Happy Friday! With a massive rugby game ahead of us and a gorgeous long weekend to enjoy, you can afford to take some time away from the grind. Give your brain a final boost this morning before switching off properly. The Ghost Wrap podcast is a great place to start, with the latest episode covering Libstar, Gemfields, FirstRand, Metair and Growthpoint. Brought to you by Mazars, you need only six minutes in total to get up to speed on those companies. Find it here>>>

Of all the industries, I can't think of one that is more deeply entrenched in South Africa's heritage than gold mining. The latest Un lock the Stock recording is of Harmony Gold's presentation and Q&A session, featuring wonderful insights into mining in general. Brought to you by A2X, you'll find it here>>>

Adobe vs. Salesforce: choose your SaaS fighter

If you don't know what SaaS is, then it's time to do more reading on global tech companies. The Software-as-a-Service model is what has put a huge premium on their valuations, as customers now pay monthly subscriptions rather than walking off to the store to buy software. Adobe made the pivot to this model several years ago and it really paid off. Salesforce takes the cake though when it comes to being forward-thinking, having practically pioneered the model.

Of course, all the buzz is now around Artificial Intelligence (AI). Both companies have strong strategies in that space.

In Episode 143 of Magic Markets, Mohammed Nalla gave us the latest on Adobe and I covered Salesforce. With no shortage of banter along the way, we each picked our favourite at the end. Find the podcast here>>>

Magic Markets is thrilled to welcome data and process automation specialists B2IT as the new sponsor of our free shows. If you hate it, automate it! Find out more about the company here.

Chickens. Security doors. These things aren't working.

I'm afraid that yesterday wasn't a great day for local company news. Astral Foods kicked the day off with an absolute hammering, as the perfect storm of load shedding, consumer pressures and the worst avian flu the company has ever seen led to a terrible set of numbers. Given the absolutely critical nature of chicken as our country's stable protein, something has to give here. I'm just not sure what it is.

Another key part of our South African heritage is the humble security door. At the moment, people in Joburg are having to invest in solar and water backup as part of the government-approved strategy of forcing citizens to build their own infrastructure. This doesn't leave much money for security doors, but at least the thieves can see where they are going and have a glass of water once they bre ak in. Trellidor's numbers shocked me to the downside to be honest, as I was expecting far more of a recovery.

Remgro has a much better story to tell at least, with intrinsic net asset value per share increasing nicely year-on-year. I touched on a few of the portfolio company performances in Ghost Bites today, including the likes of TotalEnergies and CIVH's fibre assets.

Other earnings updates came through from Choppies and Discovery, along with MC Mining, Finally, Investec has completed the merger of its UK wealth and investment business with Rathbones.

Get everything you need to know about all this company news in Ghost Bites this morning at this link>>>

DealMakers to close off the week

Friday means DealMakers and this week is no different. As always, DealMakers brings us summaries on local M&A, local corporate finance and deals in Africa u>.

There is also a rather exotically-titled piece from CDH, aimed at Business Rescue Practitioners and entitled Beware: Publish or Prison. We don't play games around here. Finally, there's an article touching on growth in private equity in South Africa.

Split decisions

In the TreasuryONE Market Update, we learn that although the Bank of England and the SARB both kept rates unchanged, it certainly wasn't by unan imous decisions. Members were split on what to do, which means that inflation is not under control yet in their minds. Should things change, the central banks won't hesitate to take action,

In the US, although the initial jobless claims number was better than expected, disappointing housing data later in the session hit some of the dollar's strength. The rand tested the R19 level no fewer than three times but failed to break higher, currently trading at R18.90.

With that, I wish you a fantastic weekend of celebrating the very best things about South Africa.

Go Bokke!!