Thursday, July 16

Investing

Return of the gold standard

African countries looking to anchor their currencies on either gold, or a combination of gold, precious metals, and other minerals would need to start with legislation which would make it legal for the governments of those countries to redeem paper currency with either those minerals or a derivative of those minerals.

Zimbabwe in late August began an initiative where it sold actual gold coins to its citizens which had been minted by that country’s central bank. This move was initiated to halt the slide of the currency on the parallel and official markets. This county’s policy so far has been successful in slowing down the trend of inflation which had begun to run amok.

It would be remiss to attribute the slowdown inflation to the gold coins. The country dramatically tightened its monetary policy by increasing interest rates to over 200 per cent in May 2022 and temporarily banned commercial bank lending. One of the disadvantages of the gold standard is that governments struggled for decades to make the system work globally. The gold standard reached its watershed when Richard Nixon in 1971 took the United States dollar off the gold standard.

The Far Property company to list more linked units on BSE. www.theexchange.africa

There was a strong performance in the bank’s recoveries portfolio, contributing to the overall positive performance of expected credit losses. This led to the loan loss ratio improving to 0.16 per cent from 0.59 per cent for period ended June 30, 2022. Operating costs remain relatively under control at P473 million, growing slightly by only 3 per cent, despite the rising inflation seen in the economy.

The bank in their report also highlighted that this was achieved by leveraging off the digital enablement put in place which brought some efficiencies, as well as various other cost management initiatives effected. Cost to income ratio fell by 4 per cent and ended at 54 per cent for the period under review, resulting in positive income statement jaws of 7 per cent.

Meanwhile, Barclays sold shares in the Group. This was published on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on September 1, 2022.

Barclays agreed to sell its entire remaining 7.44 per cent which is 63 072 652 shares of the total ordinary shares of the Group through an accelerated book build placing, at a price of R169 per share. Following the sell, Barclays no longer owns any ordinary shares of the Group.

USE concedes failure of SME capital mobilising segment, creates new window. www.theexchange.africa

The USE Edaala will also facilitate private companies with numerous shareholders benefits from the deficiencies provided by existing trading and depository platforms with shareholders being able to trade their shares should they wish to divest their stock and utilise portfolio management tools.

The application period for the first cohort is expected to close on December 8, after which the USE will conduct an assessment of the applicants for eligibility.

Through the new segment, companies will be able to access long term capital through private placements, access to a wider pool of domestic and international investors, flexible admission and regulatory compliance requirements, among others.

Capital is the main fuel of every business, no matter what size. However, sometimes a business can face monetary constraints and a shortage of funds. In such a scenario, business finance can help power up the enterprise.

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