Simon’s weekly wrap: M&A reform, crypto regulated and volatility lessons

I spoke with newly installed MAS CEO Mihail Vasilescu as the company has been selling off properties in its Eastern European portfolio. We spoke around growth trends in the region and the new strategy for MAS that will see it moving away from its current roots as a property stock.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

Local M&A (merger and acquisition) regulations determine which corporate mergers or acquisitions are required to be notified to the Competition Commission and I spoke with Ahmore Burger-Smidt from Werksmans Attorneys about recent changes. There are fee increases but more important, the deal sizes that needed to be notified have increased, which should reduce the workload and help improve efficiencies.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

I chatted with Mark MacSymon from Private Client Holdings about market volatility and investors’ responses to it. He makes the point that volatility is a feature of markets and that the risk to our portfolios is less about that volatility and more about our behavioural response to volatility.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

There was a lot of concern from the crypto community when National Treasury announced the Draft Capital Flow Management Regulations. But recent clarifying statements were meant to alleviate those fears, and I spoke with Bitexen CEO Mark Diuga about whether they really did. He is happy that concerns have been cleared up and that the intent of the regulations is not to criminalise crypto.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.