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Articles by Ruby Delahunt
PSG’s quiet compounding act: Why slow and steady wins the race
When you think of insurers or wealth managers, PSG Financial Services might not be the first or even the second company that comes to mind, and it’s not because it isn’t a serious player in the field. PSG lacks the razzmatazz of some of its rivals, but it is a solid business and its latest financial results prove its growth hypothesis. Despite a challenging year, PSG grew recurring headline earnings by 5% to 60.9c per share and declared a dividend of 22c per share (up 10% from last year).
Where to from here for South Africa’s banking giant?
Banking From challenger bank to financial services powerhouse, Capitec has repeatedly proved the sceptics wrong, but its next phase of growth may be its toughest yet Premium Premium access Independent thinking, reserved for subscribers. This article is exclusively for subscribers. Already have an account? Sign in. New to Financial Mail? Create an account to get started. Read the original article: https://fm.co.za/investing/2026-10-14-where-to-from-here-for-south-africa-s-banking-giant/
Has Outsurance broken the expansion curse?
No-one really associates the world of insurance with excitement or innovation. For most people, it is a dull but ultimately necessary thing that few want to dwell on beyond paying their monthly premium. But Outsurance will certainly have a group of hardcore fans in the form of its investors; it is an undeniably solid business, with the share price currently up around 19% year-on-year.
Time to pack it in: Does South Africa even need a Post Office?
Post Office The Post Office has become a byword for dysfunction and irrelevance. After years of bailouts and business rescue, can it still find a reason to exist? Premium Premium access Independent thinking, reserved for subscribers. Sign in to continue reading if you already subscribe. Your place in this article will be waiting when you return. Read the original article: https://fm.co.za/features/2026-09-09-time-to-pack-it-in-does-south-africa-even-need-a-post-office/
AI and the law: The phantom menace
Artificial intelligence As AI gains ground in the legal sphere, where should lawyers and judges draw the line between useful tool and legal liability? Premium Launch access Welcome to the new Financial Mail. From 6 September onwards you’ll need to be logged in to continue reading all our premium articles. Subscribe now to keep access to the FM’s top reporting and analysis, as well as our cracking daily news and markets content.
Can De Beers make diamonds forever again?
So … diamonds are forever, you say. Are we sure about that? The diamond market has, over the past few years, seen a cataclysmic shift that threatens its foundations to the core with the sweeping advent into the market of lab-grown diamonds. The question now is not only what the future of the industry will be, but indeed whether it has a future at all.
Johannesburg is having a gold rush … Sort of
THE last time gold was as valuable, prospectors, gamblers, bounders and other rakes were united in scouring the globe – from California to Johannesburg – with their pickaxes and pans in search of a few grains of gold. It’s not as though we don’t have the same today: arguably South Africa’s zama zamas capture the same endeavour, while modern-day magnates are raking in cash. Gold Fields doubled its profit in 2025; AngloGold Ashanti’s free cash flow tripled to $2.9bn in the same period.
Inside the creation of Pepkor’s new fintech heavyweight
retail Shop2Shop started as a practical solution for township traders to safely handle cash. It is now the key Pepkor’s growth ambitions Premium Launch access Welcome to the new Financial Mail. For a limited time, we’ve unlocked every premium article. Subscribe now to keep reading Financial Mail’s reporting and analysis when the launch offer ends. You might know Pep for its affordable homeware and clothes. But do you know it for its prepaid electricity and tap-to-pay machines?
It’s the end of diamonds as we know them (but lab-growns are fine)
Diamonds Anglo’s desperate bid to sell De Beers, where the diamond firm may be worth just 6% of what it was in 2001, is a stark reminder of how the industry has been reshaped. Does it have a future? Premium Launch access Welcome to the new Financial Mail. For a limited time, we’ve unlocked every premium article. Subscribe now to keep reading Financial Mail’s reporting and analysis when the launch offer ends. So ... diamonds are forever, you say. Are we sure about that?
Valterra: platinum’s poster child?
