Good morning Voornaam,

Happiest of happy new years to you! I hope you've created some fantastic memories over the past couple of weeks.

I was lucky enough to go on a roadtrip from Cape Town to Clarens. Inspired by the trip (and reminded of how beautiful this country is), I wrote a letter from the editor about the experience. If you fancy a read that has absolutely nothing to do with the markets, you'll find it here.

Back to business, I am keeping an eye on the markets this week to see if it's worth returning to a daily Ghost Bites yet. In the meantime, at the bottom of this mailer in the Ghost Bites section, you'll find some notes on important stories that came out on SENS over the festive season.

I also want to draw your attention to the podcasts that were released just before the Christmas break. There are three of them.

In Magic Markets, we covered the latest news and numbers at Oracle and Adobe. It's always interesting and important to keep an eye on the world's leading tech companies, although that's a flattering description for Oracle. Brought to you by data automation specialists B2IT, this is a great show to get your brain ticking over again for the new year. Find it here>>>

Another great option is Ghost Stories with Siyabulela Nomoyi of Satrix, a familiar voice to listeners. He joined me to tackle the difficult topic of saving and investing over December - January, along with a wide range of topics linked to ETFs. We also talked about some positioning going into 2024. Find it here>>>

Finally, check out the podcast that I did for bizval, one of the startups that I'm so proud to be a co-founder of. Eitan Stern of Legalese joined me to talk about the critical importance of protecting intellectual property for entrepreneurs. This is a great listen for anyone interested in real-world business. Find it here>>>

It's wonderful to be back in your inboxes. Thanks for allowing me to be there! I can't wait for another year of fascinating analysis of the markets and the companies that make it interesting.

LISTEN: Magic Markets podcast

LISTEN: What to do with those festive savings
with Siyabulela Nomoyi of Satrix

LISTEN: bizval podcast

READ: Letter from the Editor - from Cape to Clarens

READ: Money, Grede and Business - a Kardashian Success Story
(by Dominique Olivier)

What did you miss over the festive season?

I'm not going to cover absolutely everything here, like each and every director dealing over the festive season. Even ghosts need a break once a year!

Instead, I'll just touch on some of the most important stuff that came out on SENS.

The most important news was from Renergen, which announced that Mahlako Gas Energy will invest R550 million into Tetra4, the subsidiary that houses the Virginia Gas Project. This subscription is for a new class of shares, with the structure effectively giving Mahlako a 5.5% stake in Tetra4. The equity is part of the capital required for Phase 2 of the project, although a portion will also be used to settle the Standard Bank bridge loan.

Mahlako Gas Energy is a consortium of the Mahlako Energy Fund and Thirdway Investment Partners. In addition to the capital injection, this also improves Black Ownership of Tetra4.

In a separate operational update, Renergen confirmed that the helium cold box has been recommissioned and tested. Helium has been liquefied and recycled through the system. The update suggests that the previous issue with the cold box has now been addressed.

Gold Fields also had a busy festive season. Before Christmas, the company announced the disposal of the 45% effective interest in the Asanko Gold Mine in Ghana to its joint venture partner Galiano Gold. This is for gross proceeds of $170 million plus a 1% net smelter royalty. The amount is to be partially settled in Galiano shares listed on the TSX.

The company has been having a tough time at the Salares Norte project, with various problems related to finalising the work to get gold production started. The production forecast has now been updated to reflect a start date of April 2024 and volumes for 2024 have been revised to between 220,000 and 250,000 gold equivalent ounces. They still plan to achieve monthly steady state production by 2025, with no impact on those volumes. This is a delay rather than a long-term concern.

Property group NEPI Rockcastle released a pre-close update that reflects an expected 20% increase in net operating income for 2023 vs. 2022. There are various reasons, ranging from higher base rents through to strict cost controls and the impact of acquisitions. The development pipeline is strong and the loan-to-value ratio was expected to be 33% at the end of 2023. Due to strong support from lenders, facilities have been raised and extended with the net outcome of an increase in average debt maturity. Overall, distributable income per share will be 7% higher than 2022 or 14% higher on a recurring basis, which excludes the impact of the Serenada settlement agreement. 

If you're a shareholder in Merafe, then you'll want to know that the European benchmark ferrochrome price for the first quarter of 2024 is 144 US cents per pound, which is a 5.9% drop from the fourth quarter of 2023.

Over at OUTsurance Group, the latest news is that the insurance subsidiary in Ireland has received its licence from the Central Bank of Ireland to operate as a non-life insurance company. Operations are expected to commence in the first half of 2024.

Meanwhile, poor old Kibo Energy is still trying to collect the first payment due from Proventure Holdings for the joint venture. The deadline of 29 December was missed. I cannot imagine how any joint venture will end well when it starts like this.