Star 2021-05-18

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE BUSINESS sector yesterday vowed to assist the government in quickly ramping up the country’s vaccination capacity in a bid to fast-track economic recovery. At the launch of a private/public partnership to provide R1.35 billion Covid-19 vaccine relief for uninsured workers who do not have medical aid cover, business said it had the means to ramp-up vaccination capacity. “We will bring 13 private sites online, capable of administering 3 500 vaccines per day, increasing to nearly 40 sites by the end of this week, and nearly 80 sites by the end of next week, by which time we should have capacity of over 22 000 vaccinations per day,” said Martin Kingston, Business for South Africa (B4SA) chairperson of the steering committee. The Compensation Fund…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za ADAPT IT said yesterday that an independent expert, Nodus Capital TS, had recommended to its shareholders to reject the Huge Group’s offer, citing that the offer is unfair and unreasonable to its shareholders. The Huge Group tabled an offer of 55 cents a share for the entire issued share capital of Adapt IT in January, valuing the provider of specialised software and digitally-led business solutions at R795 million. However, Adapt IT share price has since rallied, fuelled by the news of its proposed acquisition and reached a high of R7.20 when the Canadian- based software company, the Volaris Group, entered the race last month for its takeover, offering 650c a share. Nodus Capital was appointed by Adapt IT’s independent board in February to express an…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za SOUTH African manufacturing companies have backed calls to increase their production capacity instead of relying on imports in a bid to boost the forecast gross domestic product growth. A report launched yesterday showed that local manufacturing businesses could increase their capacity by substituting 20 percent of non- petroleum goods imports for domestically produced goods within five years. The report was launched by the Business Unity SA (Busa) in conjunction with the Business leadership SA (BLSA) after research and consulting firm Intellidex surveyed 125 businesses. It is particularly important as the government has placed localisation as a central cog in the machinery of policy to best assist South Africa’s economic recovery. Intellidex said the general sentiment among the 125 companies surveyed was that they support attempts to…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za SOUTH32, the Australian-headquartered mining company yesterday flagged a loss of up to $175 million (R2.47 billion) from the sale of its South Africa Energy Coal (Saec) to Seriti Resources as Eskom gave its consent for the transaction. South32 chief executive Graham Kerr said yesterday that on completion of the divestment the group expected to book a loss on sale of between $125m (R1.7bn) and $175m, while the group’s net cash balance was expected to reduce by about $180m to reflect the recognition of the vendor support package being provided to Seriti. “For South32, completion of the divestment is an important milestone that will see us significantly simplify our business, reduce our capital intensity and improve our underlying operating margins,” said Kerr. South32 previously announced…

CALGRO M3, a leader in the development of integrated residential developments and memorial parks, returned to profitability in the year to February 28 after revenue, gross profit and the balance sheet improved. Chief executive Wikus Lategan said it was a particularly pleasing set of results, given that the group had faced enormous challenges during the financial years 2016 to 2018, following which hard decisions were made and executed in 2019 and 2020. “We’ve managed to reduce our debt and cut our fixed costs substantially by 40 percent, sell non-core projects and the residential rental portfolio, and ultimately improve liquidity,” he said. Debt was restructured, and only R70 million remained in capital market maturities in the next 24 months. The construction division was being outsourced. Overall revenue for the year decreased…

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za PREMIER Fishing and Brands (Premier), one of South Africa’s largest black-owned and managed fishing groups, delivered a solid interim performance in the six months to February 28 and it further anticipated a good second half barring unforeseen events, chief executive Rushaan Isaacs said yesterday. A 5 cents a share dividend was declared. This was after “much work and dedication” by the group and its employees during a period in which operations and markets were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and a number of measures were taken to counteract this such as the multi-skilling of staff across operations, Isaacs said. The share price rallied 10.13 percent to 87 cents at the close on the JSE yesterday. Revenue increased 32 percent to R284m and gross profit was…