Are you a founder looking to sell your business? You're about to embark on a really tough journey. If you haven't done it before, the learning curve is literally vertical. I'm so proud of what we have achieved in bizval and how the service offering is growing. With the launch of bizval bootcamp, we are ready to help founders prepare for the all-important due diligence and sales process. Find out more here>>>

The Northam offer has been unleashed

As tempting as it is to think that everyone involved reads Ghost Mail, it's far more likely that my timing was just lucky. In yester day's Ghost Mail, I wrote about how important it is for something to happen with Royal Bafokeng Platinum, as the company found itself caught in a bidding war that was stuck at the regulators.

Impala Platinum has blinked, withdrawing its complaints to the Takeover Regulation Panel and thereby allowing the Northam Platinum offer to go ahead. Based on Northam's latest results, the company has more than enough firepower to execute that offer. At least we finally have a scenario where shareholders can make a choice and we can see what the future of Royal Bafokeng Platinum will be. Anything is better than a stalemate!

There were also two major banking releases yesterday. Standard Bank reported a colossal jump in headline earnings, though I must highlight Liberty as an important contributor to that. Capitec is growing solidly, but nowhere near fast enough to justify the huge valuation premium that the market stubbornly puts on its shares. Nobody is disputing what Capitec has achieved thus far, but the share price feels way too hot to me.

For these updates and other important news from Attacq, Distell, Exxaro, Labat, Metair, Orion, OUTsurance, Sibanye-Stillwater, Standard Bank and Thungela, read your Ghost Bites this morning>>>

If you're looking for something different this morning, EasyEquities has released a research note on Woolworths. Not that Woolworths, but the one in Australia! Curious? Read more here>>>

The eye of the storm

The market took a breather yesterday, caught between the testimony of Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the US non-farm payroll numbers that are due later today. The rand traded in a very tight 10-cent range, with US jobless claims coming in worse than expected. This kept the dollar at bay and gave some support to gold and oil. All eyes will be on non-farm payrolls later!

Watch the cash

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. Any efforts to make cash flow management more effi cient are worthwhile, which is why TreasuryONE offers an automated cash flow forecasting service as part of its broader service offering. A streamlined cash forecasting solution helps create reliable and accurate cash flow forecasts, giving much clearer visibility into how cash moves across the business.

In the next TreasuryONE webinar, Pieter Cronje (Head of Cash and Liquidity Management at TreasuryONE) will explain the benefits of the CashAnalytics tool, which takes the best parts of a spreadsheet and combines them with tech integrations into banks, ERP systems and more. Attendance for next Wednesday's webinar at 9am is absolutely free, but you need to register here>>>

DealMakers leads us into the weekend

Friday means you get the excellent summaries from DealMakers on local M&A activity and corporate finance updates. There's also an article on the return of dual share class structures.

Clean and green

And finally, there's a brand new Mag ic Markets episode for you to enjoy, featuring Craig Antonie from AnBro as our guest. We talked about clean and green energy stocks in the US that are poised to benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act. Get stuck in here>>>

With that, I leave you to your weekend! I'm turning 35 tomorrow, so have a drink for me...