ChemSpec, as a relatively recent arrival on the JSE's AltX, has been through a baptism of fire - literally and figuratively. A fire at its Jaco Place plant last year put the business under extreme pressure to get its new factory up and running ahead of the original schedule.
ChemSpec chief executive Strath Wood said recently: "2009 is a year I never want to remember. Not too many companies have gone through such turmoil and emerged on the other side."
Wood described the events of the past two years as "the perfect storm", as the economic crisis resulted in finance becoming an impossible dream, just as the company needed funding to help pay for the accelerated building programme of its new plant.
But some of the troubles appear to have been of Wood's own making, or at least partly, as he is involved in several legal disputes either in his personal capacity or as chief executive of ChemSpec. These wrangles have dragged the paint maker's name into a bit of a quagmire.
The company's image has not been helped along by the recent appointment of Graham Marwick as its chairman. Marwick was the auditor for collapsed Ponzi scheme Edwafin and the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society passed a resolution in the early 2000s not to accept audit certificates from him, after he failed to detect irregularities in the trust account of lawyer Ian Stokes, who is facing charges of theft.
So it seems that sometimes the benefits of being a listed business, which brings with it far greater scrutiny, can be hard to see. Wood might now be ruing the day he opted for the limelight of a JSE listing.
But if ChemSpec, which some have said is a good business, shines up its tarnished image by delivering good and consistent results in the future, it may yet become a darling of the market.
Tourvest
Soccer - in the UK at least - is considered a working class sport, while rugby is more up-market. But diversified tourism group Tourvest is doing extremely well from the World Cup by concentrating on corporate business instead of working with Fifa's official agents, Match, to look after the needs of ordinary fans.
Eric de Jager, one of Tourvest's experienced directors, says it is arranging accommodation and entertainment for 65 000 corporate guests mainly from the US, UK and continental Europe, during the tournament. "We brought 11 000 in on one day. They arrived on March 10 and we bused them to their hotels and made sure they were well looked after. They have been invited by big international companies including Coca-Cola, adidas and Castrol, who are sponsors of the World Cup."
This goes some way to explaining why some four- and five-star hotels are happy about their occupancy rates, while many suppliers of less expensive accommodation are hoping for last-minute guests to occupy their empty rooms after Match gave up thousands of those it had reserved.
Tourvest's investment in Quay Four waterside restaurants is also paying off. As well as specialising in seafood, these are taverns, where patrons can watch the games on television in more comfort than in the open-air fan parks.
The company began investing in carefully chosen destination restaurants a few years ago and has just added the up-market Hildebrand in Cape Town's Victoria & Alfred Waterfront to its collection.
Despite its Germanic name, the restaurant, which was originally an outlet for imported Theodor Hildebrand chocolates in the 19th century, serves authentic Italian dishes. Tourvest has bought it from the Giroli family, who have run it for the past 30 years, and has engaged an Italian chef.
The group now owns eight restaurants in popular tourist spots including a Quay Four next to Hildebrand on the Waterfront and another Quay Four recently opened in Knysna. Brian Seaman, the managing director of its destination restaurants, said independent research had shown that foreign tourists spent about 14 percent of their budget on food.
African leaders
It does not say a lot for Africa that the 2010 Mo Ibrahim Prize was not presented yet again this year. There was no winner last year as well.
According to a statement, the prize committee - chaired by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan - met at the weekend to discuss the award and informed the Mo Ibrahim Foundation board that it had not selected a winner.
The Ibrahim Prize recognises and celebrates excellence in African leadership. It is awarded to a democratically elected former African head of state or government who has served their term in office within the limits set by the country's constitution and has left office in the previous three years. Clearly Zimbabwe does not qualify given that its president has been around since independence in 1980 and stole the last election. Former president Thabo Mbeki didn't quite serve his full two-term limit, and he left under a cloud.
The first winner was Joaquim Chissano, the former Mozambique president, in 2007. Then it went to Festus Mogae, the former Botswana president, in 2008. Nelson Mandela, who served just one term, was made an honorary laureate in 2007.
Mo Ibrahim, the founder, said he respected the decision not to select a winner. Last year the prize committee could not select a winner "after an in-depth review", although it had considered some credible candidates. This year there had been no new candidates and therefore no selection had been made.
Ebrahim said the standards were set high and the number of potential candidates each year was small. He said, however, that the Ibrahim index, which measured the performance of African countries across 80 governance criteria, indicated that the overall standard of governance was "improving".
Edited by Peter DeIonno. With contributions from Samantha Enslin-Payne, Audrey D'Angelo and Donwald Pressly.