Subscribe

The Finance Ghost sits down with Tokollo Tau from Nedbank CIB to unpack how South Africa’s energy landscape is evolving beyond the dark days of load shedding. What once felt like a permanent crisis has receded into the background, but the real story now is what’s being built in its place (like power wheeling and aggregation). Against the backdrop of the Africa Energy Forum, the conversation explores the infrastructure and commercial models that are reshaping how electricity is generated, moved and sold across the country, unlocking new levels of flexibility and opportunity for businesses.

What does it really take to build a business from nothing in South Africa? Founder of Universal Kitchens, Clinton Van Breda, shares the unfiltered story of how he dedicated two decades to turning a R500 000 loan into a business employing over 200 people.

The Finance Ghost welcomes Altron CEO Werner Kapp fresh off a standout capital markets day that left a strong impression: this is a business whose growth story isn’t tightly tethered to South Africa’s traditional economic constraints. From FinTech and HealthTech to telematics and IT security, Altron operates a portfolio of platform businesses that quietly underpin everyday life, even if most consumers don’t realise it!  In this conversation, Werner unpacks how these platforms drive resilient, annuity-style revenues, while also leaning into powerful structural tailwinds like digitisation, mobile adoption and the evolution of the payments ecosystem.

In this episode of Ghost Stories, The Finance Ghost sits down with Investec’s Brian McMillan, fresh off collecting the “Best Issuer in Africa” award in Stockholm on behalf of the Investec Structured Products team. The team is launching the Investec Nasdaq 100 Geared Growth structure. With much debate around the market valuations in this tech-heavy index, this structure is designed to appeal to investors who are finding it difficult to balance the desire to get involved against the risk of being late to the party.

In this episode of the Ghost Stories podcast, we welcome Old Mutual Investment Group to the platform for the first time. Maahir Jakoet, lead manager of the Old Mutual Global Islamic Equity Fund, looks back on a decade of top quartile performance. This podcast lifts the lid on how Shari’ah-compliant investing can deliver unexpected outperformance vs. traditional funds.

China remains South Africa's largest trading partner, but the landscape of global trade is evolving. In this episode of No Ordinary Wednesday, Investec Treasury Economist Tertia Jacobs and Head of Supply Chain Dylan Govender look at the forces reshaping Sino-South Africa trade and explore what these changes mean for local businesses and the broader economy.

What began as a geopolitical conflict is rapidly becoming something much larger. Oil is only one part of the story. Natural gas, fertilisers, chemicals, shipping routes, aluminium, aviation fuel and global supply chains are all now being affected by the fallout from the Iran war. In the latest episode of No Ordinary Wednesday, Jeremy Maggs speaks to Investec’s Osa Mazwai and Campbell Parry about why this is increasingly being described as an “everything shock.”

In this episode of Ghost Stories, I was joined by Satrix’s Nico Katzke to unpack a global market that feels eerily calm in the face of rising risk. From Middle East tensions and the growing threat of energy disruption to the curious resilience of equity markets, the conversation explores whether investors are underpricing just how fragile the current environment really is.