Though the platinum price has taken a slight fall in the past few months, you wouldn’t know it by Valterra Platinum’s smashing 2026 interim results, released yesterday. In any case, “the prices today are still 30% higher than where they were for 2025”, says Valterra CEO Craig Miller. That’s abundantly clear in the miner’s results, where the platinum group metals (PGM) basket price jumped 85% to $2,801 an ounce, compounding an 18% increase in Valterra’s sales volumes, to 1.7-million ounces.
rain struggles to take the reins
If you haven’t heard of rain, you’ve probably at least seen its router: the colourful ‘the101’ 5g device, which you can customize with funky interchangeable skins created by South African designers like Rich Mnisi and artists like Karabo Poppy. It’s the best dressed router on the market by far – but have you actually used it? Chances are, the answer is no. This is the conundrum for rain as a company; it is boldly visible and yet vaguely nowhere in terms of South Africa’s telecoms pecking order.
Can De Beers make diamonds forever again?
The instinctive response of most analysts to the current woes of the diamond industry is that there has been a dire lack of marketing. But is this true? And, if it is, how difficult will it be for the new owners of De Beers to turn its once awesome marketing ship around? De Beers is a legend in the world of marketing, having famously convinced first Americans and then Asians and then almost everybody around the world that romantic love could not be complete without a diamond gift.
The PIC goes to Hollywood
Late on Monday, finance minister Enoch Godongwana made the critical call to dissolve the board of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), threatening to plunge it back into a governance crisis with nasty echoes from a decade earlier. In a letter to the board, Godongwana effectively told the remaining nine non-executive directors that they could either resign or wait for a board meeting next week. It was no great surprise: the board had been riven by factions.
Northam Platinum’s ‘mine without end’ exposes SA’s supply crisis
NORTHAM Platinum CEO Paul Dunne might joke that “there’s no luck in mining”, but fortune has certainly favoured his company in the past few months. For starters, resource investment company BlackRock upped its stake in the company to 5% last week, following similar investments into Sibanye-Stillwater and Impala Platinum earlier this year.
Northam: digging through the platinum dip
CEO Paul Dunne might joke that “there’s no luck in mining”, but fortune has certainly favoured Northam, the platinum group metals (PGM) miner he heads, in the past few months. For starters, resource investment company BlackRock upped its stake in the company to 5% last week, following similar investments into Sibanye-Stillwater and Impala Platinum earlier this year.
Inside the PIC’s meltdown
It is the mother of all poisoned chalices. This week, Patrick Dlamini was suspended as CEO of South Africa’s largest asset manager, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), over a loan made to a company in 2013, long before he was appointed. From the outside, it seems like Dlamini is taking the fall for the questionable R333.2m loan made to a company called Acapulco, which allowed it to buy 25% of the Lanseria Airport 13 years ago.
The odd bank out
Looking at the major banks in South Africa, every one of them seems to have a star factor. With FNB, it’s eBucks and its digital ecosystem. With Capitec, it’s the simple product, lower fees and branch accessibility. With Standard Bank, it’s the clarity and consistency of its African and Corporate Investment Banking (CIB) businesses. With Investec, it’s a highly personalised service. But with Absa? Well, the experts aren’t quite so sure.
The fintechs muscling in on SA’s credit gatekeepers
Think of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services and it’s easy to pigeonhole them as a means to instant gratification; purchases like shoes and clothes, say. And some people do – “but that’s not the narrative that should build the perception,” says Mark McChlery, Co-founder of PayJustNow. In fact, BNPL is becoming the bedrock of many fintech companies in the credit sphere. PayJustNow forms a part of the Weaver Fintech ecosystem, after being bought out by the listed company in 2022.
A Penny for De Beers’ troubles
Gareth Penny, the former CEO of De Beers and chair of investment firm Ninety One, has emerged as the frontrunner to buy the one-time diamond juggernaut. This is a critical issue not just for countries like the diamond-rich Botswana, whose economy hinges on De Beers’ fortunes, but also Anglo American, which owns 85% of the company that it has been trying to offload for more than a year.
