Simon’s weekly wrap: Company results that came in strong, despite headwinds

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Fortress lost its real estate investment trust (Reit) status at the end of January and hence was unable to pay a dividend for its latest (interim) results. I spoke with Fortress CEO Steven Brown and, while its hands are tied regarding Reit status, it is doing very well with vacancies, rental reversions and the loan-to-value which is now down to 36.9% (read the transcript).

Bank results have been coming in strong and Standard Bank’s especially so. I spoke with Gary Booysen of Rand Swiss and he especially liked its ability to keep a lid on costs and benefit from the higher interest rates. He was buying Standard Bank shares back in October and thinks it is a bit expensive now, but weakness could offer an entry point.

Mpact had another good set of annual results and I spoke with CEO Bruce Strong. It’s managing the power crisis well and changing consumer habits are playing to its strength in innovation. We tend to think only of traditional packaging such as the boxes our online shopping arrives in. But Mpact also has new lines of innovation like paper fruit punnets, that are boosting earnings (read the transcript).

I chatted with Pravesh Sunker, CEO of FNB Private Wealth and RMB Private Bank, about using credit to invest. This was not in the sense of taking out a loan to buy shares, but rather about managing your debt to reduce the amount and/or the interest rate, thus freeing up cash flow every month that you can then use to invest (read the transcript).

Also this week:

Old Mutual Multi-Managers’s Izak Odendaal on the US’s battle with inflation, what’s affecting the rand, commodity prices, cheap SA assets and fixing SA (read the transcript).

Kea Nonyana of EA Capital Markets on SA’s greylisting, the rand, political instability, load shedding and Chinese growth. (read the transcript).