In accounting, PBT is usually an acronym for Profit Before Tax. Although that's not the origin of the name for PBT Group, it's a juicy coincidence based on how financially successful the company is.

You've possibly never even heard of PBT Group. With just under R1 billion in revenue, this is a small company by JSE standards with a market cap of around R930 million. The first thing you should notice about this "tech" company is that the Price/Revenue multiple is around 1x, which is far more reasonable than the ridiculous valuations we saw on offshore markets in 2021 for companies playing in the cloud computing and big data verticals.

I say "tech" because the underlying business model is nothing like the Microsofts of this world. PBT Group makes almost all of its money from charging time and materials fees, like a management consulting group. The group speci alises in data solutions, so it enjoys the incredible tailwinds that the pandemic brought to this sector.

The share price is up nearly 10% this year, which is a really good return when you look at the other tech companies in your portfolio. The JSE managed to avoid the crazy tech bubble that hit the Nasdaq in 2020 and especially 2021, so the year-to-date performance looks much better than the offshore alternatives.

Leaving aside recent trends in the market, the bigger question is: what can PBT do over the next ten years?

To help you learn more about the group and answer that question for yourself, I wrote a feature article on PBT's results for the year ended March 2022.

If you were impressed by PBT's performance this year, then you may be even more surp rised to learn that Hudaco is up 16% or so this year, as the diversified industrials business has delivered a solid performance in this cycle. Hudaco is a respected mid-cap company, worth around R4.9 billion. For context, Invicta's market cap is around R3.1 billion and that stock is up nearly 9% this year.

Hudaco's results for the six months to May 2022 include some of the key concepts that I frequently write about, like operating leverage and balance sheet growth from supply chain pressures. To learn more about this group, read this feature article.

Yesterday was an exceptionally busy day on the JSE, with so many stories that I spent hours reading through SENS just to get through it all. For example, Exxaro released a pre-close update that reminded us how useless Transnet is, with a significant negative impact on export volumes. There was also news of a major deal for Sibanye-Stillwater as part of its green metals strategy. Alviva looks set to leave the market, with a potential buyout on the table that drove a 16% jump in the share price. Sabvest is also on the deal train, as part of a consortium buying beverages business Halewood (with brands like Red Square).

There's more, by the way. Lots more.

Datatec is selling its Analysys Mason business and the share price rocketed 22.5% based on the terms of the deal. Merafe released the benchmark ferrochrome price for this quarter. There were also updates from Pan African Resources, Lighthouse Properties, Resilient, MAS, Renergen, Anglo American, WBHO and more.

There's only one place where you can get all of yesterday's insights from the JSE. Enjoy this morning's edition of Ghost Bites, as there is truly something for everyone.

I'm afraid that the news for the rand isn't very good at all. Wichard Cilliers (Head of Market Risk at TreasuryONE) notes that it has reached its worst level this year against the dollar, trading at R16.47 based on dollar strength driven by Jerome Powell's comments. Load shedding isn't helping either, but it is having a secondary effect on the currency. The main driver of rand weakness right now is dollar strength. A slight miss on the Personal Consumer Expenditure Index gave some relief to the rest of the world and caused the dollar to give back some gains. That doesn't mean that the dollar's run is over, though. In commodities, ground was lost by PGMs and copper as recession fears continued to weigh on the sector. Oil fell 1% to $114.30.

Wild markets tend to drive deal act ivity rather than hinder it, as companies with strong balance sheets swoop on assets that they've been admiring for a while. Every Friday, the team at DealMakers brings us great summaries on the weekly corporate finance activity by companies listed on local exchanges. There's also an interesting piece from Daryl Dingley and Elisha Bhugwandeen of Webber Wentzel, focusing on the approach taken by competition regulators and what we can learn from the Burger King deal. I was incredibly vocal on that deal when the regulators nearly ran it into the ground a year ago, so it's inter esting to see what the lawyers say about it.

Finally, I have something a bit special for you. In the latest Magic Markets episode, traders from the Herenya community sent through voicenotes and we chose three of them to use in the show. These are real-world examples of how traders manage risk and learn from mistakes. There's nothing more comforting than realising that you aren't alone on this journey. The Herenya community is incredibly supportive and welcoming of new traders and investors, so we just love having Petri Redelinghuys as a guest on Magic Markets. To hear directly from traders in their community and to learn about risk management, make the time to listen to Episode 82 of Magic Markets.

This horrible week of load shedding has finally come to an en d. Let's hope for a better one next week.

Have a lovely weekend!