Assets & Investments

In the Land Bank’s 2018 Annual Report released earlier this week, the top risk on a list of 18 principal risks is unsurprisingly the issue of land reform and the impact of the possibility of Expropriation Without Compensation (EWC). 

A new paradigm of fear and uncertainty was unleashed on the world with the demise of Lehmans on the 15 September 2008. And while markets have recovered, spectacularly in some cases, a lingering symptom of the crisis could be one of today’s biggest risks to buoyant stock markets. 

Many people find planning for retirement challenging, but retirement planning for women can be particularly tricky. This isn’t because women are any less capable of planning for the future than men, or less interested in saving. Rather, it’s as a result of one simple reality – women tend to live longer than men.

On Tuesday, China pledged to invest $14.7bn in South Africa and grant loans to Eskom and SAA. While this investment brings the country closer to President Ramaphosa’s target to raise US$ 100 billion in foreign direct investment, some argue that China’s intentions are not what they seem.

For most people the words 'death' and 'marriage' do not belong together in the same conversation. The last thing on people’s minds when they get married and enter into an ante-nuptial contract is death – the focus is usually around possible divorce. Likewise, when planning the affairs around our demise, very few of us would be thinking about marriage.

President Cyril Ramaphosa activated the controversial Investment Act 22 of 2015, by publication of a notice in the Government Gazette, on Friday 13 July.

In 1982, Forbes Magazine in the United States published its now renowned list of the 400 wealthiest Americans for the first time, ranked by their net worth. Twenty-one years later, JP Morgan conducted a study to examine the list and determine which families remained amongst the country’s wealthiest. The result was astonishing:

Political concerns have dominated markets in recent months. It has mostly been US President Donald Trump throwing his weight around (tariffs, Iran, North Korea), but in the past week Italy has been the source of market unease.

Throughout history, the world has been exposed to numerous economic bubbles. From Japan’s real estate and stock market bubble in 1990 to the dot-com bubble and US housing bubble, each one had dire consequences for the economy and detrimentally impacted millions of people. Whether Bitcoin is destined for a similar fate remains a rife debate among investors and cryptocurrency experts alike.

The Group continued to develop increasingly relevant products and services to a broader South African customer base. The financial results improved off the back of better risk management processes, while the advances book has stabilised off better new business volumes, notwithstanding the difficult economic conditions experienced during the reporting period.