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Not far off..

Hmmm... That's more like it !

SABMiller (SAB) added 3.8 percent to 2,942 pence. Sanford C. Bernstein raised its rating on the world’s second-biggest brewer to outperform, the equivalent of buy, from market perform. The brokerage said growth may improve significantly as the effects of emerging-market currency moves may be waning.

(Bloomberg today)

Glencore Xstrata: A controversial colossus

Part extract:-

Xstrata said its combined companies paid more than $4.3-billion in royalties and taxes and it has profit-sharing or other financial agreements in place. As heavily invested as the directors are in the company, and being listed to boot, they have been working to clean up their corporate image and grow their market valuation, Major said.

Glencore Xstrata, with a market capitalisation of around $70-billion, is somewhat behind that of resources leader Rio Tinto with $83-billion, just ahead of BHP Billiton's $64-billion and considerably ahead of Anglo American's $34-billion. Anglo is seen as a likely future takeover target for Glencore Xstrata, although the company has refused to speculate on possible acquisitions.

David van Wyk, lead researcher at the Bench Marks Foundation, which has been looking into companies such as Glencore since 2001, did fieldwork in the DRC as part of a published report on Glencore titled Contracts, Human Rights and Taxation: How a Company Exploits a Country.

"If Glencore realises its dream of taking over Anglo, South Africa would be in Glasenberg's pocket. Should it take Anglo, it would become the biggest mining company in the world," said Van Wyk. "We have copies of Senate reports from the US that express concern about the monopolistic nature of Glencore."

Glencore Xstrata is more vertically integrated than other resources companies — being active in upstream mining and resource extraction as well as downstream marketing. Its marketing and logistics activities mean the company has the advantage of strategic intelligence and the ability to understand the cycle and underlying supply and demand issues.

"The vision is one of a large number of people on the ground collecting real-time info from the market," said Gait. "Presumably, this means it can respond to changes in the market faster than other mining companies [can]."

And it's this advantage that saw Eskom trying to block the merger between Glencore and Xstrata in early 2013 when, in a confidential last-minute submission, of which the Mail & Guardian has a copy, the parastatal detailed pressing concerns about the merged Glencore Xstrata's ability to influence domestic coal prices and take advantage of the utility's supply shortfalls. It claimed the company's "endgame" was to introduce an export market-related price factor for coal.

But on the day it was meant to make its case at the Competition Tribunal, Eskom met with Glencore behind closed doors and suddenly withdrew its objection. A memorandum of understanding was drawn up and both parties refuse to divulge details of the agreement.

"You can bet their endgame is export parity prices in South Africa. All coal producers in South Africa have an 'endgames' target of export parity pricing," said Major. "Eskom is terrified because they know it's coming."

But Glencore group executive Clinton Ephron recently commented, as reported by Business Day, that the company believes it still has some space left to explore mergers and acquisitions relating to South African coal before competition authorities might block them. Its shareholding in the Richards Bay terminal is not nearly as high as that of some previous shareholders, he said, and does not account for even one-fifth of Eskom's coal supply.

Glencore Xstrata's latest results, as detailed in the company's annual report, showed strong financials driven by aggressive cost-cutting measures. Adjusted net income was at $3.7-billion. It says it expects acquisition synergies following the takeover of Xstrata to amount to $2.4-billion a

In its report, the company said it intends to "pursue a progressive dividend policy with the intention of maintaining or increasing its total ordinary dividend each year".

Major said: "Ivan would lure in a lot more investors by paying higher-than-industry dividends for a few years. He wants to stand out from the other mining companies in many ways."

After seeing this, I consider everyting I do as low risk. 

Hi, Orca. This might be of interest. Dumb user, Smart TV - LG 42LN570 review

Read this and weep, that is if you are white.

The NDR: FW de Klerk's reply to Cyril Ramaphosa

Most seriously, the NDR's central goal is a comprehensive state campaign to harm the legitimate interests of citizens on the basis of their race by eliminating what it calls "apartheid property relations" (whatever they may be). "This requires the de-racialisation of ownership and control of wealth, including land; equity and affirmative action in the provision of skills and access to positions of management..."  "De-racialisation", in the NDR's simplistic analysis, means that, ultimately, whites should own 9% of the wealth and land because they comprise 9% of the population - regardless of the legitimacy of their ownership rights, their skills and their contribution to the economy and to society.

I agree with Ramaphosa on the need for section 9(2) measures to promote equality. However, Ramaphosa completely ignores section 9(3) and 9(5), which prohibit unfair racial discrimination by the state and which declare that discrimination is unfair unless it is established that it is fair.

It really is time to emigrate.

@forward curve. Agree with all your posts.

Heheheheh  = MDC. What does Buffet say - buy when others are fearful. This looks like one of those shares. Fundamentals are still good. Actually this the the type of share that should be bought. But don't take my word for it.

They have already reverted to positive EPS growth, and forward PE is about 19. So you can see how once off items can mislead. They used the low
interest rate scenario to refinance most of their debt. Good move.
Anyway, this is a 57 billion Rand giant. No. 28 by Market Cap. So, Patrick and Snakepit, sharpen your pencils. 

UNAUDITED INTERIM GROUP RESULTS OF MEDICLINIC INTERNATIONAL LIMITED AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2013
AND DECLARATION OF CASH DIVIDEND


SALIENT FEATURES

- Strong growth in patient admissions and bed-days sold

- Positive effects of Group refinancing as well as acquisition of minority interests in Mediclinic Middle East completed in October 2012

- Basic normalised headline earnings per share increased by 58% to 152.0 cents

- Interim dividend per ordinary share increased to 28.0 cents (2012: 25.3 cents)