2026

The pension overhaul in this Budget is, in its direction, both defensible and overdue. But the way it has been designed produces an uncomfortable result – a reform sold on fairness lands hardest on a group that isn’t rich.

Every year at budget time, it’s very much the same ritual: the budget speech lands, and within hours it gets sorted into a box. Pro-business or pro-social. Pro-demand-side or pro-supply side. MSM or PTR (with MMM orbiting somewhere).

Evaco Ltd was placed in receivership on 26 May 2026. Its own published accounts had been signalling distress for at least two years. What the numbers said, where the risk now sits, and what other developers, lenders, and a jurisdiction built on foreign property capital should take from it.

The standard account of Mauritius's 1990s financial services pivot is tidy: the EPZ matured, wages rose, and a pragmatic government found a new pillar. It might also be incomplete, because , it omits the actors who most directly shaped the transition and what they stood to gain. This proposition aims to dig a little deeper: the shift from EPZ manufacturing to offshore financial services was not merely a policy response to economic maturity.

When valuing a private company, the discount rate is where most of the real work - and most of the debate - happens. One component sits at the centre of that debate more than any other: the Company-Specific Risk Premium, or CSRP.

Every year, the IMF conducts a bilateral review of each member country's economy under Article IV of its Articles of Agreement. The findings are the closest thing to an independent, authoritative audit of a country's macroeconomic health. For Mauritius, this is the most credible external assessment available - more rigorous than any local commentary. What the 2026 mission found was not alarming. But it was pointed.

On 28 February 2026, US and Israeli forces struck Iran. Within days, the Strait of Hormuz — through which 25% of the world's seaborne oil trade passes — was effectively closed. The IEA called it the greatest global energy security challenge in history. Brent crude crossed $100 a barrel. Global shipping rerouted overnight.

Something is shifting across Africa. It is not loud. It is not on the front pages. But for anyone who works with numbers for a living, it is unmistakable.

The DCF model is an elegant machine. Feed it projected free cash flows, a discount rate, and a terminal growth assumption, and it returns intrinsic value with mathematical authority. For a utility, an insurance company, or a consumer staples group, this works well. Cash flows are relatively stable, margins are predictable, and competitive dynamics shift slowly enough to be modelled. Frontier AI firms violate every one of these premises.

Africa’s startup ecosystem entered 2026 in a more selective and valuation-conscious investment environment. After several years of aggressive venture capital deployment into African fintech, logistics, mobility, and technology platforms, investors are increasingly shifting focus toward financial clarity, sustainable growth, operational scalability, and long-term value creation.