Star 2021-05-17

SPEAR, the only regionally specialised Reit on the JSE focused on Western Cape property, saw its distributable income per share fall 19.94 percent to 73.38 cents in the year to end-February, 2021. The distribution per share fell 35.95 percent to 58.70c. The final dividend per share was down 37.56 percent to 29.36c, and the payout pay-out ratio was 80 percent of distributable income a share, versus 100 percent payout in the prior period. The group, which owns 32 industrial-, retail-, commercial- and hospitality-focused properties, collected 7.79 percent of billings versus the billings as measured as at April 30, 2021. Net asset value fell by 5.57 percent to 1 153c per share. Portfolio occupancy stood at 93.84 percent, and was 100 percent for the Western Cape properties. The…

SOUTH Africa wants a free 20 percent stake in oil and gas exploration and production ventures under a new upstream petroleum bill, which allows the minister to reserve petroleum blocks for black investors, a copy of the bill showed on Friday. The Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill approved by the Cabinet earlier this week is meant to help regulate a nascent industry in the country following new offshore gas finds by France’s Total that helped unlock a new petroleum frontier off South Africa’s coast. If the legislation is passed in its current form, it could mean vast sums flow into state coffers. But it could also put off investors at a time when the world is turning away from fossil fuels due to climate change, and the impact of…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za STEINHOFF International said its subsidiary Pepco Group has set a price of e8.80 (R150.21) a share for its listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and values the company at €5 billion (R85.33bn). Pepco Group, which owns brands such as Poundland, Pepco and Dealz, is a fast-growing pan-European discount variety retailer, serving more than 50 million customers in more than 3 200 stores in 16 countries. The group expects to list and trade from May 26 on the Polish bourse. Steinhoff has also decided to sell in connection with the initial public offering (IPO) of Pepco Group 102.27 million existing shares, excluding the over-allotment option. Steinhoff said the number of shares that it was selling includes 23.11 million shares that have been sold…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE SOUTH African Reserve Bank (SARB) is expected to keep interest rates steady at 3.5 percent as the stronger rand and high commodity prices are supporting the economy amid accelerating consumer prices. The SARB’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet this week for the third time since the beginning of the year to determine the bank’s monetary policy. The rand has strengthened signifi- cantly since the beginning of the year, while commodity prices such as copper and iron ore have experienced double-digit growth. In the previous meeting, the MPC unanimously decided to leave rates unchanged, but warned that its implied policy rate path indicated an increase of 25 basis points in each of the second and fourth quarters of 2021. Investec economist Kamilla Kaplan…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za RETAILER The Foschini Group has warned that its full-year earnings are likely to fall by 85 percent, hurt by a R2.7 billion tax non-cash impairment of its TFG London stores, which were knocked by Covid-19 lockdowns. The group, which has operations in South Africa, Australia and the UK, said on Friday that it expected its basic headline earnings per share (Heps) for the year to end of March to decline by between 75 and 85 percent to between 154.4 cents a share and 257.3c, down from 1 029.3c reported last year. Its earnings per share (Eps) was likely to fall by between 160 and 170 percent, which would result in the group reporting a loss of between 555.4c and 648c…

THE SHARE price of road, earthworks, infrastructure and materials group Raubex rose sharply last week after it reported a strong recovery in the second half of the year to February, a record order book, and more contracts on the way. Construction companies have been out of favour among investors for years, because of low infrastructure spending by the government and constrained private sector investment. Many of the listed firms in the sector have encountered financial difficulties. Good news from any company in the sector is novel. Raubex’s share price was up 0.18 percent to R28.35 on Friday, but it had increased 11 percent from a week before. If I were a cautious investor, and despite the good news, I would wait six months for Raubex to recover properly…