Canal+’s big bet against streaming
Applause rang out in the lobby of the JSE last week when Maxime Saada heralded the listing of Canal+ as “the first French company to list on the JSE”. The bankers who engineered Canal+’s R55bn takeover of MultiChoice last September, JSE executives, analysts and journalists all cheered as Saada blew the kudu horn to signal the beginning of trade and the French company’s debut on the exchange.
The French connection
The story of the sleek, modern Canal+ begins with municipal tap water. Founded by an imperial decree in 1853, the Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE) spent more than a century as a traditional French utility provider before pivoting aggressively into media in the late 20th century. In 1983, CGE partnered with advertising agency Havas to launch Canal+, France’s first encrypted premium pay-TV channel.
Canal+’s big bet against streaming
Applause rang out in the lobby of the JSE last week when Maxime Saada heralded the listing of Canal+ as “the first French company to list on the JSE”. The bankers who engineered Canal+’s R55bn takeover of MultiChoice last September, JSE executives, analysts and journalists all cheered as Saada blew the kudu horn to signal the beginning of trade and the French company’s debut on the exchange.
The French connection
The story of the sleek, modern Canal+ begins with municipal tap water. Founded by an imperial decree in 1853, the Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE) spent more than a century as a traditional French utility provider before pivoting aggressively into media in the late 20th century. In 1983, CGE partnered with advertising agency Havas to launch Canal+, France’s first encrypted premium pay-TV channel.
PPC’s comeback starts to cement itself
Two years into PPC’s turnaround, CEO Matias Cardarelli insists the job is only half done. Investors, however, aren’t so sure. After transforming one of the JSE’s longest-running corporate disappointments into a cash-generating business again, analysts argue that most of the easy gains from cutting costs and improving operations have already been banked.
Do young people care about voting?
Look at any figures regarding young people in South Africa, and you might start to understand why they always complain about having a rough go of it. Youth unemployment sits at a staggering 45.8%, and the NEET rate – meaning those that are not in employment, education, or some form of training – is 38%.
The great rate switcheroo about to impact your cash
If you’d never previously heard of Jibar (the Johannesburg Interbank Average Rate) or Zaronia (the South African Rand Overnight Index Average), you’d be forgiven for thinking they sound like prescription medications or swanky cocktail lounges. In reality, they are two interest rate benchmarks at the centre of one of the biggest changes to South Africa’s financial markets in decades. In fact, the change being made might have more of an impact on your cash than the current Iran war.
Cape storms threaten more than just food security
South Africa’s recent storms have left farms underwater, roads damaged and export supply chains under pressure – but early indications are that the national agricultural market has not been derailed, and the country is still on track for a record grain harvest. The damage is severe where it has landed, particularly in parts of the Western and Eastern Cape.
Can WeBuyCars ride the Chinese import tsunami?
It’s been a tough year for South Africa’s largest second-hand vehicle sales company, and the bruises showed in its latest financial results for the six months ended March. “It’s been a one-way slide,” investment analyst Anthony Clark told Currency ahead of the results release. Ironically, WeBuyCars shares bounced almost 6% on Monday, though the stock is still 20% lower over one year. And nearly all its bottom-line figures are down, too.
How City Power is pushing Victoria Yards to the brink
Take a drive through some of Joburg’s oldest suburbs – like Bertrams, Berea and Bez Valley – and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve wandered onto the set of 2009 sci-fi flick District 9, or perhaps the 1980s classic Blade Runner. But, suddenly, nestled among crumbling apartment blocks, cracked streets and tire-filled lots is a lush oasis known as Victoria Yards, now one of Joburg’s most popular weekend spots.
How Capitec became a banking behemoth
In its quarter of a century of life, Capitec has achieved far more than most 25-year-olds, and indeed more than most of its competitors, even the weary old centenarians in the banking business. Capitec Bank: The bank above all? Today, “it’s arguably the best bank in the world”, says Kokkie Kooyman, executive director at Denker Capital. It’s high praise, but everything about the bank looks stellar.
Optasia: more than meets the AI?
