| Get ready to learn more about company valuations! The next bizval webinar is scheduled for Thursday 26th January at 12pm. Alongside my co-founders in the business, I'll be presenting on important valuation concepts. Register for free at this link>>> Also, the latest Ghost Wrap podcast is available. In this week's update, I covered Nampak, Steinhoff, Richemont, BHP, Woolworths, Mr Price and Spar. This podcast is designed for busy people who want to stay on top of JSE news, brought to you by Mazars. Enjoy it here>>> Does Mr Price still resonate with customers?You can safely ignore anything you saw on Friday about "record sales at Mr Price" - whilst that may be true, it's not hard to report record numbers after doing massive acquisitions. If you buy revenue, your group is bigger. That's how it works. What really matters is the underlying growth in the core business, which in this case is horrible. Volumes fell in the 13 weeks to 31 December and there aren't many silver linings (although there are a couple). When you read the Mr Price numbers alongside the update from Attacq (the owner of Mall of Africa), it looks even worse. You'll find that update in Ghost Bites this morning as well, along with the loss of REIT statu s at Fortress and the release of third quarter results by Karooooo. Read it all here>>> Announcing Satrix as a partner to Ghost MailI have some very exciting news! Ghost Mail has grown in leaps and bounds and Satrix has taken notice, choosing to partner with Ghost Mail to bring terrific educational content on investing to this audience. On a personal note, this is a proud moment as a Satrix ETF was my first ever investment in the markets. I suspect that many can say the same. There m ight be some more foundational articles along the way (like on ETFs vs. shares for example), but this morning's article is excellent proof that there is plenty to learn from the team at Satrix, even for more experienced investors. Looking back at 2022, Nico Katzke covered some important lessons learnt and shared many insights into growth vs. value investing along the way. You need to make time to read this>>> The Trive Tribe - building a community around investingIn Episode 108 of Magic Markets, Travis Robson (CEO of Trive South Africa) joined us to talk about how the stockbroking industry has evolved and how Trive plans to bring back some of the customer service magi c that Travis believes should be offered alongside new-age technology. To learn more about this strategy and to figure out if Trive is for you, listen to this podcast>>> What helped the rand on Friday?After several days of underperformance by the rand vs. emerging market peers, there was a puzzling outcome on Friday that saw the rand trade at around R17.20, strengthening despite a good day for the dollar. TreasuryONE believes there was profit-taking in the market, a view that is supported by unusual price behaviour in commodities on a day that was good for the rand. Most o f the attention this week will be paid to the Q4 GDP numbers coming out of the US on Thursday. Don't miss out on the recording of the recent webinar that I co-hosted with the team from TreasuryONE. If you're keen to understand the macroeconomic environment that we experienced in 2022 and what it looks like for 2023, you'll really enjoy this>>> One for the private equity enthusiastsFinally, the team at DealMakers brings us the shortlisted nominees for the Catalyst Private Equity Deal of the Year 2022. There are three of them, including the sale of Studio 88 to Mr Price! Get the details here>>> It's Monday. Go and get stuck in! | 