Strategy

JSE-listed Tiger Brands recorded a 4 percent decline in revenue to R15,7 billion, for the six months ended March 2018.

Deadlines, pace and face time are among the most important tools to strike a great deal, she says. 

Process and technology improvements are top priorities for global CFOs within two years

Commentators put the increase down to profits from advertising

A recent survey by Robert Half Management Resources and Robert Half Technology found that more than half (51 percent) of CFOs collaborate more often with their company's CIO today versus three years ago

Investment holding company Purple Group has reported a decline in revenue of 8% to R34 million in the six months to end-February

Firms are only slowly adapting to advances in financial technology even when they know it will affect their business models, according to a new survey

Cognitive technologies have been adopted in other areas of business, inspiring finance to start learning about them, experimenting with them, and figuring out how to use them

The company is primarily concerned with the provision of all classes of life assurance, savings and retirement funding

Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) continued to set the pace for the luxury industry in compiling double-digit sales growth that analysts described as "remarkable"

Diversified investment holding company Brainworks has reported a 22 percent increase in revenue, to $58.6 million.

Organisations cannot exploit strategic opportunities nor can they protect themselves from potential losses or failures, without a clear steer from the top on appropriate risk taking, says the ACCA

Deloitte's CFO Signals survey of chief financial officers finds a surge in optimism among CFOs about the current and future states of major economic regions, as well as their own company prospects

Equipment failure, cyber attacks and natural disasters have negatively affected operations, according to a FM Global-commissioned study

Leading technology service provider EOH posting a 19% growth in revenue in its interim results amidst challenging conditions

CFO South Africa sat down with new exchanges ZAR X, 4AX and A2X to better understand the nuances of each.

JSE-listed Sasfin Holdings has reported a massive 41.81 percent decline in headline earnings per share

Leading CFOs gathered for dinner at the exquisite Marble restaurant on 20 March 2018 to share insights and experience around the topic of energy efficiency.

Specialist financial services investment holding company Rand Merchant Investment Holding (RMI) said it was boosted by Discovery's strong performance in its annual results presentation

MTN delivered a solid overall performance for the year, with progress on many fronts, despite difficult economic conditions, according to CEO Rob Shuter

More than two-thirds (69 percent) of CFOs and senior financial executives planning to increase their investment in technologies that speed business change

Sasol's headline earnings per share showed a 17% increase in the six months to end-December 2017, above market guidance on the back of a higher oil price

The eThekwini Municipality has released its annual report detailing its solid performance over the past year

The Group invested 8% of earnings in new initiatives, including in Discovery Bank, Umbrella Funds, Vitality Invest, and Discovery Insure Commercial Insurance

The set of results continue a 71-year streak of profits for the aviation group, which goes all the way back to its founding

40 new hotels for Marriott in 2018 will increase its property portfolio to 422 

According to Trialogue, companies in SA invested more than R9 billion in CSI last year

Construction firm Murray & Roberts has increased its stake in Bombela to 50%

Alexander Forbes posted a positive set of interim results for the six months to end-September, as it continues with the implementation of its much-vaunted turnaround strategy

The result is an IT global force that will use data and digital capabilities to empower decision-makers

Brian Joffe's investment firm Long4Life has agreed to buy Cape Town-based Chill Beverages for R452 million

Listed distribution and industrial brand management company Barloworld maintained its revenue and operating profit levels from continuing operations

A new EY survey shows that more than one-half of financial executives globally intend to pursue acquisitions in the coming year

Standard Bank operates with a model that lists five value drivers. And financial outcomes are not even number 1, 2 or 3.

Bidvest Group's banking unit has agreed to buy Hermanus-based FinGlobal for an as-yet-undisclosed sum.

Josef Langerman, Group Head: Software Engineering and Organisational Change, talks about new ways of working at scale.

This is the most transformative era in history and Section 12J venture capital company Kalon Venture Partners, formerly known as Grotech, is expecting to be at the forefront of change in Africa, said CEO Clive Butkow in an informative session at the African FinTech Awards at Finance Indaba Africa at the Sandton Convention Centre on 13 October.

