Star 2021-05-20

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za THE NATIONAL Treasury did not support the Pension Funds Amendment Bill that aims to allow workers who were in financial distress to access their pension savings through loans, Treasury’s tax and financial sector policy head, Ismail Momoniat, said yesterday. This was even though workers were going through a period of severe financial distress caused by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic because of salary cuts, retrenchments, and illness and death in families, trade union Cosatu told Parliament’s standing committee on finance yesterday. Momoniat told the committee that the aim of retirement reform was to encourage savings and reduce poverty, because South Africa had a very low savings rate, and the household savings that did take place were mostly contractual through the deduction of pension fund contributions from…

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has imposed a R100 000 administrative penalty on Absa Bank Over the Counter Derivatives Provider (Absa ODP) after it failed to meet a licence condition. An Absa spokesperson said yesterday that the fine had arisen from a five-day delay in submitting a report to the FSCA. Absa ODP was granted a licence to operate as an over-the-counter derivatives provider (ODP) on September 21 last year. One of the licence conditions stipulated that an ODP had to submit a report from its independent auditors regarding its systems, processes, procedures and capacity to report all its OTC derivatives transactions to the FSCA, within six months of licensing, thereafter annually. However, Absa ODP had failed to submit the audit report on March 1,…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za NINETY One plc yesterday reported its first full-year results after unbundling from Investec in March last year and reported a record performance from its assets under management (AuM), which rose by 27 percent to £130.9 billion (R2.6 trillion) supported by positive market movements. The group also benefited from the market recovery following the initial downward market impact at the start of the financial year as market and foreign exchange impact added £27.7bn in the year to end March compared to a loss of £14bn to AuM last year. This performance was offset by net outflows of £200 million compared with net inflows of £6bn reported last year. Chief executive Hendrik du Toit paid tribute to their clients for their support during the challenging year…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za SOUTH African consumers could soon be forking out more for goods as businesses pass on price increases after the annual rate of inflation in April rose to its highest level in 14 months. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that the annual rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 4.4 percent last month, up from 3.2 percent in March. This CPI reading was the highest inflation rate since February last year. Inflation was pushed up by the rising prices of food and transport because of the uptick in economic activity. Transport inflation jumped to 10.6 percent in April as petrol prices reached their highest level on record, with the price of inland 95 octane petrol rising by R1 to…

INVESTEC Property Fund (IPF) declared a 47.71 cents per share final dividend in the six months to March 31, bringing the full year dividend to 92.23c per share and reflecting a 95 percent of distributable earnings payout ratio. Distributable earnings fell 33.8 percent year-on-year to 97.08c per share, but the gearing was at 38.3 percent at year-end, allowing IPF to continue paying out dividends throughout the pandemic and leaving it well position- ed for future growth, a statement from the group said yesterday. Joint chief executive Andrew Wooler (pictured) said the South African portfolio weathered a greater Covid-19 impact. Europe, however, saw logistics demand and structural changes accelerate through the pandemic, underpinning the fund’s stability through the downturn. Delivery on strategy through the global uncertainty and…

CHROME ore and platinum group metals (PGM) producer Tharisa Minerals expects to post a leap of up to 500 percent in interim earnings during the six months ended March 2021 on higher metal prices, it said yesterday. Tharisa said basic earn- ings per share and headline earnings a share for the six months ended March 2021 would jump to between 21 US cents (R2.95) and 22 US cents with a tolerance of 10 percent relative to earnings per share and headline earnings a share of 3.6 and 3.7 US cents a share a year earlier. In April. Tharisa announced that PGM production had improved by 11.5 per- cent on a 6E basis in the March quarter and chrome concentrate production risen by 15.5 percent compared…