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Famous Brands, which owns Wimpy, Steers and Debonairs, among other brands, yesterday announced it had acquired Lexi’s Healthy Eatery as part of its strategic investment roadmap. The JSE-listed company acquired a 51 percent stake in the mostly vegan, whole-food restaurant. The acquisition is effective from April 1. With this move, Famous Brands joins its counterpart Tiger Brands, which announced on Monday that it acquired a plant-based food company, Herbivore Earthfoods, alongside private equity firm Secha Capital. According to Famous Brands, the acquisition is aligned with its three-year strategic roadmap, which includes acquiring brands that have the potential to lead in their category and which offer growth prospects based on opportunities to improve existing operational efficiencies in the target business. “Famous Brands’ existing portfolio does not include an exclusively vegetarian…
SOUTH African households and businesses’ appetite to take out loans grew to a one-and-a-half year high in February as general economic conditions broadly normalised under Adjusted Level 1 Covid-19 lockdown. However, economists have warned that the ongoing interest rates hiking cycle could make consumers wary of piling up more debt as employment prospects also become fickle with the rising jobless rate. The SA Reserve Bank (SARB) yesterday said private sector credit extension rose to 3.62 percent year-on-year in February, from a revised 3.11 percent increase a month before. This reading was above market expectations, marking the eighth straight month of increase in private sector credit and the strongest rise since August 2020. The SARB said that credit extended to corporates, which comprises over half of the total, continued…
FITCH Solutions has warned that sub-Saharan African countries who are heavily reliant on Russian imports could soon be faced with political instability due to rising fuel and food prices. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month has added pressure on global supply chains, resulting in sharply rising costs for energy and food, and adding a new dimension to the inflation picture. Fitch Solutions global head of country risk, Cedric Chehab, yesterday said the direct impact of Russia’s war on African economies was limited, but secondary effects would be larger. Chehab, however, said rising energy prices were going to be painful for economies that were dependent on fossil fuels to generate electricity, as energy costs would hit markets hard. As a result, Fitch Solutions downgraded South Africa’s economic growth forecast from 1.8…
TRADE movement Fairplay wants the value added tax (VAT) on some chicken cuts meant for the lower income market to be scrapped to ease the impact of rocketing food prices. According to estimates made in a 2018 report, this could lop off about R1.2 billion in tax revenue. At a roundtable discussion on amongst other things, the impact of the ongoing Russia/Ukraine conflict to food prices, Fairplay said removing VAT from some of the portions popular with the mass market was one of the levers at the disposal of the state to cushion South Africans from the rising food and fuel prices resulting from the conflict. “Chicken (meat) is a national source of nutrition. The poultry industry is a strategic one. “Mothers need protein when they are carrying…
IN AN ENVIRONMENT fraught with controversy, but which has until recently been regulated to make the process as fair and transparent as possible, public procurement has now descended into a free for all that is threatening gains that have previously been made in the protection of local businesses and local jobs. A series of court rulings by the Supreme Court of Appeal and now the Constitutional Court in a case brought by Afribusiness NPC against the National Treasury has left uncertainty and confusion for public entities who need to procure all manner of items for their operational needs. The crux of the case lies with B-BBEE regulations and the permissibility of pre disqualification of any bidder for a government tender that does not fulfil the minimum 51 percent black…
THE AUSTRALIA-based property investment company Irongate Group (IAP) board, after rejecting several initial offers, has unanimously recommended the company’s security holders vote in favour of the Charter Hall PGGM Industrial Partnership No 2 offer. Through schemes of arrangement, security holders of IAP, formerly Investec Australia Property Fund and which is also listed on the JSE, will receive A$1.90 (R20.80) per IAP share cash, as well as the company’s distribution to March 31, 2022, of up to A$4.67 per security. The share price traded at R20.62 on the JSE yesterday morning, but the deal strike price represents a 21 percent premium to the closing price of A$1.57 on January 28, 2022, the last trading day prior to announcement of the offer. The offer also represents an 11.8 per- cent…
