Today saw the publication of not one, but two, business confidence indices. One from the business grouping SACCI, and the other from RMB/BER. Both suggested that there has been a slump in confidence, although the scale of the fall differed between them.

SACCI:
The SACCI Business Confidence Index (BCI) declined slightly from 90.7 in July to 90.5 in August 2013. Apart from the impact of labour protest activity, SACCI identified three further significant economic challenges confronting the South African business environment – slow economic growth, rising inflation and the exchange rate of the rand.

RMB/BER:

After fluctuating around the neutral 50 mark for about a year now, the RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (BCI) fell notably into net negative territory in the third quarter. The BCI declined by six index points to 42, which indicates that close to three fifths of the respondents rated prevailing business conditions as unsatisfactory.

Conclusion:

If business is worried, we should all be.

Tweet of the day:

Puns (@omgthatspunny): A noun and a verb were dating but they broke up because the noun was too possessive.

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Some good news today for manufacturing. The seasonally adjusted Kagiso Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) increased by 4.3 points to 56.5 in August. The index is now at its highest level since August Moreover, the employment element of the index is also up, which suggests that more jobs are being created. ZA Confidential sought reaction from Mike Schussler, George Glynos and Mike Arnold from the Manufacturing Circle.

ZA Confidential is e-mailed to subscribers. For details on subscriptions, please contact zaconfidential@gmail.com

Mixed impressions on my first visit to the new Virgin Classic Gym in Sandton.

Tweets of the Day:

Political Humor (@PoliticalLaughs): Q: What is Bill Clinton’s definition of safe sex? A: It’s when Hillary is out of town.

Puns (@omgthatspunny): The frustrated cannibal threw up his hands.

Bucky Isotope (@BuckyIsotope): What’s your angle? I ask the protractor. He’s being obtuse. I’m having acute paranoia. This can’t be right.

Johan Venter (@JohanOsVenter): Joke of the day : I asked my friend from New Zealand how many sexual partners he’s had, he started counting and fell asleep

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Today’s ZA Confidential will once again look at two topics – the financial results of engineering and construction group Murray & Roberts, as well as a brief glance at Woolworths’ results.

We will include expert comment from Simon Brown of justonelap.com

Tweets of the day:

Funny One Liners (@funnyoneliners): I finally found a diet plan that works. It’s called ‘The Cost of Food’.

Political Humor (@PoliticalLaughs): Don’t steal; the government hates competition.

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Today’s ZA Confidential will, unusually, look at two topics. The first is the unexpected resignation of Sasol CFO Christine Ramon, and the second is the protests from ZA poultry producers about tough conditions.

SASOL

Company directors come and go, but what the markets don’t like is when they go abruptly, with little warning or explanation. Highly-regarded Sasol CFO Christine Ramon is to leave abruptly, and the company hasn’t given much detail on the reason for her departure. Presumably had she done wrong, it would have been more forthcoming. However, it may just be that she has been snapped up elsewhere, in a corporate world where talented women are much in demand. Or maybe she just doesn’t get on with the big boss? More may be revealed when Sasol releases its financial results on September the 9th.

CHICKEN

We have seen results this week from both Country Bird and Rainbow Chicken (about to be re-named RCL) – two local poultry producers who complain of tough times. The main culprit appears to be dumped chicken in the ZA market, with calls on the dti to further protect against imports, but high feedstock prices are also being blamed. However, I have heard the EU Ambassador suggest that the real problem is not cheap imports, but the way in which our poultry producers run their businesses.

These two topics are discussed by our experts, who include Duane Newman, Jacques Theron, Ian Cruickshanks and Keith Mclachlan

Tweet of the day:

Funny Tweets (@iQuoteComedy): Zombies eat brains… You’re safe.

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The South African economy is growing, albeit slowly. Stats out today show that quarter on quarter growth in the second quarter of 2013 was 3% (up from 0.9% in Q1), with the annual growth number of 2%. This is not enough to do much for job creation, but at least the second quarter was better than the first.

Today’s ZA Confidential includes expert comment from Chris Hart, Mike Schussler, Sizwe Nxedlana, the DA and Nedbank.

Tweets of the day:

Joel Ingersoll (@FlyoverJoel): I’ve crunched the numbers and it’s cheaper to start your own octopus farm than to buy retail printer ink.

Fake Dispatch (@Fake_Dispatch): Military experts say that the United States has no sliver bullet against Syria. This means that if Syria is a werewolf, we are screwed.

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Bidvest reported a 14.9 increase in revenue, with normalised headline earnings a share up 15.4 percent for the year to June.

CEO Brian Joffey says the hostile Adcock Ingram acquisition is “a work in process. The shareholders will finally make the decision. Time will tell.”

Already a global force, Africa is seen as an important area for Bidvest’s expansion. What did our experts have to say?

Today’s ZA Confidential included comments from Lavan Gopaul and Ron Klipin.

Tweets of the day:

Nein. (@NeinQuarterly): A nihilist and a nihilist walk into a bar. Nothing happens.

Chester Missing (@chestermissing): What’s the difference between a revolution and a coup? A coup is a revolution without US backing.

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Cabinet decided this week that there will be a triplet sibling for the two coal-fired power stations currently under construction – Medupi and Kusile. This new project, currently dubbed Coal 3, will start up once the current two plants have been completed. Coal-powered plants are polluting and the decision to build another one appears to be anti-green. However, given the power constraints in ZA, maybe this decision was inevitable?

We got expert comment from Mike Schussler, Duane Newman and Andrew Kenny.

Tweets of the day:

Fake Dispatch (@Fake_Dispatch): A bar walks into a bartender. The horse says, "You’re not good at telling jokes, are you?"

Duncan McLeod (@mcleodd): Three 24-hour news channels on a premium satellite platform that reaches a limited audience in a developing economy. Okay, then…

Frans Cronje (@FCronje_SAIRR): Well done to @AgangSA leader for saying it’s ok to be wealthy and that Mandela was not a poor man. It needed to be said.

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