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Good morning Voornaam,

Highlights in this edition of Ghost Mail:

HCI's investee company Impact Oil and Gas has sold a portion of its Namibian offshore interests to TotalEnergies
Labat Africa has terminated its auditor
Have you seen the Sasol share price?
Learn about Pandora and Swatch with Magic Markets, brought to you by B2IT

It was another slow day on SENS yesterday, so there are no Ghost Bites today. Everything you need is right here in the mailer and it makes for interesting reading.

First up, Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) is no longer trading under a cautionary announcement. We now know that it related to the disposal of a portion of the Namibian offshore oil interests by investee company Impact Oil and Gas.

HCI holds 49% in Impact Oil and Gas Limited and Impact holds 20% and 18.89% in two offshore Namibian blocks respectively. The way this works is that a block in the ocean that is part of Namibia can be owned by someone for the purposes of oil (or other) exploration:

The news is that Impact has sold a portion of the stake to TotalEnergies. This leaves Impact with a 9.5% stake in each block. This is known as a farmout agreement, which is quite common in the oil and gas industry. The idea is that TotalEnergies has the financial muscle to develop the blocks, getting Impact to positive cash flow a lot sooner. Importantly, Impact will receive a $99 million payment as reimbursement for costs incurred thus far.

Please note that this is Impact receiving that money, not HCI (which only has a 49% stake in Impact).

In other news, Labat Africa has taken the very unusual step of terminating the services of its auditor (Nolands Cape Town). The company has cited concerns around timely and efficient completion of the 2023 audit. My view is that there seems to be an odd smell around this company more often than not. The share price has lost more than 80% of its value over five years.

I won't hit you with a Sasol share price chart this morning, as it may be triggering for those who came into January with a long position. Those investors now have long faces instead, with the price down around 10% this year already. Yesterday's 7.2% drop was triggered by a broker downgrade (i.e. a leading analyst reducing the price target). I wrote a piece on Sasol for EasyEquities back in November 2023 that put forward some of my concerns. Although it's a couple of months old now, it remains a relevant read. You can find it here>>>

There's a brand new Magic Markets podcast this morning, brought to you by data automation specialists B2IT. We covered two brands that might have been a feature of your festive shopping lists: Pandora and Swatch. Although they arguably have similar models at first blush (jewellery / watches direct to consumers), the share price charts couldn't be more different over the past year (see below - Pandora is the orange line and Swatch is the black line). To find out why, listen to the show here>>>

Enjoy the rest of the mailer and have a terrific Thursday! The first proper week of 2024 is nearly over already.

Currencies, commodities and rates: TreasuryONE Market Update

"Sideways for now" is the summary of this update, with a general lack of activity in the market ahead of the US inflation release. Currencies traded in a tight range, with the rand in the R18.60s for most of the day yesterday.

Brent Crude recouped some of its losses from the previous day to trade at around $78.45 a barrel, with gold at $2,030 per ounce.

All eyes (literally) are on the US CPI release, so that should make for an interesting end to the week.

For the motorsport fans among you, you may be interested to know that the founder and CEO of TreasuryONE (Hennie de Klerk) is currently blasting his way through the sand in the Dakar Rally. This is literally the premier off-road motorsport event in the world and I couldn't resist sharing a picture this morning.

There might not be much liquidity in the markets right now, but there's even less out here:

READ: Why is Keith Haring everywhere right now?
(by Dominique Olivier)

In her latest column, Dominique Olivier discusses the fascinating world of artist IP and particularly how it can simply blow up decades after an artist has passed away. The star of this show: Keith Haring.

Learn about post-mortem artist IP in this article

LISTEN: Magic Markets podcast

In Episode 157 of Magic Markets, we dived into the recent results and strategic drivers at Pandora and Swatch. Although they are effectively adjacent to each other in the speciality retail space, the share price performance couldn't be more different in the past year.

Why is that the case? Find out in this podcast brought to you by international data and automation specialists B2IT.

Listen to Magic Markets Episode 157 here (24 minutes long)

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

Saving and investing over December - January isn't easy. To keep you inspired, Siya joined me to cover a wide range of ETF topics - along with some tips of how to keep those goals going over this period of endless spending!

Listen to the Ghost Stories podcast here (38 minutes long)

READ: Letter from the Editor - from Cape to Clarens

A roadtrip across South Africa is always a treat. Of course, it's also a way to see what is really going on out there. I wrote about my experience from Cape Town to Clarens (and back again!)

Read about my roadtrip and observations in this article

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