“Our role within Human Capital is to be the custodians of culture and strategically partner the people agenda that enables our business strategy,” says Anré Klopper-Stroh, Human Capital Head for the Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB) within the Standard Bank Group. “The role of the Human Capital team within CIB is to partner our people in, for and across Africa to realise their ambitions, thus enabling our clients and the communities in which we operate to achieve their objectives. Furthermore, we need to position ourselves for what the future holds by understanding the mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets required for our people to stay relevant and contribute to the ambitions of the business into the future.”

Several Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries can expect strong growth in the tourism sector, says new data revealed by Euromonitor International at the recent 41st Annual World Tourism Conference held in Kigali, Rwanda. International arrivals to Africa grew by 6.5 percent this year, reaching 18,550 million, it said.

As at June 2017, Capitec bank hit nine million retail customers – a number which makes it SA’s second-largest bank (using this metric - customer numbers).

“There has to be a pretty compelling case as to why a company should list. You have to know why you're doing it because it's a costly endeavour both from a time perspective as well as economically,” said Richard Stout, Head of Equity Capital Markets Standard Bank. Stout was speaking at the recent CFO summit about sentiment in capital markets and whether initial public offerings (IPOs) are a useful avenue for raising cash in the current economic environment. “You're moving to an environment where you have a responsibility to a bunch of institutions that are going to expect you to execute a strategy and create value. I've done IPOs for the better part of 20 years and I think they are a great way of raising capital, but not every company should take that route.”

ClarkHouse has joined Finance Indaba 2017 as a gold partner and will make its second showing at the event at the Sandton Convention Centre in October.

For his work as CFO of SANParks, Rajesh Mahabeer, now Head of Public Sector Finance and Deal Origination at Garuda Capital (Pty) Ltd, was nominated for the CFO Awards 2017. We chatted to Rajesh about his tenure at SANParks and how he turned the finance team around, setting a new strategic direction for the entity in doing so, as well as his new role in the M&A and corporate finance space.

The Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its forecast for economic growth in South Africa. It forecast growth of one percent for South Africa this year, up from the 0.8 percent prediction made in April.

EY, in its Africa Attractiveness Index 2017 (AAI 2017), has named Kenya as this year’s second-most attractive investment destination, pipped only by Morocco.

JSE-listed speciality finance company Capital Appreciation has acquired FinTech firm Synthesis for R132,1 million.

Rajesh Mahabeer, previously CFO of SANParks, has moved to Garuda Capital, effective 1 May 2017. His new role as Head of Public Sector Finance and Deal Origination will see him working in the space of mergers and acquisitions and funds mobilisation.

According to analysis by Thomson Reuters, the value of announced M&A transactions with any sub-Saharan African involvement reached $10.1 billion during the first quarter of 2017 – the highest opening quarter total in six years.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Kenya’s economy grew 5.8 percent during 2016, slightly short of forecasts (government officials estimated the economy to have expanded by 5.9 percent), but a little above the 5.7 percent growth it saw during 2015. Moreover, the current account deficit narrowed 11.9 percent in 2016, to 5.2 percent of GDP.

ArcelorMittal South Africa is in discussions to borrow R3.5 billion as part of a capital raising plan, though it has not specified what the funds will be used for.

Capitec Bank has reported record growth of some 1.3 million new clients for the financial year ending February 2017, bringing their total customer base to 8.6 million. This makes Capitec the third-largest bank in the country by way of active clients, ahead of FNB and behind Absa by only a fraction. Standard Bank holds first place.

The Sea Harvest Group raised a staggering R1.3 billion by listing 42% of the company on the JSE, where it floated its shares at R12.50 each, leading to a group market capitalisation of some R3.14 billion. The company has said this will allow it to realise its vision of becoming a diversified global seafood company.

South Africa’s economy continues to be stifled by weak growth on one side and the need for fiscal consolidation on the other. So says Deloitte in its recently published Global Economic Outlook Q1, 2017, which features a section on the South African economy titled ‘South Africa: In a tight spot’.

Steinhoff International and Shoprite Holdings have terminated their merger negotiations. This follows much criticism levelled at the deal by various parties, as well as Shoprite minority shareholders arguing that the transaction was not in their best interests. Under the proposed deal, Steinhoff would have sold its African assets to Shoprite in exchange for a controlling stake in the latter.

