Author: Laurence Sithole

Ratings agency pronouncements are important in that they determine the financial standing of a country in the markets. When a country has unfavourable ratings, it will find it difficult to borrow without paying high-interest rates.

Conversely, favourable ratings indicate a much more stable credit proposition which will enable a borrower to access funding at concessionary rates.

South Africa has received funding to the tune of tens of billions of Rand from developed countries. This financial package has been to assist the country in reducing its reliance on fossil fuels for its energy. The country received this money immediately after the COP 26 conference last year.…

One of the features that make the property unique as an investment is that it has a high unit value in comparison to other investments.

A nominal amount like ZWL$1,000.00 can buy an individual investor shares of a publicly listed company on the ZSE and the same amount in US dollars can purchase a decent number of shares through an offshore brokerage account.

This is not usually the case with real estate. There is very little an individual investor can do with ZWL$1,000.00 in terms of direct property investment, at least in the conventional sense.

Even with access to mortgage finance, an investor will also tend to be limited by their credit standing in terms of the funds that they can deploy into property investments.…

In 2004, Mittal Steel was founded following the merger of Ispat International and LNM Holdings, and the simultaneous acquisition of International Steel Group, becoming came the world’s leading steel producer.

Shortly after, in 2006, Mittal Steel launched an ambitious bid to merge with Arcelor, creating ArcelorMittal.

Lakshmi Mittal has done very well, and it leaves little doubt in the mind that he has enjoyed a very gratifying career replete with success in business if his personal bank account is anything to go by together with numerous recognitions of his work in philanthropy and his contribution to the steel industry.…

When exports receipts increase it means from the definition given that the country that pursues this strategy will find itself in the desired position where it earns more than it spends.

This in the long run will lead to the country becoming less reliant on balance of payments support from multilateral lenders and repaying its debt obligations.

For a country like Zimbabwe, it is imperative that the southern African country pursues this strategy as the increased foreign exchange receipts will provide desperately needed foreign currency and monetary stability.…

This comes as the IMF has downgraded economic prospects for countries in this cluster. The downgrades have, however, been offset relatively by projections for some commodity producers and exporters that were upgraded on the back of rising commodity prices.

The economic prospects between wealthy nations and low-income countries are expected to be divergent and this divergence will remain of great concern to multilateral lenders and world leaders. In wealthy nations, for example, aggregate output for the cluster economies is expected to regain its pre-pandemic trend path in 2022 and exceed it by 0.9% in 2024 whereas the cluster of nations comprise emerging markets and developing economies (excluding China) will remain 5.5% below their pre-pandemic forecasts in 2024.

This event should it occur as forecast will set back improvements in living standards.…

The company has been in existence for about 130 years and in that period amassed a substantial portfolio of businesses that comprise hospitality, food retail, agriculture, and security services. The large size of the company and dominance in the markets made it a darling of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

At the height of its conglomerate strategy, the company owned everything from food retailers, department stores, a cotton printing company, tea estates, and a bank. Meikles was even called Kingdom Meikles Africa during its short-lived with Kingdom Financial Holdings.

The company divested its financial services interest in a demerger after an acrimonious shareholder and boardroom dispute and so began the drive to refocus its business activities around its core businesses namely retail, hospitality, security services, real estate, and agriculture. Meikles recently announced that it would be discontinuing its mining activities.…

These prospective customer circumstances have provided the proverbial “ace” which Capitec has played very successfully during its 21 years of existence.

Capitec’s success is attributable largely to the leadership of one man Stassen and the support of his team. Stassen for his part is not a traditional banker, he was during his time at the helm of the bank an even more unconventional CEO.

In his own words, he is non-hierarchical, consultative, and often informal in his approach. By his own admission, he is not a natural reader but said that he learns a lot from observation… Typically the average chief executive is said to read at least 52 books a year… but then Stassen was not an average CEO.…

Capitec Bank has 16 million clients, more than half of which bank digitally.

The bank has more than 800 branches spread out through South Africa. Capitec can now claim to be the bona fide largest banking company in South Africa.

Capitec Bank was founded in 2000 in a sector fiercely competed for and dominated by what was then the big four banks, Standard Bank, Nedbank, FNB and ABSA.…