Rational Radio

Flash Briefing: Big Glencore rival exits; OPEC courts Russia; Trump's SONA; Zim Prez launches détente

In today’s global business headlines… 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…

6 Feb 2019 4 min

Flash Briefing: Alphabet disappoints; Mabula's fugitive owner to be extradited; Bond kind dethroned; Canadians buy HMV

In today’s global business headlines…… 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…

5 Feb 2019 4 min

Flash Briefing: Israelis want to buy SA's Clover; Voters elect another anti-corruption independent; ESG gathers momentum; Impala back in black

In today’s global business headlines…… 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…

4 Feb 2019 4 min

Meet the extraordinary scientist Dr Vivienne Ming, global AI seer

Probably because of the premium it puts on curiosity, my trade seems to attract the most interesting people. 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…

1 Feb 2019 29 min

Micropower Makate vs megaplayer Vodacom whose Please Call Me misery continues

In his brilliant book, The End of Power, author Moises Naim wrote that the likes of innovative startups, loosely organised activists, upstart citizen media and charismatic individuals who come from nowhere are shaking up the old order. “These are the micropowers,” he wrote, “small, unknown or once negligible actors that…

1 Feb 2019 34 min

Flash Briefing: Zim sliding into Venezuela; SA slimes dams also need auditing; Amazon disappoints; Trump wants Xi summit

In today’s global business news headlines: 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…

1 Feb 2019 3 min

Flash Briefing: Facebook, AliBaba shares surge; More US visas for the skilled; VW unveils Tesla Killer; Markets cheer Fed

In today’s global business news headlines… 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…

31 Jan 2019 4 min

Flash Briefing: Apple shares jump 6% after poor 4Q; Vale disaster - 10 dams to close; Gold keeps rising; May sent back to Brussels

After the markets closed last night, Apple Inc confirmed its widely telegraphed reverse during the three months to end December - and the share price jumped 6%. The UK’s Brexit drama took a new twist yesterday when British Parliamentarians voted to send prime minister Theresa May back to Brussels to…

30 Jan 2019 4 min

Flash Briefing: Venezuela's end game; Absa's Ramos to retire; Saudis dump Tesla; US charges Huawei

In today's global headlines.... 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…

29 Jan 2019 4 min

Flash Briefing: Stanford world's top MBA; Worst mining disaster since 1966; Naspers spends big in Russia; Brexit hits London houses hard

In global news headlines..... 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…

28 Jan 2019 4 min

Maria Ramos: Absa's statement of intent in capturing Davos Promenade

We never chatted about it in this interview, but Absa CEO Maria Ramos is sure to allow herself a wry smile when reflecting on the latest rockets to hit her former bosses at Barclays. Because while Ramos was making a massive statement in Davos with the newly independent Absa, her…

27 Jan 2019 21 min

Naspers' Koos Bekker: Ultimate insider's view of Davos, Facebook, Multichoice and more

After I switched off my recorder, Koos Bekker suggested there was enough in our half hour chat in Davos this morning for me to edit it down to something usable. He was wrong. Despite strictly applying the old maxim of “when in doubt, leave out” it was impossible for me…

25 Jan 2019 34 min

Flash Briefing: Radical changes coming at Eskom; Soros attacks Xi; IMF warns on trade war; More money laundering scandals likely

In Davos yesterday, Finland’s former prime minister and EU presidential hopeful Alexander Stubb warned that more money laundering scandals are likely to be uncovered in the wake of the Danske Bank and Deutsche Bank investigations. Also in Davos, IMF chief executive Christine Lagarde identified the trade war between the US…

24 Jan 2019 3 min

Meet Durban's Skye Meaker, photographer extraordinaire, Davos 2019's youngest speaker

The subject of this episode had two bits of good fortune. First, to have parents who were mad about the bush. Second, to find his passion – wildlife photography – outrageously early, in his case even before he started attending school. Those twin pieces of fortune brought 16 year old…

24 Jan 2019 13 min

Sasol’s CEOs on Davos, Lake Charles and a firmer oil price

Two and a half years ago when the Sasol directorate appointed joint chief executives, there was a fair amount of discomfort among investment analysts. Having two captains has proven challenging for many similarly sized businesses. But Bongani Nqwababa and Steve Cornell have proved to be sparkling exceptions to that apparent…

24 Jan 2019 21 min

Investec's Stephen Koseff: How to recover the trillion rand Zumanomics cost SA

In this wide ranging interview from the deeply thoughtful Investec co-founder Stephen Koseff, he covers Brexit, geopolitics, the purpose of Davos, South Africa's promised rebound and his onw involvement in the recovery process. Koseff puts the overall cost of the nine years of Jacob Zuma's misrule at a staggering trillion…

24 Jan 2019 18 min

Meet Popo Molefe: Transnet's corruption-busting chair who wants Guptas back in SA

An oft heard refrain from those cynics of South Africa's clean-up is that nobody has been brought to account. That might be a consequence of the sheer scale of the corruption that took place in the past nine years - and the near daily uncovering of additional malfeasance. But even…

24 Jan 2019 27 min

Adrian Gore: Check the data - SA has already improved; better to come.

You wonder how some people find the time to achieve as much in a day as the rest of us need a week for. Discovery Group co-founder and CEO Adrian Gore is one of these supercharged human beings. Apart from building a multinational group that, with its global partners is…

24 Jan 2019 15 min

Fascinating Davos moments with "healthy ageing" scientist Constantinos Demetriades

The primary advantage of regular returns to the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos is the way one gets to witness broad global trends imposing themselves - or fading away. In recent years, the science of ageing has been moving ever higher on the agenda, aligned perhaps with the…

24 Jan 2019 19 min

Flash Briefing: SA more popular; New Venezuelan "leader" recognised; Ramaphosa off-piste again

South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa announced in Davos yesterday that the country would hold a second Investment Conference this year, to progress the plan to raise $100bn in new fixed investment in five years. While the first day was dedicated to global environmental threats, on Wednesday challenges posed by the…

23 Jan 2019 3 min