Nova Human Capital Solutions is a company that offers turnkey HR solutions to companies of all shapes and sizes. From simply providing payroll services to doing a total overhaul of a business’s HR function, they do it all. Last week, CFO Enterprise CEO Melle Eijckelhoff and Didi Sehume of CHRO South Africa met with director Debbie Victor and MD Scott Barrett from NOVA in the build-up to the executive HR round table to be hosted by Vodacom HR director Matimba Mbungela on 9 March.

JSE-listed Mondi Group has acquired 100% of the outstanding share capital of Excelsior Technologies (a vertically integrated producer of innovative flexible packaging solutions) from funds managed by Endless LLP and certain other minority shareholders, for a total consideration of £33 million, on a debt and cash- free basis.

The Twinsaver Group has announced its acquisition of Validus Medical, a leading manufacturer of hygienic disposable products. The sale, yet to be approved by the Competition Commission, signals a new chapter in Twinsaver’s journey as it moves to focus on establishing the business as a diversified FMCG company.

Professional services firm Deloitte went home with the Reporting Accountants awards by Deal Flow during the 16th annual DealMakers Gala Awards Banquet on 15 February 2017 at the Sandton Convention Centre. A jovial CFO South Africa MD Graham Fehrsen handed the prize to Deloitte's senior manager Aubrey Sebothoma, together with DealMakers director Marylou Greig. KPMG won the Reporting Accounts award by Deal Value, just like last year.

To achieve superior growth, a company needs to get its organic growth right, but acquisition strategy is a crucial and very powerful tool. In this article, I delve into my experience as a CFO to provide an insider’s guide to a successful M&A strategy.

Shareholders of listed specialised financial services group Alexander Forbes have approved African Rainbow Capital’s (ARC’s) acquisition of a 10% stake in its African operations, Alexander Forbes Limited. The price tag on the deal is some R753 million.

The World Bank, in its latest Global Economic Prospects report, said it expected real gross domestic product (GDP) growth during 2017 to rebound to 2.7%, up from a post-financial crisis low of 2.3% in 2016. The multilateral lender added that growth in advanced economies is expected to rise to 1.8% in 2017, from 1.6% in 2016, while emerging and developing economies will see growth accelerate to 4.2%, up from 3.4% last year.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US Government’s Development Finance Institution has announced the financing of up to $5 million to support Unreasonable Capital Fund I. Unreasonable Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in scalable and profitable companies working to address social and environmental issues that improve the lives of people living in underserved communities across Latin America, India, Asia and Africa.

According to the latest survey from the Bureau for Economic Research (BER), the last quarter of 2016 will show only subdued growth.

Oceana, Africa’s largest black-owned fishing company, whose finance head Imraan Soomra (pictured) was recipient of the Transformation & Empowerment Award at the CFO Awards 2015, has seen impressive results for the year ending 30 September. Group revenue grew by 34% to R8.2bn, operating profit increased by 69% to R1.7bn, earnings per share was up by 34% and headline earnings per share was up by 20%.

Capital & Counties Properties PLC (Capco) has announced that Situl Jobanputra (pictured) will be appointed to the executive director position of CFO effective 1 January 2017. This follows the resignation of Soumen Das as MD and CFO, announced on 26 July 2016.

ABSA Capital, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) and Nedbank took home big awards at the 15th annual Spire awards, hosted by the JSE. ABSA Capital, RMB and Nedbank were crowned winners of the Best Bonds House, Best Fixed Income and Currencies House, Best FX House and Best Research House and Best Interest Derivative House respectively. RMB alone took home a total of 11 awards on the evening. Bernard Claassens (pictured), Manager: Fixed Income at the JSE, said:

UK-based investment group Vasari has finalised its acquisition of the operational assets of KWV for a sum of R1.15 billion. Vasari sees the South African wine and spirits producer as a “strategic asset” that will enable it to capitalise on growth opportunities in the wine and brandy sector. KWV was sold to Vasari by Niveus Holdings, the listed investment holding company majority controlled by HCI. John Copelyn, HCI CEO, writing in the company’s latest annual report, said that the exit from KWV was “very lucrative”, and that “the price achieved effectively doubled the value of Niveus’s investment over five years”. Boyce Lloyd (pictured), an SABMiller executive with more than 20 years of experience in the beverage industry, will become the new KWV CEO from November. Until recently Lloyd was the integration director for the AB InBev-SABMiller merger. Vasari has investments in various areas, such as alcoholic beverages, confectionary, soft drinks, and foods, across various markets, including Europe, Africa and Asia. Among its brands are independent Scotch whisky producer Whyte & Mackay, and Ethiopian brewer, Dashen Brewery.