When Optasia exploded onto the JSE last November, there was great investor excitement around it; finally, not only was there a new listing on the exchange, but an impressive one – the largest fintech listing the JSE had seen since 2018. The IPO raised R6.5bn – well over the R1.3bn in new capital Optasia was seeking – and was several times oversubscribed. FirstRand even swooped in early to purchase a 20.1% stake ahead of the listing (which it has recently bumped up to 26.1%).
Why Capitec is miles above the competition
You may think that a change in CEO, a volatile global market and the outbreak of war would shake the foundations of any company. But Capitec – arguably South Africa’s most successful start-up of the past 20 years – is still raking it in. Wednesday’s financials mark the first full-year results for the post-Gerrie Fourie era. When Graham Lee took over the corner office last July, people wondered if the bank’s historic period of hyper-growth would come to an end without its main architect.
Inside the PIC’s bad batch of investments
Last year, a cool R3.6bn of pensioners’ money was wiped out by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC). To any other investment firm, that would be a stunning loss, but for a company managing R3.6-trillion in assets, and specifically R2-trillion of state workers’ pension funds, well, it barely registered. It is one of many in the PIC’s history. Despite its gargantuan size and importance to millions of South Africans, it seems to consistently enter deals that end up failing miserably.
From buy to bye: FirstRand’s R17.7bn UK bungle
The slow-moving car crash that has been FirstRand’s investment in the UK lender Aldermore came to a head this week, with grim consequences for the reputation of South Africa’s second-largest banking group. Back in 2017, when FirstRand bought Aldermore for £1.1bn (R20bn), it lauded this as an “ideal platform” to expand in the UK, while supporting its vehicle finance company MotoNovo. It has proved to be the exact opposite.
Inside Shoprite and Pepkor’s fintech pivot
Would you bank where you buy your boots or pay your bills, and take a loan through the same people you buy your bread from? Shoprite and Pepkor are betting that for millions of South Africans, the answer will be yes. The two major retailers are muscling their way not only into the banking sector, but the entire fintech space. Not just because the money looks good (which it does), but because this market sports a serious gap.
The gravy train economics of CEO pay
If you’ve ever looked up what South African CEOs are getting paid, you’ve probably had to scrape your jaw back off the floor. The latest to score big is incoming Woolworths chief executive Sam Ngumeni with his R100m long-term incentive. And that seems positively mean given the R300m that Old Mutual’s new boss, Jurie Strydom, stands to earn if he hits his targets. Both raise the question: why exactly are CEOs making off with such staggering amounts?
Gen Z means business
It’s tough to be a part of the working world these days, especially when you are a young person freshly booted out of school or university, looking to find your feet on increasingly unsteady ground. Young South Africans are all too aware of the dicey, dire state of the job market and, as the adage goes, beggars can’t be choosers. But no-one with their whole life ahead of them really wants to get tied down to some stuffy corporate entity for the next 40 years – so what is one to do?
The ‘cash back’ clash: Which banks really pay?
Banking can often feel like an all-pain, no-gain exercise. Between fees, push notifications and opaque fine print, there is not much obvious upside beyond the fact that your money is no longer under your mattress. Perhaps because banks know they are hard to love – or simply because rewards are another way to lock in customers – they all offer some sort of incentive scheme. If you are an extreme couponer, you may already know your bank’s rewards system inside out.
GoTyme, Africa’s first profitable digital bank, gets physical
Going “phygital” – that’s what GoTyme will do from the end of this month by withdrawing its kiosks from Pick n Pay stores and rolling out “consumer hubs” instead. It’s a rather strange way to say that, essentially, the bank that began its life as TymeBank, has realised it needs a more physical presence than it has had. These consumer hubs will be dotted all over malls in South Africa and will be staffed by trained GoTyme “ambassadors”, according to spokesperson Pontsho Ramontsha.
Woolworths exorcises ghosts with in2food purchase
Retailer Woolworths is haunted by the ghost of deals past, with its R21.4bn purchase of Australian department-store chain David Jones in 2014 still an era-defining misstep. Its share price today of R52 remains nearly 30% below the R73 a share it was sitting at when then CEO Ian Moir announced the David Jones purchase 12 years ago. Much has happened since: for one thing, Moir was replaced by Roy Bagattini, who then sold David Jones for 93% less than Woolworths had paid.
