assets. ]]> Business News Thu, 17 May 2018 15:57:00 +0200 0 0 Why anti-corruption activists Lord Peter Hain, Paul O'Sullivan, now gunning for global law firm Hogan Lovells 0 0 BizNews full 28:17 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783134 https://iono.fm/e/783134
I don’t think so. And certainly not after absorbing this US investment insider’s rational approach. An accounting and economics graduate of Wharton Business School who also holds a CFA qualification, Jonathan Golub's reading of the tech bull market has been superb.

Perhaps he has worked out the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Or, more specifically, the Amazon effect.

We’ve done well by sticking with the Bezos Bulldozer. And given that its traditional rival Walmart isn’t engendering much confidence, there is no reason to change.

Last week Walmart struck a record deal when acquiring 77% of Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart for $16bn. South African group Naspers banked a handsome $1,6bn profit. It was one of only two shareholders to sell out to Walmart, but is in very good company alongside the hottest name in investments right now, Japan’s Softbank, which sold a $2.5bn investment made less than a year ago, for $4bn. Have Naspers and Softbank blundered? Stick around for Howard Davidowitz's pithy comment right at the end of this entertaining podcast. ]]> Business News Mon, 14 May 2018 20:32:00 +0200 0 0 Compelling argument why America's FAANGs will keep rolling and top 2018 performance league 0 0 BizNews full 11:46 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783139 https://iono.fm/e/783139
That has turned into the best private equity investment in history. Until last month, Naspers never sold a single Tencent share. When it did finally sell, for $9.8bn, a modest two percentage points of its ownership – dropping its stake in Tencent from 33% to 31% - the company realised an astonishing 326 times on its total investment.

But such an amazing creation of value brings its own challenges. In its native South Africa, Naspers now has a weighting of over 20% of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s all share index, raising concerns the entire nation’s savings are too heavily dependent on a single company. And with its South African domicile having influencing a company’s share price that trades at a 40% discount to the value of its Tencent holding along – with its raft of other assets effectively thrown in for free - global investors continue to agitate for the Chinese stake to be unbundled.

