Unchallenged as South Africa’s most influential daily newspaper, The Star covers the heart of the nation with unequalled reporting of local, national and international news and sport. It is widely considered to be a superb advertising environment.
PROSUS’S waiting game for Brazilian’s largest food delivery platform iFood finally ended in victory as it announced it was going to acquire the remaining 33.3 percent stake in it for up to €1.5bn in cash (R25.6bn). The deal comes as meal delivery company Just Eat Takeaway, the owner of iFood, which has seen its share price plummet this year, last year rejected a €2.3bn offer from Amsterdam-listed Prosus, saying it was “inadequate”. Prosus, which is already the majority shareholder in iFood, has built a global portfolio of online food delivery companies, including iFood in Latin America, Swiggy in India, and Delivery Hero, which has a presence in about 50 countries. Prosus is also an active investor in adjacent businesses, including Flink, Foodics, Oda, and Sharebite. iFood has an 80…
Global anti-money laundering body puts country on notice for need of changes SOUTH Africa’s much-vaunted financial systems may face an existential threat that could further derail its economy, according to Yolande Butchart, a foreign exchange consultant at Brent Wealth Management. In an Investment Report published by Brenthurst Wealth, Butchart said if the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-money laundering body, placed the country on notice that unless certain changes were made, South Africa would be lumped with pariah states like Pakistan, Myanmar, South Sudan, and Syria. “The danger to the economy lies in further loss of credibility as an investment destination, which is already hampered by the junk investment status conferred by the major rating agencies,” Butchart said. According to Butchart, the bad news for South African citizens…
TRANSNET Freight Rail (TFR) has defended itself against criticism that it is failing to spend on maintenance of its equipment and infrastructure, leading to operational inefficiencies that affect the whole rail industry. This comes after the African Rail Industry Association (Aria) last week warned the South African rail industry was in trouble due to massive maintenance backlogs threatening the sustainability of Transnet. Aria, which represents mainly South African private sector suppliers, said it was concerned about TFR’s big cutbacks in essential maintenance over the past 10 years. Aria chief executive Mesela Kope-Nhlapo said TFR’s spending on maintenance had dropped by R750 million, from R3.4 billion in 2012 to R2.7bn in 2022. Kope-Nhlapo said that over the same period, the salary bill had increased by R6.1bn, to R13.6bn, while…
PURPLE Group’s share price surged 10.95 percent on Friday morning after announcing that it had reached a partnership agreement with an e-wallet provider in the Asia-Pacific region. In a JSE market announcement, Purple Group said the provider, which had requested not to be named before its commercial product launch next month, will offer the EasyEquities investing services to its significant user base in the region, comprising “tens of millions of users”, through its e-wallet app. Purple Group owns the online platforms EasyEquities, EasyProperties, EasyCrypto and GT247.com. Its EasyEquities platform started in 2014 allows investors to buy fractional ownership of shares listed on the JSE and the New York Stock Exchange. It has more than a million users. EasyEquities’ revenue increased by 27.9 percent to R108.7 million in…
SOUTH Africa’s two largest workers union federations have put their differences aside in a bid to tackle the country’s worsening economic crisis and rising unemployment. Thousands of workers affiliated to the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) will on Wednesday down their tools and join the national strike against what they believe is an impending economic collapse. Giving an update on their readiness yesterday, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said their socio-economic strike represented a push back and a response by the workers to the ongoing class warfare directed at them by both public and private sector employers. Losi said the growing frustration in the country was mainly being fuelled by policies that favour the elite at the expense of the poor, especially…
DURING an in-depth discussion with the Capitec Bank technology leadership it became clear that one of the most wanted professionals in banking is the data professional. Capitec Bank indicated that it will soon be On the hunt for 500 data scientists. Capitec will not be the only entity in search of data professionals. Banks across the board are gearing up for the next evolution of banking which will require more hi-tech skills as more banks rely on cloud services. Standard Bank Group’s total IT spending, including staff costs, topped R10 billion in the first six months of 2022 as the financial services giant ramped up its cloud migration project. Beyond banking, other corporate businesses will also require data scientists as they intensify their digital transformation efforts. This is good…
