The lead story this morning is something from left field. In fact, it's from the football field! The world of finance is exciting and full of innovation. Sometimes, different concepts come together to form something fascinating.
Reader Ilan Aronson writes with great passion about football and finance. His latest work focuses on the concept of club tokens, which allow fans to "invest" in the club and have a say in certain decisions. Many of these clubs are listed companies with normal share structures, hence the inverted commas.
Most of them lose money though, so buying fan tokens is probably no worse an investment than buying the ordinary shares!
His article will open your mind to the possibilities of how blockchain, sport and finance can integrate. For sheer originality, I had to give it pole position this morning.
There's an important article detailing a business update from Grindrod, which hasn't caught the value stock wave that has swept the JSE this year. The core business is performing well but the private equity portfolio is proving difficult to sell.
Homechoice has released a solid set of earnings. This company flies under the radar of most JSE investors, with an illiquid share register that makes it tricky for larger shareholders to really get involved. It's an interesting business focused on selling household products to mass-market consumers via digital channels, which is a solid strategy going forward.
The final story is on Renergen, which has secured an agreement to supply LPG to Consol Glass for a period of five years, starting in January 2022. This shows that the company is broadening its customer base, which investors responded to positively.
As a closing comment, it 's incredible to note that Naspers experienced a trading halt yesterday. It closed more than 8% down, on a day where Prosus closed 0.6% higher and Tencent dropped over 4% in Hong Kong. Investors are clearly favouring Prosus, so shareholders who didn't accept the Prosus-Naspers exchange offer will be licking their wounds.
If you want to understand more about China and the context of the recent regulatory changes, The Creative Accountant has written an excellent piece on the Chinese Communist Party and its fetish for long-term planning. You can read it on thefinanceghost.com at
this link.
There's never a dull day in the markets!
Have a fruitful Wednesday,
The Finance Ghost
