Shoppers are returning to the country's malls but Growthpoint Properties reckons that it is going to take a long time before shopping patterns get back to normal, with retailers and consumers still anxious about the spread of Covid-19. The property group says it is in the fortunate position of having a diverse portfolio of investments - as well as from entering the crisis with a strong balance sheet.

Less fortunate is City Lodge Hotels, which still doesn't know when it all be able to open all its hotels and get occupancy levels back to breakeven levels. It will ask shareholders to approve a R1.2 billion rights issue so it can reduce debt and bolster its cash position. That's more than its market cap following a slide in its share price yesterday.

Meanwhile, Stor-Age says the self storage property market has remained pretty resilient, both here and in the UK, with occupancy levels remaining strong and most of its rent coming in.

More on those stories to follow, along with Telkom's annual results, a positive trading statement from Omnia and news that the Swiss authorities are the latest to probe commodity trader and miner Glencore.

In Ingham Analytics latest note entitled "BA900 isn't a British Airways service to Joburg", the latest SA Reserve Bank statistics are succinctly analysed. If you are a shareholder in a listed JSE bank you'd want to be up to speed with the newest data at the best of times and in this fast changing Covid-19 lockdown world even more so. This note follows on from "South African banks' balance sheets surge" (3 June). Whilst the latest data has some positivity, banks are going to be squeezed from all sides and it is way too early to measure the financial fallout of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Meantime, the call on Sasol continues to pay off with the stock closing down again yesterday. Sasol is deeply in debt ($10 billion) and faces a rising interest bill. Similarly, their call on Kumba has also played out, down 6% since the note "Kumba, qaphela!" was issued. The latest note on BHP entitled "New hands on the financial tiller" will be of interest to mining investors, not least because BHP is a behemoth and the new CFO will be joining at an uncertain time and will be overseeing a huge capex programme that he can't afford to let overrun.

I hope you have a good day.

Stephen Gunnion

Managing Editor, InceConnect

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