Star 2021-07-27

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za TIGER Brands, the company whose polony factories were responsible for the highest listeriosis outbreaks four years ago, yesterday recalled 20 million canned vegetable products due to “an extremely small number of defective cans” from a packaging supplier. The recall was as a result of a weld defect that could lead to a leak and would likely be concluded in 120 days, the group said. It also estimated that the impact would be up to R650 million, including the cost of the potentially affected stock that may be written off, transport and storage costs, and the loss of margin on the returned stock. “Tiger Brands has product recall insurance for the logistics of recalling the products. The company’s claim under the contract with the third-party supplier…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE BUSINESS sector has welcomed the government’s support package to get the economy moving again following the destruction left by civil unrest and the lockdown restrictions. President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday announced a range of measures to support economic recovery and provide relief to the poor. These include the reinstatement of the R350 a month Social Relief of Distress Grant until March next year, and R400 million for the Humanitarian Crisis Relief Fund to assist communities affected by the unrest. “This has been made possible by the slight improvement we have seen in our revenue collection,” Ramaphosa said. South Africa, one of the world’s largest exporters of commodities, has enjoyed a healthy trade balance this year on a tide of rallying commodity prices buoyed by rising global…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za South Africa's premier tech stocks, Naspers and Prosus, took a broadside on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) yesterday as China’s clampdown regulations filtered down, resulting in the portfolios losing up to 7.5 percent of value in intraday trade. “It started in April and the Chinese government has given the companies more than 100 items of compliance requirements covering many aspects, antitrust, data, advertisement, pricing, and lots of things,” a legal analyst who declined to be named said yesterday. Naspers, a global internet and entertainment group and technology investor operating in more than 120 countries and markets with long-term growth potential lost up to 7.3 percent to R2 748.01, while Prosus, a consumer internet group operating across a variety of platforms and geographies, primarily in China,…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE RAND FELL to a four-month low yesterday as investors continued to worry about the global economic recovery amid the ongoing waves of Covid-19. The rand galloped to the psychologically significant mark of R15 to the dollar, continuing last week’s slippery slope, in spite of the easing of the lockdown restrictions, before recovering by 0.8 percent to R14.82 by just after 5pm. The rand also ignored recent factors positive for the currency, such as the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) keeping interest rates on hold last week, as well as the ramping up of the vaccine roll-out by the government. Analysts said dovish comments from the SARB last week continued to weigh on the rand, while President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of the move to level 3 failed…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za Workers’ unions at Mango Airline have approached the South Gauteng High Court to file an urgent application to place the airline under business rescue to save it from liquidation. It was not clear at this point, however, what would be the implications of this decision for South African Airline’s (SAA’s) 51 percent strategic equity partner, Takatso Consortium. The application was filed by the SA Cabin Crew Association (Sacca), the Mango Pilots Association (MPA) and the National Union of Metalworkers SA (Numsa) yesterday. The unions said they had been forced to take this extraordinary mea- sure as a result of the desperate workers’ situation. SAA yesterday also said it intended to place Mango under business rescue, with interim chief executive Thomas Kgokolo saying the board and shareholders…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za ANGLO American Platinum’s (Amplats’s) shareholders will be smiling all the way to the bank after the company said yesterday that its interim dividend was a record 100 percent payout ratio of headline earnings in the half-year ended June 2021. Amplats declared an interim dividend comprising both a base dividend and special dividend after it shot the lights out with a strong balance sheet, surging metal prices and an improved operational performance during the half-year under review. The group declared a cash dividend of R46.4 billion, representing R175 a share, comprising a base dividend of R18.6bn or R70 a share, based on the company’s dividend policy of 40 percent of headline earnings, plus a special dividend of R27.8bn, or R105 a share. Chief financial officer…