BizNews Radio (OLD)
Welcome to BizNews Radio where we interview top thought leaders and business people from South Africa and across the globe.
Meet James Styan, author of SA's new bestseller The Bosasa Billions
Part-time bureaucrat James Styan's fourth book is his best selling yet, with the initial print run sold out within days of The Bosasa Billions hitting the shelves. On Rational Radio this week he shared the back story of researching a tale that has made household names of the now bankrupt…
Old Mutual fires Moyo - again! Mr Price plunges, Italtile shines; Mboweni tightens belts; France Brexit blow for Boris; KPMG in Hong Kong protest scan..
Old Mutual has fired its CEO Peter Moyo - again. Moyo has been involved in a bitter dispute with Old Mutual chairman Trevor Manuel in connection with private business dealings that were declared when Moyo first took up his role at the helm of the life assurer. Moyo was suspended…
View from London: Even with half current debt, Eskom not sustainable
The global head of credit research at Debtwire, Nick Saville-Smith, joined us on Rational Radio this week to provide a City of London perspective on the latest financials released by Eskom. The good news is that it could have been a lot worse had Cyril Ramaphosa not gotten the nod…
Ram Ottapathu: Embattled Choppies founder reckons he'll be proven right
Ram Ottapathu, founder of Botswana's leading retailer Choppies, has been under heavy attack of late after a forensic and legal audit into the JSE-listed company accused him of malfeasance. But Ottapathu admits that although governance was slack, no money is missing and no fraud was committed. He intends setting the…
GG Alcock: Time to recognise millions in SA's flourishing informal economy
GG Alcock's unique background - raised by anti-apartheid activists who lived their values by relocating to SA's poorest area to live like locals - provided him with a very different thought process to his fellows. And he has put it to good use by researching and writing about the country's…
Inflation slows; JSE, Rand gain; Sars IT head suspended; Arms deal ruling white-washed; Growth could see outages
In today's business headlines: South Africa’s headline consumer inflation slowed to 4% year-on-year in July; The inflation figures helped a recovery on the JSE and in the value of the Rand; SARS has suspended its controversial IT chief Mmamathe Makhekhe-Mokhuane following serious allegations of misconduct; South Africa’s High Court has…
David Shapiro: Homework, not blind faith required with fallen angels like DSY, ASP, SOL
In this week's edition of Rational Radio, SA's favourite market commentator David Shapiro wades into the investment market controversies surrounding Discovery, Sasol, Blue Label and Aspen. His advice: the shares may look really cheap, but before knowing that for sure, you'll need to do your homework - and wait to…
Mike Wylie on WBHO's secret sauce: Five attributes his leaders must possess
Nowadays few employees consider lifetime employment. But back in 1974, things were very different as outgoing WBHO chairman Mike Wylie tells us in this fascinating interview on Rational Radio. Wylie has been intimately involved in the growth of a tiny Cape-based startup business that is today SA's dominant construction company…
Steinhoff hits 87c; Shoprite falls; Gwede on Eskom, Unions; IMF scare to spur action; Copyright Bill backlash
In today's business headlines: Steinhoff shares fall to an all time low of R0.87 a share on the JSE; Shoprite shares dropped by more than 9% after losses in the rest of Africa leads to a full year trading loss of R265m; Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says he sees unions…
Rein in government spending and ship can be turned around - Rhandzo Mukansi
In the $100trn global bond market, it appears to be hard to find a good investment. With Germany announcing that it will sell an ultra-long bond at 0% for the first time this week, there is talk of Germany being in danger of Japanification. If investors put their money into…
Fidentia curators coin it, widows weep; EU braces for hard Brexit; Discovery, Blue Label, Resilient
It was another rough day on the JSE for medical scheme provider Discovery, which lost 8%, and Aspen, which shed more than 4%. Blue Label Telecoms also took a knock, losing more than 3% of its value after announcing a delay in the release of its financial results. It expects…
Personal finance: How NHI law will hit your tax, savings, medical cover
The National Health Insurance (NHI) bill sent shock waves across the Johannesburg stock exchange earlier this month, hammering darlings like Discovery and hospital companies. But the damage to your share portfolio was just the start of NHI-induced financial pain. Expect big taxes to cover a government department that will be…
Jooste won't repay R850m; 1.7m protest in HK; Capitec and Sasol shares slump.
Former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste, who has been accused of fraudulently inflating the company’s profit numbers over the past decade, is refusing to repay Steinhoff the R850m in salary and bonuses he received since 2009. Pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong yesterday held one of their biggest rallies as activism stretched…
Emigration fuelling tax concerns but Azar Jammine sees a ray of light
The mood in South Africa is particularly gloomy at the moment as the New Dawn that President Cyril Ramaphosa promised, remains a tiny glimmer of light on the horizon. Ramaphosa is distracted by in-fighting in his own party, using the Public Protector to attack him and restricted by policies adopted…
Land expropriation debate is deterring investment - IRR's Terence Corrigan
The debate on land reform is heating up as a cross-party Parliamentary committee begins to look at how the Constitution can be changed to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation. This is after the Presidential Panel concluded its report and suggested a watered down version of the original…
IMF not needed; Lefties shackle Cyril; Goldfields, Implats back in black; Discovery recovery; Petrol price hike
In today's business headlines: The IMF says South Africa does not need a loan, but it needs structural reforms to boost growth; Bloomberg says President Cyril Ramaphosa's left wing allies is hampering economic reforms; Gold Fields has returned to a first-half profit of $70.5m in June but its headline earnings…
Journalist Malcom Rees: How Johann van Loggerenberg got falsely labelled a police spy
South Africans who lived through the apartheid era are keenly aware that there are few accusations worse than being called a policy spy. Back in the 1980s it was a moniker that could easily cost your life. The best known case is probably the murder of Stompie Moeketsi, accused of…
SA bond dump; Stocks bullied, gold glitters; Credit Suisse sees SA light; Former Eskom execs want top job; Facebook recorded you
In today’s business headlines: Investors have been dumping South African bonds at a rate of almost R2bn a day in August. South African stocks approached a six months low yesterday but gold shares are still shining. The JSE all-share index dropped by 2.11% while the benchmark Top-40 index was 2.37%…
David Shapiro on Discovery's 'blackhole', SA Inc sell off and the missing prosecution
This week on Rational Radio David Shapiro spends a lot of his time searching for answers to Discovery's massive sell off which has seen the stock fall to around R100 a share. There's talk of an analyst and a gaping R15bn hole, while National Health Insurance also finds itself amongst…
Wilhelm Hertzog: Steinhoff shares a "coin toss" - bonds, prefs much better bet
On this week's Rational Radio show, Wilhelm Hertzog gave us his impressions of the long awaited Steinhoff Investor Presentation which he attended yesterday. In this insightful contribution, the co-founder of money manager Rozendal Partners also explains why those paying anything for Steinhoff's JSE-listed shares - even at 124c - are…