Star 2022-09-01

MOTUS, the automotive group, sharply lifted its dividend 71 percent to 710 cents in 2022 and remains in a robust financial position to support investment in growth and acquisitions, to pay dividends and to consider share repurchases. A final dividend of 435c per share was declared yesterday. This despite many headwinds, and after headline earnings per share increased by 72 percent to 2 025c, following a 57 percent increase in attributable profit to R3.29 billion. “The strength of the group lies in our integrated business model, diversification and scale. Despite macro challenges faced around the globe, Motus remains resilient and sufficiently agile to navigate the environment and capitalise on opportunities. “We expect to deliver positive earnings growth and a solid financial position for…

THIS WEEK social media and posts on Twitter were abuzz with concern over the continued spate of potential delistings by firms on the JSE. This after US retail giant Walmart announced on Monday that it made an offer to buy 47 percent of shares that it doesn’t already own in Massmart for R6.4 billion. If the offer is accepted, it plans to delist it. This week Grindrod Shipping was offered R842bn by London-listed Taylor Maritime Investments to buy out the shares it does not already own. This would lead to the delisting of the firm from the JSE if the deal goes ahead. Last week Rebosis Property Fund said it had filed for business rescue and planned to delist. In questions sent to Paul Miller, a director at…

CASHBUILD, Southern Africa’s largest retailer of building materials and products, reported a 33 percent decline in headline earnings to 2 873 cents a share in the year to June 30 after trading flattened out from a boom during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results were not entirely com- parable to the previous year and Cash- build had not anticipated the record trading conditions of last year, when home improvements were at an all-time high due to Covid lockdowns, to be maintained. In 2021, for instance, Cashbuild’s headline earnings in- creased 151 percent over 2020. Chief executive Werner de Jager said 2022 nevertheless produced solid results, with revenue decreasing by 12 percent to R11.1 billion. Revenue for stores in existence before July 2020 (304 pre-existing stores)…

IT IS IMPORTANT for our economy and our country that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) reverses the trend of delistings. At its height in the 1990s, the JSE boasted some 850 companies listed on the bourse. Today the number is down to some 340. Last year, 25 companies delisted from the JSE, preceded by 20 others in 2020 and 24 in 2019. Conversely, the JSE enjoyed just seven initial public offerings (IPOs) last year and four the previous year. The combined market capitalisation of the JSE listings is around $1.36 trillion (R23trln), which makes it the largest in Africa, and 19th by size globally. The NYSE at $25.85trln and the Nasdaq at $17.36trln by comparison are by some way the largest bourses, followed by the Shanghai Stock Exchange…

AS SOUTH Africa recorded a trade surplus of R24.76 billion in July, up from a surplus of R24.23bn in June, Lara Hodes, an economist at Investec, warns going forward, a deteriorating global outlook will weigh heavily on South Africa’s export potential. July’s outcome was ahead of Bloomberg consensus expectations of a R19bn surplus. Data from the SA Revenue Service (Sars) showed yesterday that exports dropped 4.1 percent month-on-month to R177.23bn, while imports were down 5 percent at R152.47bn. However, the year-to-date (January 1 to July 31) preliminary trade balance surplus of R156.71bn was a deterioration from the R285.13bn trade balance surplus for the comparable period in 2021, Sars said. Hodes noted that a review of the trade highlights released by Sars indicated that all major import…

BET award-winner Charmaine Shamiso Mapimbiro, popularly known as Sha Sha, has teamed up with yet another power woman in music for her latest musical release Give Me Something, featuring Rowlene. The two powerhouse vocalists come together on the fresh track to deliver R&B melodies and their voices mesh creating a moving record. Give Me Something is built around Sha Sha and Rowlene’s beautiful voices, soaring keys and the most subtle of beats that breathe life into a song about a girl going through a breakup but realising she has not moved on from the past, or her partner. In a conversation with IOL Entertainment, Sha Sha said the journey to making the song was a long time coming, from 2020. Sha Sha created the song with producer Dakarai Gwitira when…