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Good morning Voornaam,

I really do enjoy the retail sector. It's always such a hotbed of investing and business lessons, with the opportunity to constantly learn about what does and doesn't work. Historically, the "doesn't work" bucket has been overflowing with South African retailers that expanded offshore. SPAR can count itself among those names, with the decision now made to exit Switzerland and South-West England, leaving only the local and Irish businesses in the group.

At the other end of the retail success spectrum at the moment, we find Lewis. Goodness knows they haven't always been there, but things do change. Such is the level of share price growth in Lewis that they didn't even do share buybacks in the second half of the year!

On an exceptionally busy day of news, the HCI stable also finished off its reporting. This means you get updates from Deneb, eMedia, Frontier Transport and the mothership HCI.

We also saw strong updates from Adcorp and Sea Harvest, with renewed optimism at African Media Entertainment as well. To add to the interesting day, AYO Technology announced a drop in earnings and Old Mutual's quarterly update reflects massive client outflows.

Get the details on all these updates and the Nibbles in Ghost Bites at this
link>>>

We spend a lot of time in Ghost Mail learning about the equity market. The debt market is also incredibly important, as it connects institutional investors with borrowers who are large enough to do proper debt programmes. Ian Norden of Intengo Market brings you a new article with some great stats around the industry and an explanation of how the major roleplayers participate. Find it here>>>

The latest Magic Markets episode is a discussion with Muofhe Kwinda about his journey from being a financial analyst in the investment space to an entrepreneur with interests in mining and agriculture. As a listener to the show, he reached out with a desire to share some of his learnings from the journey. I'm glad that we accepted that offer, as it was a great show! Enjoy it here>>>

All work and no fun is no way to live. Investec knows this, which is why their excellent Investec Focus Radio offering now includes a wine podcast as well. Episode 1 of Wine in Focus is hosted by Lerato Motshologane, a dealmaker at Investec and founder of Discover Wines. If you're keen to learn more about investing in wine, you'll love this podcast>>>

Have a great Friday and we will see you on Sunday for Ghost Mail Weekender!

SATRIX: A Day in the Life of a Portfolio Manager at Satrix

Ever wondered how the nuts and bolts of ETFs work? What goes into index tracking and making sure that it is achieved at the lowest possible cost? And are all indices created equal from a complexity perspective? Lauren Jacobs (Senior Portfolio Manager at Satrix) shows you what a day in the life of a portfolio manager looks like. Get ready to learn and be inspired at this link>>>

Intengo Market: Nuances of the South African Listed Debt Market

South Africa’s listed debt market presents an intriguing blend of opportunities and challenges. Characterised by its unique structure, participant dynamics, and liquidity constraints, this is a space worth examining for institutional and retail investors alike. This overview is brought to you by Intengo Market. Enjoy it here>>>

GHOST WRAP: April's droppers and whoppers

There may have been many public holidays in April, but that didn't stop the market from reacting to the broader geopolitical turmoil. With recession concerns as a key theme, which stocks did well and which ones delivered a nasty drop? This podcast is an overview of recent big share price moves among larger local companies on the JSE, revealing some interesting trends. Ghost Wrap is brought to you by Forvis Mazars. You can find the recording and the transcript at this link>>>

GHOST BITES - Making sense of SENS on the local market

Lewis released incredible numbers and Adcorp looks stronger too. Spar is mostly retreating from Europe. The HCI stable (including Deneb, eMedia, Frontier and mothership HCI) released updates. Look out for AME, AYO, Delta Property, Old Mutual and Sea Harvest as well. Get the details in Ghost Bites>>>

Unlock the Stock - Astoria Investments

In the 53rd edition of Unlock the Stock, Astoria Investments returned to the platform to talk about the recent results and the strategic focus going forwards. The recording of the management presentation and interactive Q&A is available at this link>>>

DOMINIQUE OLIVIER - The court of public opinion: does it matter?

Public backlash may be loud, but it appears as though capitalism has noise-cancelling headphones. Using SeaWorld and Duolingo as examples, Dominique Olivier examines whether the bark of social media outrage has any bite in this great piece>>>

INVESTEC PODCAST: Wine in Focus - Investing in Wine and Pairing Enjoyment with Returns

Wine in Focus is an Investec Focus Radio five-part vodcast series hosted by Lerato Motshologane, a dealmaker at Investec for Business and founder of Discover Wines. Lerato chats to wine makers, investors, farmers and judges on everything from how to invest in wine, to innovations changing the way we farm, and South Africa's growing prominence on the international fine wine market. Get the insights in this podcast>>>

International Business Snippet:

Costco just keeps on growing. They beat revenue and earnings estimates in the latest quarter, with comparable sales up 8% and eCommerce sales up roughly 16%. Costco is quite a complex beast, so you need to typically exclude "gas" (i.e. petrol) sales from the numbers. In 'Murica, you can fill your car, your tummy (their hotdogs are famous) and your trolley all in one place.

The group has confirmed that a third of its goods are imported, so all the uncertainty around tariffs is going to play a role here despite how well they are doing. Of course, with the buying power that Costco enjoys, they will put as much pressure as possible back into the supply chain.

This week in Magic Markets Premium, we've covered Simon Property Group. The iconic US REIT is mainly focused on premium retail properties, which means that it's the pick of the litter when it comes to retail REITs in that market. But the first step is to decide whether you want such a pet in the first place. Are the risks to developed market retail property too great? As our subscribers will find out in the research, it's pretty 50-50 at thhe moment.

Magic Markets: US Downgrade and JPMorgan Views

Magic Markets: The US credit downgrade by Moody’s wasn’t a huge surprise, as they are just playing catch-up to what other ratings agencies already did. The complacency in the market in response to the downgrade is interesting though, as it became the catalyst for us to talk about the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

In the same week, a JPMorgan investor day provided an excellent opportunity to dig into the wisdom of not just Jamie Dimon, but CFO Jeremy Barnum as well. Aside from some insights into JPMorgan’s view on the economic outlook, Barnum delivered an absolute masterclass in capital allocation.

We covered these topics here>>>

Macroeconomic indicators and macro update

Given the sad news of IG Markets South African being shut down by its international holding company, we will no longer be receiving these morning updates. I hope to bring you a suitable alternative in the near future. In the meantime, the below indicators will be updated each day.

Key Indicators: USD/ZAR R17.87/$ | US 10yr 4.41% | Gold $3,294/oz | Platinum $1,072/oz | Brent Crude $61.77