The Finance Indaba Africa 2016 is almost upon us and it is time to start looking at what exactly lies ahead at the Sandton Convention Centre on 13 and 14 October 2016. Every day until the event, we will shine a light on the parts of the amazing programme. Today: SME Growth and Profitability, a two-day programme for finance professionals working for smaller firms and medium-sized businesses.

“We have been blown away by the number of partners and visitors the Finance Indaba Africa is attracting in its very first year,” says Alex van Groningen, the Dutch entrepreneur behind the successful knowledge sharing event on 13 and 14 October 2016 at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Sasfin has successfully circumvented the effects of the currently tough economic environment to grow shareholder value by 29%. Operating profit improved 31% (from R232 million in 2015 to R304 million), while profit was up 23.7%, to R238.7m. In addition, total income growth was up 25.1%. Tyrone Soondarjee (pictured), Sasfin group financial director, speaking at the recent financial results presentation, said the group reported growth across all its divisions, bar Treasury and Transactional banking, which collectively declined in profitability from R10.39 million to R6.559 million. Soondarjee noted, however, that the Treasury division did show strong performance, with a stable deposit base of R3.32 billion. According to the FD, group costs increased 19.8% to R828.3 million, largely as a result of increased investment in risk, compliance and IT, along with the inclusion of FinTech in its cost base. The cost-to-income ratio improved from 71.07% in the previous year to 68.89%, thanks to its cost containment strategy, which Soondarjee said has been “key to manage and showed notable improvement”.

In the hopes of introducing black-controlled franchise stores, Kleoss Capital Fund 1, a 100-percent-black-owned South African PE investment manager managed by Kleoss Capital, has acquired a minority stake in Real Foods, which owns the KAUAI, NÜ Health Café and Kohu brands. Hale Matsipa, Kleoss Capital CEO, has said that the company is excited about BEE transformation within Real Foods and believes there is potential to introduce black-controlled franchise stores within Kauai. Matsipa was quoted by Fin 24 as saying:

Badibanga ‘Badi’ Promesse (pictured) was appointed Regional Director at CIMA Africa, effective 1 August. Badi has been a Strategic Account Director at CIMA since 2010, leading the region’s direct activities by managing its operations and driving both growth and strategy across Africa.

“The most unsettling thing for anyone is uncertainty,” says Graham McGregor, CFO of New GX Capital Holdings, a BEE investment holding company with interests in the environmental solutions, logistics, power and telecoms, and corporate finance advisory sectors. Sharing his experience, while in his previous position, of a merger that happened between two very different businesses under one umbrella company McGregor says keeping staff abreast of what was happening at all times was crucial: “Because if there’s a communication gap, people fill in the gap themselves.” He also learnt an important lesson:

“In every industry, ground-breaking leaps into the future are being reported on an almost daily basis. All except for one – mining. Could it be that our current world view limits the way we think about mining companies? Could we invent a more powerful, more soulful, more meaningful way to mining? I think we can,” says expert accountant Coenie Middel.

Through some incredible tech-enabled financial discipline, CFO Colin Brown helped saving Super Group from the abyss, setting the South African flagship firm on course again for massive expansion. Since then successes have been commonplace, with Colin (pictured with Discovery's Terrence Taylor) winning no less than three CFO Awards and the group regularly reporting spectacular growth. On 21 July 2016, at the CFO event on M&A, Colin provided some candid insight and valuable tips during a round table discussion with a select group of CFOs.

Roy Clark, MD of Clarkhouse Human Capital, recently moderated a thought leadership session where 20 CFOs were invited to discuss the role of transformation and diversity in the workplace, and what the role of a CFO is in fostering this. In this self-penned piece, Clark delves into why transformation and diversity are such misunderstood notions, and looks at how corporate South Africa can make these ideas work within their organisations.

