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Dieketseng Maleke dieketseng.maleke@inl.co.za MINERAL Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe yesterday said that the fight to kill downstream exploration was going to slow down development. Mantashe delivered a keynote address at the 2022 Africa Energy In- daba, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The annual Africa Energy Indaba brings experts from around the continent to discuss and formulate energy policy. Mantashe said that the recent oil discoveries in Namibia by petroleum giant Shell were a huge push for development in that country and the rest of the region. Mantashe criticised the treatment that Shell received in South Africa when the company tried to conduct seismic survey. “The companies that have been making the finds of oil and gas in Namibia have been harassed out of South Africa because we…
Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za THE PSG GROUP, unable to shrug off a 30 percent discount that it trades at on the JSE, plans to delist and extract “enormous value” for shareholders through unbundling, chief executive Piet Mouton said yesterday. The group was started in 1995 by its chairperson, Capitec Bank co-founder and well known South African entrepreneur, who has in the past been dubbed by investors as “boere Buffet”, Jannie Mouton. PSG’s share price shot up 21.28 percent to R99.24 after the announcement, which immediately narrowed the premium between the share price and the delisting proposal. The group has a market capitalisation of R18.38 billion. PSG plans an offer to shareholders at R23 a share, cash, and the unbundling of its stakes in PSG Konsult, Curro, Kaap Agri,…
Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za STOCKS on the JSE climbed to another all-time record high yesterday supported by financials, tech stocks and commodity-linked stocks as sanctions on Russia continue to bite. Market fears of a possible prolonged Russia-Ukraine war stoked an increase of various commodities while investors continued to assess the Ukraine crisis. The JSE All Share index rose more than 1.2 percent to a fresh record high of 77 303 index points hit during an early trading session before softening just below 77 000 points at 5pm. Investment holding company PSG Group’ stock saw the biggest rise with an 18.6 percent rise to R97.01 per share, followed by Exxaro Resources at 8.8 percent to R215.42 per share. Gold prices approached a 13-month high yesterday, climbing above…
Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za STRUGGLING state armaments manu- facturer Denel recently lost out on a R6 billion missiles deal with Egypt after local banks turned them down for funding, despite the government providing bank guarantees to facilitate the deal, acting chief executive William Hlakoane told Business Report. The deal could have gone a long way in helping the government-owned entity gain financial stability as it struggles with a plethora of court judgments from workers owed salary arrears and provided it with capital to undertake further projects. Hlakoane said Denel had lost out on the deal as it could not secure funds locally and by the time an Egyptian bank offered assistance, the order had been cancelled. “We lost the contract to a French company. If you snooze you lose. Denel…
MUCH LIKE South Africa’s judicial system when it comes to sentencing, where discretion still comes into play, although there are mandatory mini- mum sentences for specific severe offences (which would account for discrepancies in sentencing in certain cases), the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) appears to exercise a similar power of preference as to how it metes out its “punishment” on offenders. A curious case in point is that of the bourse’s decision to impose a severe five-year ban on two former directors of embattled tech company AYO Technology Solutions. These censures were issued in Mbuso Khoza and Telang Ntsasa’s personal capacity, AYO having already been fined and censured back in 2020 for what the company called a “misinterpretation of the IFRS rules” on submitting its first set of financials after…
Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za WILSON Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO) has called it a day in Australia after its operations there face continuing Covid-19-related losses, while the environment of tension with China, one of the group’s major clients in that country, also made further investment too risky. The group, which put its substantial, but loss-making Australian construction operations under administration on February 23, would likely face a challenging period in the next six months, its management admitted yesterday. WBHO had already provided some R2 billion in equity funding and substantial parent company support to its loss-making Australian businesses over the past few years. “The political tension between Australia and China as well as the recent collapse of the Chinese property sector and subsequent financial difficulties being experienced by some Chinese developers, creates…