Naspers management’s counter argument has always been that it is no one trick pony. And today’s announcement that it is a major beneficiary of Walmart’s $16bn Indian acquisition will surely go some of the way to supporting that view……In this interview, Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk tells the story of another hugely successful bet for Naspers, and what it will be doing with what is now a $12bn cash pile built in the past month. ]]> Business News Wed, 09 May 2018 19:38:00 +0200 0 0 CEO Bob van Dijk: Why Naspers is cashing its Flipkart chips in Walmart's historic $20bn Indian swoop 0 0 BizNews full 16:09 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783141 https://iono.fm/e/783141 Business News Tue, 08 May 2018 11:21:00 +0200 0 0 Warren Buffett's share investment journey: Lessons learnt when he was 11 still work today 0 0 BizNews full 15:00 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783142 https://iono.fm/e/783142 Business News Mon, 07 May 2018 19:49:00 +0200 0 0 Charlie Munger's Berkshire AGM zinger for "ridiculous" Elon Musk: A "moat" is not a puddle. 0 0 BizNews full 13:00 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783146 https://iono.fm/e/783146 Business News Thu, 03 May 2018 12:17:00 +0200 0 0 Ian Kilbride: Warwick does a huge deal with Cadiz and says more to come 0 0 BizNews full 16:11 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783147 https://iono.fm/e/783147 Business News Wed, 02 May 2018 15:44:00 +0200 0 0 DA young gun Dean McPherson on Ramaphoria, Steinhoff’s German connection 0 0 BizNews full 30:21 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783150 https://iono.fm/e/783150 Business News Sat, 28 Apr 2018 13:10:00 +0200 0 0 Christo Wiese: Insider view on Steinhoff CEO Jooste's corporate crime of the century 0 0 BizNews full 34:14 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783152 https://iono.fm/e/783152 The respected investment banker's resignation came in the wake of president Donald Trump's decision to introduce tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
Predictably, Cohn's successor as director of the US's National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, thinks very differently.
In many ways Kudlow is a Trump clone. Neither have any academic qualifications in economics and both have no truck with anyone questioning their simplistic belief that the elixir for economic growth is cutting taxes and accelerating deregulation.
Interestingly, they are of a similar age (Trump is 71, Kudlow 70), have both been married three times and achieved their fame through television, Trump on "the Apprentice" and Kudlow by hosting long-running CNBC shows on politics and economics.
As this feisty interview reveals, just like Trump, the self-assured Kudlow happily exposes himself as an emotionally driven being operating in a field where rationality enjoys a decided advantage. Beijing is surely chuckling. ]]> Business News Wed, 25 Apr 2018 17:16:00 +0200 0 0 Trump's "Mini Me", new US economic tsar Larry Kudlow, accuses China of thievery, cheating but says "No Trade War" 0 0 BizNews full 14:12 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783155 https://iono.fm/e/783155 Business News Mon, 23 Apr 2018 11:38:00 +0200 0 0 Alec Hogg: The inside story of South Africa's game-changing new start 0 0 BizNews full 42:28 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783169 https://iono.fm/e/783169 Business News Mon, 09 Apr 2018 18:38:00 +0200 0 0 Alec Hogg : Here's why South Africa is poised to take off 0 0 BizNews full 36:40 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783170 https://iono.fm/e/783170 Business News Sun, 08 Apr 2018 21:46:00 +0200 0 0 Robin Renwick, Britain's "undiplomatic diplomat", defending Rupert, laying bare the Zuma kleptocracy 0 0 BizNews full 27:55 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783172 https://iono.fm/e/783172 Business News Tue, 03 Apr 2018 12:20:00 +0200 0 0 From the Wall Street Journal: Why Trump is trashing Amazon (and how much it hurts) 0 0 BizNews full 21:34 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783174 https://iono.fm/e/783174 Business News Thu, 29 Mar 2018 12:01:00 +0200 0 0 From the Wall Street Journal: More tech in cars, more problems for drivers 0 0 BizNews full 6:42 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783176 https://iono.fm/e/783176 Business News Wed, 28 Mar 2018 12:50:00 +0200 0 0 From the Wall Street Journal: Don’t panic – America and China are talking trade, quietly 0 0 BizNews full 8:37 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783179 https://iono.fm/e/783179 Business News Tue, 27 Mar 2018 10:56:00 +0200 0 0 From The Wall Street Journal: Here’s what Facebook’s data scandal means for you 0 0 BizNews full 8:43 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783180 https://iono.fm/e/783180 Business News Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:35:00 +0200 0 0 From The Wall Street Journal: After pedestrian death, questions about the future of self-driving cars 0 0 BizNews full 9:22 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783181 https://iono.fm/e/783181 Business News Thu, 22 Mar 2018 14:01:00 +0200 0 0 From The Wall Street Journal: LinkedIn is desperate to get you to use it 0 0 BizNews full 6:15 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783182 https://iono.fm/e/783182 Business News Thu, 22 Mar 2018 12:30:00 +0200 0 0 From The Wall Street Journal: The president and the porn star - Trump and Stormy Daniels 0 0 BizNews full 7:55 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783183 https://iono.fm/e/783183 Business News Wed, 21 Mar 2018 12:16:00 +0200 0 0 From the Wall Street Journal: Facebook's real problem? No one trusts it anymore 0 0 BizNews full 9:16 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783185 https://iono.fm/e/783185 Business News Tue, 20 Mar 2018 11:00:00 +0200 0 0 Magnus Heystek - Uncertainty over land tenure driving some farmers into a "scorched earth" approach 0 0 BizNews full 13:21 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783187 https://iono.fm/e/783187 Business News Mon, 19 Mar 2018 18:01:00 +0200 0 0 From The Wall Street Journal: Robots are already deciding who goes to rehab and who goes to jail 0 0 BizNews full 18:22 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783190 https://iono.fm/e/783190 Business News Thu, 15 Mar 2018 18:52:00 +0200 0 0 Roubini exposes Bitcoin manipulators: One of the biggest scams ever, price should be 80% lower 0 0 BizNews full 11:45 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783194 https://iono.fm/e/783194 They also take us inside IBM's quantum computing lab in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., where they got to see a quantum computer up close.
Traditional computers use binary digits, or bits, which can either be 0s or 1s, whereas quantum computers, which harness the properties of quantum physics, use quantum bits, or qubits, which can represent and store information in both 0s and 1s simultaneously.
This is, in part, what allows a quantum computer to solve computationally-intensive problems that a classical computer couldn’t, such as those related to risk analysis and trading strategies for financial services firms.
Have a listen to the first episode of a two-part podcast series looking at the science and implications of the world’s next-generation computer. ]]> Business News Tue, 13 Mar 2018 16:49:00 +0200 0 0 From The Wall Street Journal: The Age of Quantum Computing is (Almost) Here 0 0 BizNews full 19:23 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783196 https://iono.fm/e/783196 A month later the suddenly famous Viceroy turned its focus onto Capitec, South African banking's disruptive force whose stock price peaked just under R1 100 a share in December having risen from R33 a decade before.
Over the weekend I met with Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie, who was passing through London on his way home after a week's holiday. What transpired was a lesson in how successfully managing communications in a crisis requires total attention from the very top. ]]> Business News Mon, 12 Mar 2018 19:25:00 +0200 0 0 Fighting an existential threat: CEO Gerrie Fourie on Capitec's defence against Viceroy 0 0 BizNews full 17:30 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783198 https://iono.fm/e/783198 Business News Sat, 10 Mar 2018 18:21:00 +0200 0 0 It's Ramaphoria vs "Leninist" ANC as Dr Martyn Davies waves some sceptical flags 0 0 BizNews full 17:34 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783199 https://iono.fm/e/783199 Business News Thu, 08 Mar 2018 21:22:00 +0200 0 0 Next stop $2 000 a share as AmazonFresh accelerates its retail swamping tidal wave 0 0 BizNews full 12:33 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783241 https://iono.fm/e/783241 Business News Thu, 18 Jan 2018 19:09:00 +0200 0 0 Meet "one percenter" Dawid Krige: China-focused Buffett devotee who generated 75% last year 0 0 BizNews full 40:16 Rational Radio https://iono.fm/e/783248 https://iono.fm/e/783248 Business News Fri, 12 Jan 2018 09:55:00 +0200 0 0 Making of a great editor - the George Palmer playbook 0 0 BizNews full 41:25 Rational Radio