Research and Insights

Owners of businesses often reach a natural decision to leave at some point in their career. Giving up ownership to a new party, investor, private equity group or even to the next generation is never an easy task. However planning and preparation could ensure that you don’t miss any crucial steps in the process.

Financing a football club comes with its set of risks including bankruptcy. Mark Bladon analyses a club’s sources of income, its main overheads, traditional sources of financing and establishes why creativity is required to protect a bank’s downside risk.

SA has seen the rand weaken on a recent slew of bad news ranging from Moody’s rating downgrades of both SA’s and its key corporates’ debt (see “Ratings update: Moody’s indicates further downgrades may follow yesterday’s downgrade of SA government bonds”, 28th September 2012, contact details below), S&P’s downgrade, violent strike action and increased political tensions, to worsening global economic activity and renewed concerns over the euro zone debt crisis.

In the current environment of historically low interest rates and yields, investors would do well to consider the benefits of dividend investing. Overtime, dividends have contributed a large proportion of the total return from equities, while the dividend component of the total return has also proved far less volatile. With the debate still raging over whether central bank actions around the world to stimulate global economic growth will ultimately prove inflationary, the potential for dividend growth as a ward against inflation should also be considered.