A good week
Poor Bob van Dijk, and his share options, have been through the wringer of late as the world fell deeply out of love with the Chinese growth story. However, investment bank JPMorgan, never one for a halfhearted flip-flop, has now decided China is investable after all — just two months after assigning a screeching “sell” rating to a host of Chinese companies. This week, it upgraded NetEase, Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan, iQIYI, Dingdong and Pinduoduo to “buy” status, giving Tencent’s biggest single shareholder, Prosus, a handy fillip after months of torture. We trust that the argument of factors entirely beyond his control will hold equal weight for the bad times and the good, when Prosus’s remuneration committee sits down again to work out his annual pay haul.
A bad week
Pieter Kwakernaak was not in the driver’s seat of the truck that was captured on several cameras last Saturday morning, but he has been left holding the wheel, so to speak. The truck was seen hurtling down the Amajuba Pass, overtaking on white lines and endangering other road users. Kwakernaak, MD of Ni-Da Group Transport, which owns the truck, had plenty of explaining — and apologising — to do on Monday morning when videos of the ride went viral. He was contrite, but his claims that the truck was not old and that, according to the company’s calculations, it was not speeding, reassured no-one.