Star 2022-07-18

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has given a glimpse into the mooted plan by govern- ment to resolve the ongoing energy crisis through the creation of another state-owned power utility. This comes after Eskom plunged the country into Stage 6 power cuts last month, with power gen- eration deteriorating to its worst levels since December 2019, due to plant break- downs that were worsened by a lack of maintenance during a strike by workers. Ramaphosa said on Friday that Eskom’s monopoly of electricity supply was posing a “risk” to South Africa’s econo- my amid its years-long failures to meet energy demand. He said the Minister of Minerals Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe had proposed a second state-owned power utility be established. “It is a risk to have one electricity (provider) owned by…

MTN’s ATTEMPT to buy Telkom is one of the most audacious bids that we have yet to see in the South African Information and Communications Technology (ICT) space, according to Arthur Goldstuck, the managing director of World Wide Worx. This follows mobile operators MTN and Telkom announcing that they have entered into a formal discussion about MTN buying Telkom. In similar statements released on the JSE on Friday, both companies said the discussions were about MTN acquiring the entire issued share capital of partially state-owned telecommunications provider, Telkom, in return for shares or a combination of cash and shares in MTN. The companies said the discussions were at an early stage and there was no certainty that the transaction would be consummated. If the deal goes through, this means MTN…

Embattled Tongaat Hulett, which has had to scrap plans for a R5 billion rights issue, has asked the JSE for a temporary suspension of its shares while it undergoes a restructuring aimed at alleviating liquidity and debt problems at southern Africa’s biggest sugar producer. The share price fell 8.52 percent to R3.22 on Friday on the news, after the share price had risen sharply from R2.66 on June 1 up to R4.77 on news that a minority shareholder Artemis had upped its stake in the group to 10 percent, and that the controversial plans for a rights issue had been terminated. The group admitted on Friday that a longer-term financial solution is required for Tongaat Hulett’s audited annual financial statements to be finalised, and this was largely…

THE NATIONAL Treasury says it is taking steps to strengthen public participation in the drafting of the national Budget in a bid to further improve transparency. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in January invited South Africans to share their suggestions about what the government should be spending on, how to address a large Budget deficit, new sources of tax revenues and other Budget-relevant information. This is usually a normal pre-Budget process to encourage public interest as the finance minister strives to strike a balance between competing national spending priorities. However, the Treasury on Friday said South Africa wanted to strengthen its commitment to a transparent budget system after maintaining its reputation as a global leader in this sphere. This comes as South Africa came second in transparency in the 2021 Open…

INVESTORS are increasingly interested in sustainability issues as this pertains to all their investments, irrespective of whether they are large or small, equities or bonds, listed or unlisted, across all sectors. Different measurements are made to determine the condition of the atmosphere. The primary variables are barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed, and wind direction. Meteorologists study these readings to help forecast the weather. Most of the atmosphere is composed of nitrogen. In addition to 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent is oxygen. The remaining 1 percent is composed of argon, carbon dioxide, and other gases. The 99 percent of the atmosphere is found within 32km of the surface of the Earth. Half of the atmosphere’s weight is from the surface up to 5.5km in the…

THE PUBLIC Investment Corporation (PIC), which is the guardian of 82 percent of the Government Employees Pension Fund’s (GEPF’s) R2.09 trillion portfolio, must get all dividends that are due to it as stated by former Finance Minister Tito Mboweni when addressing the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance (SCoF) in December 2020. AYO Technology Solutions (AYO) in which the PIC invested R4.3 billion of the GEPF’s funds has done just that. The black-owned tech firm paid Africa’s largest asset manager a total of R310 million in dividends from 2018 to now. By any standards, the asset manager getting R310m in dividends over a three-year period on a R4.3bn investment is a relatively good return given the state of the economy during a period when most companies were not even…