The ink is dry. The deal is done. You have just successfully completed an M&A transaction. The question is: what now? At our CFO event on 21 July 2016 at the African Pride Melrose Arch Hotel we will unpack how to go about integration or separation after a deal under the theme ‘Where the rubber meets the road’. An incredible lineup of top five CFOs will help us unpack what needs to happen after a merger, acquisition or sale.

Nigeria's budget minister Udoma Udo Udoma has said that the government will soon be pumping much of the $1.76 billion earmarked for capital projects this quarter into Africa's biggest economy in a bid to encourage growth.

Rob Davies (pictured), Trade and Industry Minister, speaking at a recent Cape Town launch of the latest Industrial policy action plan (Ipap), said there is a pressing need for South Africa to break away from a commodity-dependent economy, and that economic growth should not be based on unsustainable models. Davies further noted that there should be a move to a more diversified base in which employment creation and export-intensity, among other things, define South Africa’s growth trajectory. Davies said:

President Jacob Zuma, speaking at a recent press briefing at the Union Buildings, said government will reduce policy uncertainty to boost economic growth. The President said:

Massive outflows of foreign capital from our borders. Slow economic growth and tough global trading conditions. Difficult regulations and red tape. Upscaling private companies in SA is a massive task. But if we’re serious about growing our base of job-creating private companies, something needs to be done. As a nation desperate for job creation, we need to delve deep in order to understand the critical constraints for unlocking growth. These are the thoughts of Louw Barnardt, co-founder and MD of Outsourced CFO, a financial management boutique of CAs which assists private company clients in gaining access to innovative funding solutions. The SAICA SME report states that, “According to SMEs, the main reasons for business failure are overwhelmingly cash-flow related”. A business of any size and in whichever industry needs financial stability to operate sustainably. Aiming to expand is an even more complex objective that requires SMEs to raise growth finance. Taking this into consideration, how can SMEs be expected to operate sustainably as well as grow, if accessing finance proves to be one of their greatest obstacles? The SAICA SME report concluded that SMEs start with too little capital, collect debtors late, are subject to bad debts, and have overheads that are too high. Government expects that 90 percent of new jobs will come from SMEs. Therefore, big businesses and the public sector need to realise that SMEs will be crucial for growth of the fiscus as well as the private sectors turnover. This then concludes that SME growth is not only to the benefit of the SME, but in the best interest of big business and the public sector.

“We will be talking about how businesses can recover working capital, not only from eliminating double- and over-payments, but also from improving efficiencies and using our payment analysis reports,” says Carolina van der Ark from Transparent, a gold partner at the Finance Indaba Africa 2016 on 13 and 14 October 2016 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. In the coming weeks and months, we will be chatting to all the Indaba partners, asking them why they are joining the event and what their most important message for finance professionals is.

“The acquisition of Daybrook has put us years ahead,” says Imraan Soomra, CFO of Oceana. The Cape Town-based fishing company was already Africa's biggest, but burst onto the global stage with the spectacular acquisition of Daybrook Fisheries in the US last year. We spoke to Imraan about the finance transformation and culture change that laid the platform, the adrenaline of the deal and his future ambitions.

Oceana CFO Imraan Soomra played a huge role in the acquisition of Daybrook Fisheries in New Orleans, growing the market cap of the Cape Town-based fishing firm with about 50%. DigiCore CFO Cobus Grove was instrumental in saving the vehicle-tracking company from demise and selling it to the US firm Novatel Wireless. Deon Fredericks rose through the ranks at Telkom, to eventually take over the CFO job in the most difficult of times and guiding the acquisition of Business Connexion through tricky turns. All the while, these three finance bosses also still had a normal business to run...

"The traditional PE model is stale and battling with an ever increasing amount of regulations and complexity," says Greg Voigt, chief investment officer at special purpose acquisition company M-FiTEC that listed on the JSE’s AltX board at the end of last year. We spoke to him about the advantages of a SPAC over other financing forms, the opportunities for FinTech in South Africa and his ambitions with M-FiTEC.

