It has been a very rocky last month for investors in South Africa as they have been hit with a combination of factors. These include political tension between the US administration and the ANC and market disruptions caused by US President Donald Trump and his unpredictable approach to trade tariffs.
These factors have resulted in depressed asset prices, weakness in the dollar and a sell-off in Emerging Market currencies.
As a provider of financial Public Relations (PR) services in South Africa, it is important that we keep our finger on the pulse of what is impacting markets.
These are some of the trends we believe are worth keeping an eye on for April 2025.
African Rainbow Capital statistics captures the imagination
Our CEO Marc Ashton was recently interviewed by Moneyweb after his blog post looking at the high-level of retail investor participation bucked the trend that many other JSE companies face around their shareholder base.
If you haven’t read it yet, the article has been our most popular over the last 30 days.
Website traffic and trends
A key source of information for us is our regular analysis of Google Search trends and website traffic. We use this information to help us understand current trends to assist our clients in the B2B marketing space and how we can develop strategies to help them grow.
Some of the trends we have picked up from our analysis of our assets:
- Warren Wheatley / Warren Wheatley + Altvest
- Homechoice International
Both of these were driven by general newsflow with Altvest indicating it was looking at a new offering in Chinese venture capital while Homechoice released its annual results in the last 30 days.
EasyEquities suggests the retail investor market remains full of potential
Few companies have captured the imagination of the South African investing public in the same way that Purple Group (the owners of EasyEquities) – which has aimed to democratise access to investing.
The company released its results for the 6 months to end February 2025 and reported healthy inflows as well as a monthly record of R1.4bn in deposits in February.
An interesting statistic reported by Moneyweb:
“In 2022, it was seeing average inflows per client of R5 200 across the six months (about R900 a month) versus the R3 800 to R3 500 levels seen in the last two comparative periods. However, it remains 50% below the nearly R8 000 level (R7 770) it achieved in 2022.”
While domestic markets have struggled to gain traction over the last 12 – 24 months, these figures are interesting when viewed in comparison to the wave of over 2.4 million withdrawals via the “Two-Pot” system over the last 6 months. Are South Africans opting to use some of their savings for discretionary investment purposes?
“FinFluencers” and Financial Education initiatives are facing a wake-up call
The reach of social media platforms including Twitter (X), LinkedIn, Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp and TikTok have created an interesting dilemma for regulators in the financial services sector as they weigh up the definition of “advice” and “education”.
With many of these platforms having far greater reach than traditional media outlets, this means that financial planners, asset managers, stockbrokers and other industry role-players are utilising them to find new clients and access new markets.
The Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) has attempted to try and regulate activities and has recently published its “Draft Conduct Standard” for consideration.
The Daily Maverick team have put together a great overview of the proposed regulations.
The state of the automotive market in South Africa
When it comes to B2B marketing in South Africa, the automotive sector is an incredibly important one at a variety of levels. Not only does SA has a deep base of OEMs but has also seen the entrance of a number of Indian and Chinese brands on the import front.
This makes it a strategic sector to follow.
Our friends from Ornice have recently released its 2025 Automotive Sector report and some of the insights include:
- Which brands spent the most on advertising? Breakdown of TV, radio, print, and digital investments.
- Top-performing campaigns that captured attention and drove engagement.
- Which platforms delivered the highest impact—TV vs. radio vs. social media?
You can download the report here.
A quiet month for the Cape Town Stock Exchange (CTSE)
Following the departure of the Altvest stable of businesses, newsflow on the CTSE remains muted.
The primary announcements for April (to date):
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- TWK Agri have entered into negotiations regarding the potential acquisition of the northern operations (“MTO North”) of MTO Forestry Proprietary Limited
- Transformational Investment Portfolio One Limited (TIP ONE) advised the market that as at 31 March 2025, its NAV was R 6.6 million (R9.8 million as at 31 December 2024). This translates to a NAV per share of R0.17 (R0.26 as at 31 December 2024).
Welcome to Alpine Capital
We welcome a new client to our stable in the form of Alpine Capital.
Alpine Capital are an owner-managed financial services provider for modern investors looking to access offshore investment strategies.
If you are looking for some suggestions on how to navigate financial markets in 2025, the team has recently released its first quarter investment report which you can access here.
Looking for a PR or Investor Communications Partner?
When it comes to Financial PR and B2B communications strategies in South Africa, we have a proven track record of securing clients coverage across a variety of platforms.
We believe we add value to our clients across multiple channels and would love to meet with you to discuss your requirements.
If you would like to setup a meeting to discuss, please do not hesitate to contact us.