Before we delve into the detailed articles today, I want to highlight a couple of other announcements that were released over SENS yesterday.

I wrote last week about Invicta's deal to align with its Chinese partners in the Kian Ann business. At that stage, Invicta believed that it was a Category 1 transaction under JSE rules and that shareholder approval would be required. The company has subsequently assessed the deal to be a Category 2 transaction, which means no shareholder approval is needed.

In other words, if you hated the deal as an Invicta shareholder, then toughies for you as there is no vote coming. Thankfully, it looks like a pretty sensible deal to me.

Another announcement that set a few tongues wagging was a trading statement from Steinhoff, but not Steinhoff as you know it. With a share price of R2, it was suspicious to say the least that headline earnings per share could be as high as R54!

If it seems too good to be true...it's probably an earnings announcement for a different type of share. Sure enough, Steinhoff's SENS announcement related to the preference share funding vehicle and the clue was in the JSE ticker for the announcement: SHFF (the preference shares) vs. SNH (the ordinary shares).

I don't think holders of Steinhoff ordinary shares should read anything into this announcement as it relates solely to the funding vehicle that issued the preference shares.

Late yesterday, Naspers and Prosus released trading statements and an update on their complicated deal to try and solve the structural discount to NAV. I want to consider the deal in detail this weekend, so look out for an article early next week.

For the first time, I want to share my radio segment with you. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings on LM Radio and Magic828 with Sasha Martinengo, I give a 2 - 3 minute update on the more interesting stories in the market. You can listen to yesterday's episode here, in which I discuss the nutty world of Nutritional Holdings and the challenges currently facing Renault as it comes under scrutiny for alleged emissions cheating.

The detailed articles this morning focus on earnings announcements from MultiChoice and The Foschini Group as well as a trading statement from Super Group. I love earnings updates and all the operational insights we can glean from them.

As is customary on a Friday, there are several articles from DealMakers for your reading pleasure.

Happy Friday. Happy weekend. Happy everything.

The Finance Ghost