KPMG’s M&A guru John Geel says he is “quietly confident” that 2016 is going to be a good year for mergers and acquisitions in South Africa. In an exclusive interview with CFO South Africa he reveals that he expects the number of deals to be “at least equal to last year, if not more”.

Two of South Africa’s largest medical schemes‚ Bonitas Medical Fund and Liberty Medical Scheme (LMS)‚ have announced they are in discussions to merge.

Goodwell Investments, a company which provides early stage growth capital, has acquired a significant minority stake in Musoni Services, a Dutch micro-finance software company that supports micro-finance institutions (MFIs) with its cloud-based core banking software.

Professional services firm KPMG won both Reporting Accountants awards during the 15th annual DealMakers Gala Awards Banquet on 16 February at the Sandton Convention Centre. A broadly smiling CFO South Africa MD Graham Fehrsen handed the two prizes (Deal Flow & Deal Value) to KPMG's Corporate Finance MD John Geel, in the presence of DealMakers director Marylou Greig.

According to a recently released report by EY, financial distress among mining and metals companies will shape M&A activity in the sector in 2016. Furthermore, divestments are expected to pick up pace on the back of volatility and uncertainty on the timing of a recovery. Wickus Botha (pictured), EY Africa Mining & Metals Sector Leader, said:

While money is increasingly flowing into Africa for private healthcare initiatives and South Africa is embarking on the rollout of the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, there is a high demand for multi-skilled finance leaders to deal with that inflow. “We need a whole generation of multi-skilled, passionate people with an interest in healthcare,” says Dr Anuschka Coovadia, head of Healthcare Africa for KPMG.

What are the latest investment priorities within private equity firms? What should CFOs know about tax? Why does Michael Rudnicki want to be famous? Those are three of the questions that can only be answered by the new head of KPMG’s Southern African Private Equity (PE) practice.

Oil-exporting economies like Nigeria and Angola will continue to be hardest hit when it comes to the slowing momentum of GDP growth in Africa. In this first part of RMB's Africa outlook 2016, authors Celeste Fauconnier, Nema Ramkhelawan-Bhana and Neville Mandimika look at the expected real GDP growth in selected economies and the long list of risks to growth.

CFO South Africa will be the sponsor of the Reporting Accountants category during the 15th DealMakers Annual Gala Awards Banquet on 16 February 2016 at The Ballroom of the Sandton Convention Centre. Regarded as the Oscars of the South African M&A world, the awards celebrate the best performing M&A services firms over the past year.

Despite the large, $3,9 billion fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (the matter still in court), MTN has proceeded with its planned acquisition of rival network operator, Visafone Communications.

JSE-listed Investec Australia Property Fund (IAPF) has announced its most recent acquisition: An A-grade, nine-storey office building with ground floor retail, situated in Newcastle, New South Wales. The acquisition has a price tag of some R623.45 million (Aus$56.7 million), and brings the value of the fund’s total portfolio close to R7 billion.

China Resources Beer (Holdings) has chosen which banks will advise on options for its Chinese brewery joint venture with SABMiller. According to reports, HSBC Holdings Plc, Nomura Holdings Inc., Rothschild and UBS Group AG, have been chosen as advisory institutions ahead of the deal.

Global asset management company, Affiliated Managers Group (AMG), reached an agreement during November to acquire an equity interest in Cape Town-based Abax Investments.

Sasol Inzalo shares have started trading on the JSE empowerment segment. With MTN Zakhele shares having commenced trading in early November, this marks only the second listing on this segment.

State-backed China Resources Beer (Holdings) Co, currently in a joint venture (JV) with SABMiller, is considering a potential purchase of all or part of SABMiller’s 49% stake in China Resources Snow Breweries Co. China Resources has requested investment banks to pitch for an advisory role to aide them in making this decision, saying it will choose an advisor before this year is out.

