14
DistrictMail
Sake Business
22 Mei, 2014
G’Bay business elect a new exco
Global equities, sweet spot or bear trap
The Gordon’s Bay Business Forum (GBBF) held its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 14 May wrapping up a busy year and electing a new executive committee. In his report, Danie Miller, the Chairperson of the GBBF, announced that the forum currently has 138 members and has received several applications from local business people to join the forum. Some of the successful projects in the period March 2013 to February 2014 includes the Winter Wonderland where the Festival of Lights was a highlight.Millersaidanevenbiggerandbetter Winter Wonderland is planned for this year. Miller said the Leapfrog Race has also shown immense growth and has become one of the premier road running events in the Western Cape and brought thousands of visitors to our village. The GBBF also boasts a new website (www.gbbf.co.za) Another event with growth potential is the River Walk, established in November last year. Miller says there are
The Gordon's Bay Business Forum executive committee are (from left), Cyril Brown (secretary), Anton Gerber (treasur er), Danie Miller (chairperson), Kevin Wearing (vicechair person), André Paulsen (additional member) and Marla Nortje (additional member). Anel van Reenen (insert) is also an additional member. already plans on improving this walk. The Gordon’s Bay Residents Association joined the GBBF as an associate member. The GBBF now has 21 associate members A beach clean-up takes place on the
first Saturday morning of each month. Anyone is welcome to join. “It is a pleasure to report on an exciting and successful year. A sense of community and pride in our town is growing,” said Miller
Are you the next Business Woman of the Year ? The president of the SA Council for Business Women, Hester du Bruyn, invites successful business women of South Africa to enter their prestigious Business Woman of the Year competition. Different business structures are catered for in the competition’s three categories Entrepreneurs, Professional and Corporate.
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The entrants will be judged at three regional judging events which will be held in Pretoria, Witbank and Bloemfontein. The finalists of the regional judging will be judged at the national judging on 11 and 12 September 2014 in Pretoria. The winners will be announced at the SACBW prestigious gala dinner on 13 September in Pretoria.
The SA Council for Business Women’s slogan “Unlocking potential” is key to their goal to see women grow to their full potential, reach their goals and succeed in business. For more information on how to enter the competition, please visit the website www.sacbw.org or send an e-mail to vicebwoy@sacbw.org.
Global equity markets have run hard since tanking in 2009. Is this sustainable or are new investors being enticed into a classic “bear trap”? A bear trap refers to the risk of investing at a market peak just before an inevitable correction. As irrational investors we usually get the timing horribly wrong, just when we decide it is safe to venture back into the markets the “bear” jumps out and we are left with a bloody nose or worse. The question is, is there a “bear” hiding in the woods or can we continue enjoying the “hike” for a little longer? I am cautiously optimistic that markets will continue to grind higher for the next year or two based on excess global liquidity. Let me explain further. The new US Governor of the Federal Reserve (Fed), Janet Yellen, has continued with Mr Bernanke’s tapering of their quantitative easing programme (QE), which now stands at $45 billion per month and is anticipated to reduce further at $10 billion
increments, coming to an end before 2015. QE is simply the Fed buying government bonds from commercial banks, thus injecting cash into the market in exchange for paper IOU’s. Using the punch bowl analogy, the tapering of QE is akin to filling the punch bowl with less each month, but not removing the punch bowl. The cash is still very much in the system and will be looking for a home in equity and property investments. The Fed is currently under no pressure to “take the punch bowl” away given weak inflationary pressures. So I think the party will continue. Needless to say “the more you drink the more likely you are to suffer a hangover”, which is why investors will need to be aware of potential future bubbles in asset prices. Current asset valuations do not appear to be indicating any obvious bubbles. Now might very well be a sweet spot for investors with reasonable valuations underpinned by excess global liquidity.
Mark Williams Mcomm, CFP, HDipTax 0 021 851 3746 2 mark@synfin.co.za