Before we begin, our apologies for ghosting you yesterday morning. There was a major server issue and the mailer only went out closer to lunchtime. I felt very loved, with lots of Twitter DMs to check that I was still alive! A few people thought I was on holiday. Wishful thinking indeed.

Ghost Bites:

• Anglo American is serious about renewable energy and there's a huge project to prove it
• Aveng has achieved a great price for the Trident Steel disposal
• Capitec's share price rallied after announcing a life insurance licence
• Oceana is selling Commercial Cold Storage Group for R760 million
• The board of Transcend Residential Property Fund isn't impressed with the unfair and unreasonable Emira offer

There's a lot in here for those who find mergers and acquisitions interesting. Don't miss out on the full details in Ghost Bites>>>

Unfair and unreasonable

There are many times when Toddler Ghost thinks that we are being unfair and unreasonable. A perfect example is when Mrs Ghost wants to do something truly outrageous, like getting him to finish his broccoli. We disagree with his assessment of course, which is why these are usually subjective terms. I n the context of M&A though, they carry a specific and important meaning.

In a major transaction like an offer or a scheme of arrangement, an independent expert is hired to opine on whether the price is fair and reasonable. The concept of fairness is related to the fair value of the shares, which is already a subjective concept. The price is fair if it is at least in line with the fair value. The concept of being reasonable relates to the traded price of the shares. An offer is reasonable if it is at least similar to the traded price.

You will often see a situation where an offer is unfair but reasonable. In these cases, the offer is below fair value but well above the traded price, which happens when a share price is trading so far below fair value that the company is a clear takeover target.

There are a few key terms to understand in the world of mergers and acquisitions. This is one of them.

US jobs data helped the rand

Finally, there's a softer dollar for the TreasuryONE team to report on. Job openings in the US plunged by more than 1 million during the month of August, giving us an early sign that the labour market gap in the US is beginning to close. This was good news for the euro, the pound and the rand which saw a low of R17.63 after trading above R18.00 the prior day.

Commodities also received wind in their sails, with gold up 1.2% on the day. The price of the yellow metal has jumped nearly $100 per ounce in the space of a week. The PGMs were also higher, with palladium up 5% for the day. Copper has also been the beneficiary of this change in expected demand, up $300 since last week.

Brent Crude broke above $90 and reached an intraday high of $91.47.

To deepen our understanding of the incredible macroeconomic volatility that we've seen in the market, the TreasuryONE team will be hosting another excellent webinar on 12th October at 12pm. The previous webinars have been well attended and the Q&A sessions have been invaluable. You truly don't want to miss out on this! Register at this link>>>

Money in a bear market

Keen to increase your knowledge about trading and the markets in general? The Magic Markets podcast is perfect for those who are taking things more seriously and really engaging with all that the markets have to offer. In the latest episode, Petri Re delinghuys from Herenya Capital Advisors joined us to talk about trading techniques in a bear market. We also talked about views on oil, Europe and more. Listen at this link>>>

May you have a fair and reasonable day!