Bums on seats

Good Morning Voornaam,

Value. Growth. Gold. Diversification. Consistency. These are just some of the concepts we covered in the latest episode of Ghost Stories, in which Nico Katzke (Head of Portfolio Solutions at Satrix) joined me for a fantastic discussion on several important investment concepts. If you're serious about improving your market knowledge, this show is a terrific use of your time. Find it here>>>

Winning at webinars

There are two webinar recordings that may be of interest to you:

Bums on seats: Curro is all about operating leverage

I'm a fairly recent Curro shareholder, so I'm not sitting with gigantic mark-to-market losses after the crazy days of 2015 - 2016. I'm still in the red though, so I'm hoping to see some margin expansion happening at Curro. That's difficult with current inflationary pressures and especially the costs of utilities and energy, so treading water at margin level is an OK outcome for now.

What is worrying though is a chart from the results presentation dealing with growth in student numbers. A school fills up from the bottom, so a drop in numbers in Grade R and Grade 1 is precisely what I didn't want to see. It's critical to the investment thesis that Curro finds a way to improve capacity utilisation at th e schools.

For these details and the latest from AB InBev, Capital & Regional, FirstRand, Grindrod, Implats, MultiChoice (a must read), Nedbank, Prosus, Sanlam, Santam and ever-suffering Sasfin, read the latest Ghost Bites here>>>

Speaking of company updates and research, you may also be interested in Barry Dumas from Trive South Africa giving his thoughts on the importance of research for retail investors. You can read it here>>>

Giving your money a passport

In a world far away from load shedding, OrbVest specialises in investing in medical office buildings in the US. You might not always like doctors, but they do tend to pay the rent! In this article, OrbVest explains the important developments in its portfolio and the investment opportunity that is currently available.

The most inverted curve since the early 1980s

With the US 10-year yield at 4.07% and the 2-year yield at 4.92%, the market is pricing in that inflation is here to stay and that the Fed will need to keep rates higher for long er. There is the possibility of a 50 basis points hike at the March meeting.

The rand was stuck in the R18.12 to R18.25 range for the day, with TreasuryONE noting a risk-off tone for emerging markets as treasury yields moved higher. A break below R18.12 would be needed for the rand to step onto the path of redemption.

Copper led the metal sector lower, down 2.4% for the day amid economic uncertainty. Gold was flat for the day and PGMs were softer.

Get ready to learn with Magic Markets

In Magic Markets Premium, we covered MercadoLibre this week. Essentially the Alibaba-meets-Amazon of Latin America, this is one of my f avourite growth companies after what I learnt in the research process. The way that the founders and management team have built an eCommerce and FinTech platform is something to behold. If you aren't a Premium subscriber, you can get access to the full library (including this report) for R99/month or R990/year.

And in our free show, the team from Westbrooke joined us to discuss private debt investing in the UK in a rising rate environment, with particular focus on real estate investing. In an environment in which debt-led investing is offering appealing returns, this is worth learning about. You can enjoy the show here>>>

And to end off your week: DealMakers

In addition to the excellent weekly summaries on South African M&A and local corporate finance activity, there's an article from the team at Webber Wentzel on proposed changes to the JSE Listings Requirements.

So ends a very busy week - I'll be in your inboxes on Monday!

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