If you're interested in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and corporate finance advisory work in general, then today is a good day for you. Barloworld has released the circular for the take-private deal that sees CEO Dominic Sewela team up with Zahid Group to acquire Barloworld for R120 per share. This created a governance hornet's nest, with an entire annexure in the circular dedicated to how the board dealt with the obvious conflict of interest when your CEO also wants to buy out your minority shareholders.

Given the importance of this scheme and the usefulness of the circular in general in helping you understand more about dealmaking (a particular passion of mine given my pre-Ghost career), I've dedicated plenty of space in Ghost Bites to a walk-through of how to read the circular and which bits to focus on.

In further deal news, Anglo American managed to get paid for the Jellinbah disposal in practically record time. The deal was only announced in November 2024, yet it's already done and dusted. This puts roughly $1 billion in cash on the balance sheet and takes the group a step closer to being an easier takeout target for BHP... I mean, to being a more focused group.

In the property sector, Hyprop released its festive update and it echoed many of the themes we saw earlier in the week at Attacq, particularly the split of growth across November and December. Also in property, Octodec has taken a small step towards getting rid of its legacy asset management structure. The CFO is now employed by the company rather than the external management company, so the management fees have been reduced accordingly.

Get all the important details with just one click in Ghost Bites>>>

It's great to have the Investec Structured Products team back with us so early in the year. The latest structure is called International Opportunities Limited and it seeks to address the capital risks of investing in Chinese equities, while giving geared upside as well. To explain the product and the thinking behind it, Japie Lubbe joined me on this podcast>>>

You only have until the end of this week to apply for equity funding from MIC Khulisani Ventures if you are a qualifying Black-Owned business. After we released a podcast with full details at the end of 2024, the team has summarised the opportunity in a new article that includes a link to the podcast for those who missed it. Don't delay!

Have a great day!

As a Meta shareholder, I was pleased to see the company come out with fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations on revenue and net profit. Sales were up 21% year-on-year and net income jumped 49%! Leaning into his completely new persona and public image, Zuckerberg even made comments on the analyst call that were flattering of the Trump administration and his expectations for what it means for US technology. The Zuck is also all about open source AI and the emergence of DeepSeek has thrust that debate into the spotlight, leaving OpenAI (such an ironic name) and Google with some egg on their very expensive faces.

In less enthralling news for me, Meta's Reality Labs segment reported its highest ever quarterly loss. Zuckerberg is eyeballs-deep in his belief in the virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. Personally, I don't think it's going to be the next smartphone or anything close to it. Luckily, Meta makes so much money elsewhere that it hardly matters.

I didn't have nearly as much luck in Microsoft, where results showed growth in Azure that was lighter than expected. Although earnings are still growing, there are huge expectations baked into the share price. Some of the question marks around DeepSeek and the true value of Microsoft's AI investments are also impacting the story. Microsoft is my ride-or-die stock, so any weakness this year will probably lead to me increasing my position into that weakness.

Finally, Tesla released fourth quarter numbers that missed estimates. Automotive revenue was down 8%. Of course, as Tesla isn't a car company (apparently), the market doesn't care and somehow the share price went up. Reduced average selling prices across the model range speak directly to competitive pressures.

Microsoft faces perceived AI competition and the price goes down. Tesla takes an actual knock from clear EV competition and the price goes up. You can decide for yourself where the bubble is.

In the luxury sector, our research in Magic Markets Premium this week is on Burberry as a genuinely interesting turnaround candidate for riskier equity portfolios in 2025. Our subscribers can enjoy our detailed work on this company, complementing some of our other recent reports with similar turnaround opportunities.

The Federal Reserve kept lending rates unchanged, while suggesting that there would be no urgency to cut them anytime soon. In earnings news, Apple is the next big US earnings update, adding to the Magnificent Seven names that already came out this week.

In early morning trade we are seeing US index futures slightly higher, while European stock indices trade flat. Asian markets are trading in a mixed fashion with Chinese Lunar New Year impacting volumes.

Our local bourse, the JSE All-Share Index is expected to open flat this morning after outperforming global benchmarks peers yesterday.

The dollar index corrected well off the highs of yesterdays session and is trading flat this morning. This has lent itself to the rand holding on to recent gains to maintain its best levels in roughly three days.

Oil prices extended their decline yesterday after the EIA reported higher than expected inventory levels being held by US commercial. The news adds to Trump’s recent call for lower prices of the commodity and support for increased US production of fossil fuels.

Gold is flat on the day.

Traders will keep a look out for more central bank activity this afternoon, with both the European Central Bank (ECB) and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) expected to cut rates marginally today.

Key Indicators: USD/ZAR R18.54/$ | US 10yr 4.52% | Gold $2,760/oz | Platinum $990/oz | Brent Crude $75.51

As often as practically possible, insights from the IG Markets morning macro update by Shaun Murison will be featured here. Where this isn't possible, only indicators will be provided. If you want to learn more about trading, refer back to The Trader's Handbook, a podcast series that takes you through many of the important principles in trading.