Industry experts agree that South African startups have what it takes to succeed on the global stage, but structural issues are hindering development. While executives from South Africa’s leading enterprise development incubators are bullish about the progress being made and about the standard of South African startups, they are also concerned about government regulation, lack of funding direction and market access and inequitable distribution.*

CFOs and entrepreneurs are known to sometimes bump heads. Why wouldn't they, there's so much to disagree on. But, if last night's CFO South Africa event was anything to go by, these two actually have more to agree on than disagree. The master class aimed to answer the question, 'What can CFOs and entrepreneurs learn from each other?' The conclusion was that they certainly can learn from each other if they just open their minds; the "crankier" CFO learning to be more open to risk, the "cowboy" entrepreneur paying more attention to the figures. And ultimately, both need to be aware of the "higher purpose" they are working towards.

On Wednesday 11 November, Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI or AB InBev) made a formal offer of $107 billion to buy SABMiller. This seals the long-awaited deal that will see the world's two largest brewers combine, and in so doing, control around half the industry's profit.

According to reports, Telkom – 40% of which is owned by the South African government – is in talks to buy Cell C.

"Finance had to make sure that common sense trumped emotion" during the acquisition of the Australian department store chain David Jones, says Woolworths CFO Reeza Isaacs during an interview with CFO South Africa. "We now have to ensure that the business is focused on delivering on the deal synergies.”

Virtual data rooms are crucial in ensuring that the acquisition process is as smooth as possible. That is according to Arie Maree, director at Ansarada, a world leader in merger and acquisition technology and headline sponsor of the Knife Capital Exit Conference, held at the Sandton Convention Centre on 21 August. A virtual data room is a limited-access website or software platform that bidders and advisers can use to peruse confidential corporate information before making a decision to purchase. These rooms offer significant cost savings on physical centres, especially when large teams of experts are required to perform extensive due diligence processes. They can be used for data storage, document exchange, file sharing, financial transactions and legal transactions, among other functions.

“Local is not so lekker at the moment." Maija de Rijk-Uys, who is responsible for the setup and roll-out of the PwC Accelerator Programme in SA, began her presentation at the Knife Capital Exit Conference at the Sandton Convention Centre on 21 August on a sour note. "There is negative investor sentiment, labour unrest, a dearth of skills, low economic growth, regulation and government interference and no cultural flair for entrepreneurism. Our established business rate, at just 2,9%, is 4th lowest in the world,” she lamented.

For some R217 million, listed technology firm, Adapt IT has bought CQS Technology Holdings – a company which provides audit, financial and risk management software services solutions to over 4,000 customers in 30 countries.

Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev has agreed to purchase SABMiller for a staggering R1.4 trillion (£68 billion). This follows two weeks of negotiations, during which time SABMiller repeatedly rejected AB InBev's offers.

Sibanye Gold has acquired the entire share capital of Aquarius Platinum for a sum of R4 billion. The purchase makes Sibanye one of the five largest global platinum group metals miners.

How Hannes van Rensburg’s start-up became a lynchpin of banking in emerging markets

In an effort to combine the world's two largest brewers, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV is trying to buy its nearest competitor, SABMiller Plc, in what would be a record industry deal. The current and also third offer on the table is $104 billion; SABMiller having declined the first two.

Big financial institutions in South Africa have changed their attitude and are now ready to collaborate with FinTech companies, says investment professional Colin Vallis (PlatCol Investments), who was on the panel during the successful 2nd FinTech Africa event in Johannesburg. In the lead up to our 3rd event - in Cape Town on 20 October - Ebrahim Moolla spoke to Colin and got his vision on the state of FinTech in the country. Are there too many virtual payment solutions? Where are the venture capitalists? What should entrepreneurs do better?

Franz Struwig learnt some valuable lessons on the way to seeing his start-up iKubu bought out by global navigation provider Garmin.

Investment company Brait SE, controlled by Christo Wiese, has sold $539 million of five-year convertible bonds in order to fund acquisitions. According to the company, it intends to use the proceeds for general purposes, with a primary focus on funding strategic acquisitions.

According to a recently released McKinsey Global Institute report entitled, "South Africa's Big Five: Bold priorities to unleash inclusive growth", if we focus on better infrastructure delivery we could boost the country's annual GDP by some R260 billion by 2030.

Actis, one of the largest private equity firms in Africa, announced on 1 September that it has acquired a significant minority stake in one of South Africa's leading home furniture retailers: Coricraft Group. The group has a South African footprint of 115 stores, as well as several stores in Namibia and Botswana.