Solar is heating up! There's a lot going on in this space, as an entire industry has been spawned by the failure of Eskom. In the interests of exposing you to various opportunities in this space, I can share with you that Jaltech is running several webinars in April to talk about how they are playing in the 12B space. Interestingly, Jaltech is also busy with a bunch of other things that you may be interested in, ranging from structured products through to private debt and an alternative investment platform. You can pick a webinar date and register at this link>>>

You should also listen to Grovest CEO Jeff Miller's view on the 12B opportunity in solar. He joined me on Ghost Stories to talk about Grovest's Twelve B Energy Fund, which included a detailed discussion on the underlying asset exposure and the returns available to investors. Listen to the podcast here>>>

I want to be absolutely clear on something here: I have never and will never accept commissions on investments like these. I believe in providing an agnostic, independent platform that educates and empowers readers and allows reputable firms to tell their story as well. Do your own research, make use of all these materials and arrive at your own decision.

I can't see how Nampak avoids a rights offer

It's really not looking good at Nampak. We've been waiting for a while now for details of the proposed rights offer and we still don't know how big it is going to be. What we do know is that the finance costs are going through the roof and the situation with upstreaming cash from African subsidiaries isn't improving. It doesn't help to achieve decent profits if the "secondary market" for forex eats up those profits anyway with huge forex losses.

There's is now a restructuring committee at board level and a Chief Restructuring Officer. The situation is dire.

There's also news from Metair, surely the unluckiest company on the JSE. One segment suffered floods at its biggest customer last year and the other is in hyperinflationary Turkey. To top it all off, the interim CEO was in an accident this week and is thankfully recovering outside of hospital, leading to the postponement of an alyst presentations. About the only bit of good fortune they've had is that the earthquake in Turkey missed them!

For these updates and news from aReit, Southern Palladium, Workforce Holdings and York Timber, read Ghost Bites here>>>

And for a fundamental and technical piece covering Woolworths and Shoprite, read this article from Trive South Africa and learn about how traders think.

50 basis points!

The SARB is clearly worried about headline inflation, hiking by 50 basis points when the market expected 25 basis points. It was a close vote at the MPC, but expectations like 9.9% food inflation in 2023 would've been a factor here. The rand made it all the way down to R17.76 to the dollar for a fleeting moment, before trading at R17.90. Still, TreasuryONE reminds us that this was the first break below the R18.00 handle in over a month.

To add to the hike, the rand was boosted by data out of the US that missed expectations. Weekly jobless claims and Q4 GDP were weak, taking the dollar index back to levels seen at the start of February.

Other stuff to keep you out of trouble

There's more than enough great content to keep you busy for the next few days before I bounce back into your inbox on Monday:

• Watch the webinar recording of the latest Unlock the Stock event, featuring the CEO of PPC Limited.
• Read OrbVest weighing in on how disruption is shaping the future of healthcare and the impact this is having on US medical real estate, including an overview of their latest investment opportunity in that space.
• Listen to my discussion with Transaction Capital David Hurwitz on the prospects and strategy of the company in the wake of the recent share price capitulation.
• For a macroeconomic and geopolitical discussion that is packed with insights that will challenge you, listen to global expert Rachel Ziemba on Magic Markets.
• In case you missed any of these recent updates, the Ghost Wrap podcast (brought to you by Mazars) gives an overview of Remgro, Steinhoff, York Timber, RFG Holdings, CA Sales Holdings, Master Drilling, Bell Equipment, Gemfields and Astoria.

And last, but not least...

It's Friday, which means that DealMakers is here to make sure you didn't miss the important stuff this week. Aside from the excellent summaries of M&A activity and local corporate finance news, there's a lovely piece from Lydia Shadrach-Razzino of Baker McKenzie Johannesburg on the state of pl ay in the private equity industry in Africa.

I'm moving house today, so I wish you a more peaceful Friday than I am likely to have!