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Good morning Voornaam,

Sea Harvest released one of the most complicated SENS announcements I've ever seen.
Attacq's Black Friday and festive trading stats look solid.
Production updates came in from South32 and Pan African Resources.
Dominique Olivier explains the history of the UFC>>>
Magic Markets brings you the latest on Citigroup and Bank of America in this podcast>>>

Interested in setting up a UK - South Africa business? Operating in that space already? Join the next bizval webinar this Wednesday at midday to learn directly from guest speaker Graham Davies about what it takes to operate a business with an international team, specifically servicing the UK from South Africa. Registration is free at this link>>>

Local company news:

We finally had a properly busy day on the JSE, which made the Sea Harvest SENS even more difficult to work through while putting together Ghost Bites. I've been involved in no shortage of corporate actions in my life, but I've never seen a SENS with so much unnecessary information.

In short (literally), Sea Harvest is acquiring a couple of fishing and abalone businesses from Terrasan. There's a complicated restructure of Terrasan before the transaction, the details of which would normally be kept behind closed doors. At most, you might get those details in the circular. Instead, Sea Harvest included them in a SENS announcement that was probably five times longer than it needed to be. Thankfully, Sea Harvest's controlling shareholder Brimstone released an announcement later in the day that gave a much simpler overview.

In other M&A news, we saw an update from Afrimat on the acquisition of Lafarge South Africa, as well as Datatec on the acquisition of a small AWS cloud specialist in the UK.

Attacq gave us a nicely detailed update on turnover and footfall at its malls over November and December, uncovering a fascinating trend for Black Friday vs. Christmas sales in 2023.

On the mining side, we saw important production updates from gold miner Pan African Resources and diversified giant South32.

Finally, Reinet gave us a clue as to the direction of its NAV in the final quarter of last year.

Lekker busy, isn't it? Get everything you need in Ghost Bites>>>

And if you are keen to recap some of the performance numbers of 2023 and get some tips to improve your financial footing this year, the January newsletter from Satrix is a good read. You can find the online version here>>>

International company news:

Thanks to data and automation specialists B2IT, Magic Markets brings you the highlights (and challenges) of the latest numbers released by US banking giants Citigroup and Bank of America. It's always worth understanding more about the Wall Street players. We make it easy for you in this podcast>>>

Dominique Olivier recently wrote about the collapse in safety culture at Boeing. We are now seeing the downstream impact of that problem, with United Airlines forecasting a first quarter loss due to the Boeing 737 Max 9 grounding. This is the type of plane where a door plug blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight. It seems authorities learnt from the last Boeing disaster and took a stronger view on grounding the planes.

Of course, a plane on the ground is a plane that isn't generating revenue. This is why Boeing's reputation is absolutely everything for its customers. Perhaps the only reason they are still winning any orders at all is that Airbus simply doesn't have the capacity to pick up all Boeing's slack.

Dominique's latest piece was inspired by watching Dricus du Plessis take the world title over the weekend. The UFC is an incredibly interesting business with immense popularity worldwide. The history is as colourful as you would expect, with some surprises thrown in along the way. Prepare to be entertained in this article.

Have a great day!

LISTEN: Magic Markets podcast

In Episode 158 of Magic Markets, we covered the recent results from Citigroup and Bank of America. It's important to keep an eye on the Wall Street banks, as they tell us a great deal about the broader state of play.

Of course, they also have their own challenges to worry about!

Find out about the opportunities and risks in this podcast brought to you by international data and automation specialists B2IT.

Listen to Magic Markets Episode 158 here (26 minutes long)

Currencies, commodities and rates: TreasuryONE Market Update

The market remains relatively risk-averse at this stage, with the US dollar seen as the pillar of economic stability. The market has turned its back on emerging market currencies - the rand included. Our currency is at R19.12 against the dollar this morning.

As noted yesterday, it's a busy week of data with US GDP and PCE numbers to come. We also have a variety of central bank meetings this week, including our very own MPC.

Notably, Brent Crude is heading back up towards $80 per barrel based on an evolving outlook on energy demand.

As a Ghost Mail reader, you have a wonderful early bird opportunity to register for the 2024 post-budget panel discussion hosted by TreasuryONE, Econometrix and ETM Analytics. I absolutely cannot recommend this enough and I will also be attending to learn from the panel. Get it in your diaries now already by registering at this link>>>

READ: UFC - The Business of Bliksem
(by Dominique Olivier)

With Dricus du Plessis' victory fresh in our minds, Dominique Olivier stepped into the octagon to figure out the history of the UFC. It's even more interesting than you might imagine!

Learn about the commercial history of the UFC in this article

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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