Lesaka on the up

Good morning Voornaam,

Fresh out the oven:

Ghost Bites: Lesaka has followed up the acquisition news with earnings that show much improved profitability. Speaking of profits, enX, KAL and RFG are all growing, while Sappi remains subject to paper cycles. MTN Uganda is one of the better subsidiaries right now. And finally, Pan African Resources has a good story to tell. Read Ghost Bites>>>

DealMakers summaries: Get the latest on local M&A activity and local corporate finance in these helpful summaries from DealMakers.

Chasing (returns from) the Sun: Grovest's Tivon Loubser joined me on a Ghost Stories podcast to talk about the 12BA allowances and how the government is giving returns from solar a serious boost for investors. With only a few weeks until normal load shedding programming is likely to return, listen to it here (full transcript included)>>>

Electrifying stocks: speaking of electricity, Craig Antonie of AnBro was the guest on the brand new Magic Markets show to talk about the electrification theme and the global stocks that play give exposure to it. Thematic investing is powerful for "buy-and-forget" strategies. Enjoy it here (full transcript included)>>>

In case you missed it:

Ghost Wrap: You need under six minutes to get up to speed on MTN Nigeria, Datatec, Capital & Regional, Harmony Gold, Astral Foods and Quantum Foods, brought to you by Mazars. Listen to it here>>>

​Bond ETFs: Improve your understanding of bond ETFs and how they work in a portfolio. Siyabulela Nomoyi of Satrix joined me on a Ghost Stories podcast to unpack this type of investment. Listen to it here>>>

​Sanlam / Grovepoint: Private markets are fascinating, especially private credit. In this podcast featuring two highly experienced professionals (Reginald Labuschagne and Harris Gorre), we unpack the capital allocation and investment considerations. Full transcript included. Don't miss this! Find it here>>>

Unlock the Stock: The recording of the recent presentation by Astoria Investments is available at this link>>>

Investec: The demographic shift in the world has major impacts on retirement planning. How can structured products help? Read it here>>>

LISTEN: Chasing Returns from the Sun

Local company news:

Lesaka Technologies has been scaling its way into profitability, using the listed platform to execute acquisitions and build a FinTech-focused ecosystem. It's been quite a road to get to this point, but the latest quarterly results show plenty of momentum. Combined with the juicy new acquisition that is largely paid for in shares (rather than Lesaka having to go raise debt), this is worth digging into.
KAL Group and RFG Holdings have both shown the value of efficiency and/or pricing power in a time of difficult underlying volumes growth. Earnings are up in both cases, albeit for different reasons. It's also worth highlighting the momentum at enX Group, where HEPS from continuing operations has more than doubled!
Over at Sappi, the second quarter was much better than the first quarter, but the company still made a headline loss for its interim period. Managing the various supply and demand forces in this group is extremely tricky.
Pan African Resources has shown the power of a higher gold price, with the MTR project on schedule for commissioning in December 2024 and the current gold prices taking that project IRR into the stratosphere. The right time to be bringing a new project into operation is when prices are flying, so the group will hope that the good news in gold continues.
Finally, MTN Uganda shows what is actually possible in Africa. When those subsidiaries are doing well, they do really well.
Get the details in Ghost Bites at this link>>>

LISTEN: Investing in Private Credit
(Reginald Labuschagne, Sanlam Private Wealth |
Harris Gorre, Grovepoint Investment Management)

READ AND LISTEN: The Global Accelerator

READ: What tiny pineapples can tell us about our future
(by Dominique Olivier)

READ: Satrix MSCI ACWI - Capturing Opportunities

International business news:

Fans of the box office, look away now. CNBC reports that the 2024 summer box office (i.e. our winter) looks dire, with no Marvel movie to be released until late July. The backlog from the Hollywood strikes continues to hurt. That's bad news for everyone except streaming platforms that already have deep content slates to sell to subscribers.
Speaking of streaming, Warner Bros. Discovery and its news of an enhanced streaming bundle with Disney turned out to be a precursor to poor results. Both revenue and the loss per share missed estimates. Advertising revenue was strong for the streaming offering at Warner Bros. Discovery but is really struggling in the TV networks side of the business.
If streaming interests you, then we have recent reports in Magic Markets Premium on both Disney and Netflix. In fact, I sold my Disney shares before the recent earnings based on the research we did, which turned out to be near-perfect timing. We can't it right every time, but there's so much to learn from this research library and for just R99/month. The latest show, in case you're curious, is on recent momentum at Amazon.

LISTEN: Cashing in on clean

Macroeconomic Update

Initial jobless claims in the US missed the mark, coming in higher than estimates (and thus worse for the labour market). This comes after non-farm payrolls missed estimates in April, suggesting that higher interest rates are being felt in the job market.
Gold certainly appreciated that, rallying strongly and settling at $2,353 this morning.
Key indicators: USD/ZAR R18.50; US 10-year 4.45%; Gold $2,315; Platinum ZAR R18,259; Brent Crude $84.36
This macroeconomic update is based on TreasuryONE's morning update.