Weaver Fintech, shedding old skin, passes R1bn profit
Since its founding as the retailer HomeChoice International 40 years ago, Weaver Fintech (which rebranded in July last year) has, against all expectations, bloomed into a pioneering fintech business. It’s an intriguing evolution – from catalogue-based blanket-seller to digital credit hub – but one that has been unbelievably profitable. “We weren’t a bricks-and-mortar or branch-based lender when we decided to become digital,” says Weaver Fintech CEO Sean Wibberley.
De Beers sales gets cheaper, though not easier
Gareth Penny at the African Mining Indaba. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images ANGLO American has massively downgraded the value of De Beers on its balance sheet, suggesting a bargain might be in the offing for its many bidders. Which might make the sale easier and quicker, right? Not so fast, say some analysts.
De Beers sale gets cheaper, though not easier
Gareth Penny at the African Mining Indaba. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images ANGLO American has massively downgraded the value of De Beers on its balance sheet, suggesting a bargain might be in the offing for its many bidders. Which might make the sale easier and quicker, right? Not so fast, say some analysts.
RIP, Gautrain? Not so fast
Since the news broke that the Gauteng provincial government will be taking ownership of the Gautrain on March 28, South Africans have been bidding it farewell across social media. “Rest in peace, Gautrain,” one user wrote on Facebook. “The cadres must be rejoicing,” said another. In further displays of doomerism, AI-generated images of dirtied and dilapidated train stations with street hawkers crowding the platforms have been making the rounds.
De Beers sale gets cheaper, though not easier
Anglo American has massively downgraded the value of De Beers on its balance sheet, suggesting a bargain might be in the offing for its many bidders. Which might make the sale easier and quicker, right? Not so fast, say some analysts. Of course, this is not an obvious conclusion, given that after nearly two years, the sale of the once-formidable diamond business is still dragging along, while the assault of lab-grown gems on the market has intensified.
JSE: Strong results, stuck exchange
The year 2025 was nothing if not good for anyone long the JSE’s all share index. Happily, it was equally rewarding for the exchange itself: shares in the JSE Limited have gained about 40% over one year, with a 6.4% jump on Monday thanks to the strength of its full-year results. Headline earnings were 17% higher, at R13.28 a share on a 15% rise in revenue to R3.4bn.
Upstart Shuka hoping to make a splash
Richard Lloyd, CEO, Shuka Minerals THESE days, the JSE’s mining sector is more like an old-age home for the once-great than a serious contender for prospectors jostling for capital. Unlike Canada, say, with its 175 mining stocks, our bourse counts just 46 contenders, including Sappi, Omnia and Mondi among its ‘basic materials’ segment. But there are a few more upstarts making their home here, including Shuka Minerals.
Inside Capitec’s big bet on fintech
“Agh, don’t worry about Capitec, they’re too small,” a Standard Bank executive told Kokkie Kooyman nearly 20 years ago. It seems laughable now, but at the time Capitec was just a small microlender with no market share in the banking sphere. How times have changed. Today, “it’s arguably the best bank in the world”, says Kooyman, executive director at Denker Capital. It’s high praise, but everything about the bank looks stellar.
Pick n Pay: Lost cause or basement bargain?
“Saying Pick n Pay is in a bad place is not revolutionary,” Richard Cheesman, fund manager at Urquhart Partners, tells Currency. But for investors, it still stings. Take this week’s profit warning, in which the retailer warned investors to brace for a full-year headline loss that will be at least 20% worse than a year ago. It was enough of a surprise to slice off a 10th of Pick n Pay’s market cap.
Shuka: a junior miner with a very grown-up asset
Copy to comeThese days, the JSE’s mining sector is more like an old-age home for the once-great than a serious contender for prospectors jostling for capital. Unlike Canada, say, with its 175 mining stocks, our bourse counts just 46 contenders, including Sappi, Omnia and Mondi among its ‘basic materials’ segment. But there are a few scrappy firms making their home here, including Shuka Minerals.
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