| Founders, lend me your ears! In the next bizval webinar, we will be discussing what happens once there's a deal on the table. Yes, whether we like it or not, the due diligence and documentation phase can be the trickiest of all. Join us on Wednesday 22nd Feb at 12pm when we will be accompanied by special guests on this topic with expertise in legal and financial considerations. Register for free here>>> An excellent start for ZedaIn its first quarterly update s ince being unbundled by Barloworld, mobility business Zeda has a lot to be proud of. Revenue and EBITDA have both grown beautifully, with some great strategic insights into the rental business in particular in this quarter. For example, Zeda is running ahead of pre-pandemic levels on the revenue line in the car rental business, yet the billed days metric is only at 68% of 2019 levels. With a plan to increase utilisation rates, this may well be one to watch. We also saw updates yesterday from African Rainbow Minerals, Brimstone, Equites, Grindrod Shipping and South32. The Grindrod Shipping chart is particularly interesting and I would love to hear your comments on whether you would go long or short at these levels. Read Ghost Bites here>>> And remember, the highly popular Ghost Wrap podcast gives you a terrific summary of the prior week's news on the JSE, brought to you by Mazars. In under eight minutes, you can get up to speed on Bowler Metcalf, PPC, Renergen, Orion Minerals, Sappi, British American Tobacco, Kaap Agri, Pick n Pay and Spur. Find it here>>> How does the engine room of a brokerage work?A multi-asset investment platform isn't a simple th ing. The technology needs to integrate all over the place really, with many considerations from user experience through to compliance. In the latest episode of Magic Markets, Trive South Africa COO Marius Grobler joined us to explain how the engine room of a brokerage works. There's much to learn from this episode that you can listen to here>>> The latest from DealMakersEvery Friday, you can get the latest summaries from DealMakers on South Afri can M&A and corporate finance activity. You'll also find an article on how competition regulation can be a tool for ownership transformation, written by a Senior Associate at Bowmans South Africa. The rand is strugglingThe PPI data was unfriendly to the disinflation narrative, coming in at 0.7% month-on-month vs. -0.2% in December. This was ahead of forecasts of 0.4%. Treasury yields are rising fast after Cleveland Fed's Loretta Mester said she saw a compelling case for a 50bps rate hike at the February meeting. The risk to inflation is to the upside according to Mester, with the Fed possibly not reaching the 2% target until 2025. The dollar also rallied after these comments, putting the rand on the back foot and taking it to around R18.20. TreasuryONE feels that a lot of bad news is baked into our currency at the moment. Gold also came under pressure from higher yields in the US as its safe haven status waned further. Recession fears aren't helping PGMs or copper, either. It all feels very similar to where we were in November last year, with the Fed and US economic data being the focus areas in the short term. Have a lovely weekend! | 