Local company news:


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Metair is quite possibly the unluckiest company on the JSE. Perhaps the winds of change are well and truly blowing for the business, as the latest update had a far more positive slant than we've recently seen from the company. The result was a stunning rally in the share price, closing 23.5% higher for the day. The frightening thing is that it is still down 31% this year! Markets are many things, but they ain't boring.

On the investment holding company side, EPE Capital Partners and Remgro both released major updates and neither of them could be considered good news stories.

In banking, Absa is lagging its peers and the retail banking business was to blame in 2023, with a drop in headline earnings that more than offset the positive trend in the corporate and investment banking operations.

At RFG Holdings, volumes are under pressure in most categories. The one exception is pies, which is surely final proof that we love to eat our feelings. Thanks to pricing increases, the revenue story is in the green.

Finally, Lighthouse Properties released results for 2023 and pointed towards a focus on acquisitions in 2024, with the company believing that the time is right to be buying up retail malls.

Get more details on these stories plus all the other news on the JSE yesterday in Ghost Bites>>>

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Currencies, commodities and rates: TreasuryONE Market Update

Yesterday was a fairly stable day on the currency front, with the dollar grinding out some gains after being the victim of selling over the past few days. The rand continued its path of redemption, dipping into the R18.60s.

Gold has fallen from all-time highs.

Inflation data in the US is the focus point of the market today, with core inflation expected to ease from 3.9% in January to 3.7% in February.

Key indicators: USD/ZAR R18.69; US 10-year 4.10%; Gold $2,178; Platinum ZAR R17,431; Brent Crude $82.43

International company news:


I find the world of family offices fascinating. These are high-net-worth investors who have set up formal structures for investing their wealth, often with heavy hitting ex-private equity, hedge fund or asset management executives leading the operations. A report from Preqin suggests that there are more than 4,500 such family offices worldwide, with North America having the largest share at 1,682. That makes sense, as family offices are inevitably the end result of a large family-owned business achieving an exit. Where else would that be prevalent but in the home of capitalism?

To make you feel poor today, there are more than 2,600 billionaires in the world. In the CNBC article where I found this information, there's also a note that there are over 90,000 people worth $100 million or more, which is seen as the threshold to make a family office worthwhile. Not only are family offices wonderful clients in the asset management industry, but in my experience they are also fantastic investors for founders.

Moving on, Costco released numbers into the market late last week that showed a miss of Wall Street's expectations. Comparable sales were up 5.6% year-on-year. A feature of the US retail industry is that the likes of Costco sell fuel (or "gas") of course, which really impacts their numbers. They all report sales excluding changes in gas prices and foreign currency, with that metric up by 5.8%.The e-commerce side of the business grew by 18.4%, so that trend continues!

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