BizNews Radio
Welcome to BizNews Radio where we interview top thought leaders and business people from South Africa and across the globe.
Inside Covid-19: Medical breakthroughs - common asthma drug Budesonide, Ivermectin in treatment of coronavirus
In this episode of Inside Covid-19, we look at an important scientific breakthrough in the early treatment of Covid-19, we speak to Professor Mona Bafadhel of the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine, about how a medication commonly used to treat asthma appears to significantly reduce the need for…
Flash Briefing: SA banks 'have legs'; Mastercard starts to integrate crypto assets; Italtile; Africa tech start-ups
Funding for African startups slowed for the first time after nearly 10 years of growth as investors in the fledgling tech scene were put off by the Covid-19 pandemic. * South African banks 'have legs', says an equity analyst for a major firm. * Italtile produced stellar results. * Mastercard…
What's next for JSE darling Italtile as it rewards shareholders with double-digit growth in profit, dividend
Italtile CEO Jan Potgieter speaks to Jackie Cameron about the company's stronger-than-expected interim performance. While many South African companies buckled under Covid-19 containment, Italtile saw turnover rise by 14% to R6.2bn for its half-year to the end of December. Trading profit surged 38% to R1.4bn. It also has more than…
Ivermectin: Major tech breakthrough in human application, as scientists aim to save world from Covid-19 and malaria
* Mountain Valley MD, listed in Canada and Germany, says it has patented the 'Holy Grail' for pharmaceutical companies - the improved solubilisation of drugs. * It has developed a tabled that dissolves easily, with a fraction of the dose, of wonderdrug Ivermectin. * Ivermectin is seen by many as…
Flash Briefing: SA business confidence plummets to apartheid lows; SA wants to swap Covid-19 vaccine
* South African business confidence hit a 35-year low in 2020, says the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry - calling on the government to rethink economic policy and hurry up with vaccine roll-out. * Standard Bank snaps up shares in Angolan subsidiary; * The SA govt wants to…
SA listed property success story: How Equites delivers superior returns through e-commerce, logistics - CEO insights
Property has been the worst performing asset class on the JSE for over three years now. The property index has retreated around 40% from its highs in early 2018. One Reit that has bucked the trend is Equites, which specialises in properties in the e-commerce economy in South Africa and the…
Meat Naturally: The environmentally friendly small business generating livelihoods for 2,500 communal farmers in SA
Here’s a story that will lift your spirits. Meat Naturally, an Mpumalanga-based social enterprise, is helping thousands of communal farmers create a livelihood. It has plans to expand its innovative approach to environmentally friendly livestock production across Africa. This week, it was awarded joint first place in the 10th SAB…
Tesla vs NIO and the battle for world's biggest EV market, China - insights
NIO has been on the radar of investors after its rival Tesla soared in value in 2020. A graph from stockbroker De Giro shows that, after GameStop, Nio was among the most popular stocks traded across Europe in January. Nio - which is taking on Tesla in China, the world’s…
Flash Briefing: SA virus 'major threat' to UK - warnings; Minimum wage increases will cull more jobs - DA; US stocks
* The South African coronavirus variant is the single biggest threat facing the UK, the Labour leader has said, amid growing calls for the country to tighten its defences against new variants, reports the Guardian. * Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize revealed that South Africa recorded 1,376 new COVID-19 cases…
Every SA should be VERY worried about land expropriation: Insights from land grabs elsewhere in Africa - Dawn Ridler
The ANC's plan to push through legislation that will allow the government to expropriate land and then rent it out to the previously disadvantaged should make every South African worried. Kerenga Wealth Ecology founder Dawn Ridler, an independent financial advisor in Johannesburg, shares her experiences of living in Kenya, Rwanda…
Stressed? A personal health coach can help you cope
Scientists have warned that more of us are feeling stressed, with Covid-19 containment measures wiping out businesses, incomes and forcing big changes to our lifestyles. In this interview health, health coach Dr Kate Couchman shares her seven main steps to guiding people out of a stressed state. The KZN practitioner…
Carrie's Corner: Vilafonte Vineyards - creating real brands in a world of a million labels.
Anybody who knows about the SA wine industry knows Mike Ratcliffe. The son of Norma Ratcliffe - a pioneer of winemaking women in South Africa and founder of Warwick Wine Estate - Michael launched his own brand, Vilafonte, twenty years ago. Fine wine critic Carrie Adams sits down with Ratcliffe,…
Stock market trading wars: Dad vs teenager - who gets the better returns, in Reddit-inspired era?
Like a lot of parents these days, Cameron Crise is dealing with a teenager at home who wants to get into day-trading and reap the type of windfalls boasted about by the WallStreetBets crowd. Crise, a former hedge-fund trader and now a columnist for Bloomberg, had a novel way of…
Cape Town luxury property: Sellers under financial pressure, buyers looking for value on Atlantic Seaboard
Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard is home to many of South Africa’s wealthiest residents - and it has been a magnet to well-heeled investors from Africa and elsewhere. Some agents say that there has been a notable uptick in demand, especially from European Countries. But Lance Cohen, a specialist in the…
Bitcoin smashes through record $44,000 after Tesla buys $1.5bn, says cars might soon be sold for crypto currencies
South Africa born tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has been promoting cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Dogecoin. Is he serious about digital currencies or is the world's richest man simply having fun manipulating prices - just as he has stocks via his Tweets? Here's an assessment of latest developments, from BizNews partners at…
Flash Briefing: Tesla, Musk power up Bitcoin; Nedbank profited from state capture; SA changes Covid vaccine plans; Rand
* Elon Musk and Tesla have powered up cryptocurrency values, with Tesla revealing a US$1.5bn stake in Bitcoin. * Nedbank profited out of state capture, paying a Gupta-linked entity R95m to suck up work from state entities, a crack team of investigative journalists has revealed. * Telkom's revenues have improved,…
Flash Briefing: SA Covid variant threatens global recovery; Zuma, Malema - storm in tea cup? Africa GDP shrinks; rand
* The South African Covid-19 variant could threaten the global recovery, warns Bloomberg as a Wits trial fails to demonstrate the AstraZeneca vaccine's efficacy against serious illness. * In a carefully calculated event designed to generate maximum publicity, corruption-tainted former president Jacob Zuma and EFF leader Julius Malema had a…
Catholic Church puts assets out of reach of sex abuse claimants
For most of the 20th century, the Catholic Church in the US minimised the damage wrought by paedophile priests by covering up the abuse, reports Bloomberg. Cover-ups worked when victims and their families could be intimidated or shamed into silence. But in the 1980s and ’90s, victims started filing civil…
Short-seller Carson Block on the other side of the Reddit, GameStop trading frenzy
Recently day traders organising themselves on social media website Reddit united to drive up the shares of video-game store GameStop by around 400%. Short-sellers were estimated to have lost about $19bn on GameStop. Carson Block is a short-seller, investor and the founder of Muddy Waters Research speaks to BizNews partner…
Does SA have any good asset managers? Here’s why their investment performance is so dismal - Magnus Heystek
Investments in South African funds have been very disappointing, all the more so when you compare performance with similar opportunities elsewhere in the world. BizNews editor at large Jackie Cameron asks: Has SA lost its rock star fund managers? Why can’t they deliver returns that grow your wealth? In this…