Star 2022-09-23

RAND Merchant Investment Holdings (RMI), which has paid out R47.9 billion to shareholders from 2014 to September 2022 via capital appreciation and dividends, has come to the end of an era as an investor in financial services businesses. The group announced yesterday that the final step would be the transitioning and re-branding from RMI to “OUTsurance Group Limited” – OUTsurance Group was hoped would begin trading on the JSE on December 7 this year. The return to shareholders to September 30 amounted to 116.7%, assuming the reinvestment of dividends, while the JSE’s Financial 15 Index returned only 5.6% over the period. RMI said yesterday in a statement that a decision in 2014 to re-activate its portfolio management and investment focus resulted in the recent unbundling of its shares in…

FOOD SECURITY is at risk with the continuous load shedding, warns Christo van der Rheede, Agri SA’s executive director. Load shedding was escalating as South Africa enters the summer crop-planting season, which might have implications for food security into the coming year, unless farmers could put measures in place to mitigate its effects, he said. The agricultural organisation has written to Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter requesting an urgent engagement on the outlook for load shedding in the coming weeks. Van der Rheede said electricity was a key agricultural input. “According to Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development statistics, the agricultural sector spent approximately R9 billion on electricity in 2021. This is more than 7% of the sector’s expenditure on intermediate goods and services. A…

The South African Reserve Bank has left the door open for another large interest rate hike in November THE SOUTH African Reserve Bank (SARB) has left the door open for another large interest rate hike in November as the growing number of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members are toying with a 100 basis points increase on the back of elevated inflation. The SARB yesterday dealt another blow to struggling consumers and increased the repurchase rate (repo rate) by 75 basis points for the second time in a row as risks to inflation are assessed on the upside as Russia’s war in the Ukraine continued with adverse effects on global prices. As a result, the repo rate will rise from 5.5% to 6.25% per year, also lifting the prime lending…

INVESTECT Property Fund is on track to deliver against its guidance of low single-digit growth in distributable income per share for the six months to September 30, 2022, the group with commercial property in South Africa and Europe said in a pre-close trading statement yesterday. The resignation of its joint chief executive, Darryl Mayers, effective from November 30, 2022, was also announced. “This leadership transition comes at a time when the fund’s operating business, portfolio of local and international assets and its balance sheet are in a strong position after the challenges faced by the property sector over the last two years,” the group said in a statement yesterday. “Darryl’s focus will turn to the pursuit of other business opportunities. He will, however, remain involved with the fund in an…

SOUTH Africans are currently experiencing up to 10 hours of load shedding per day and we are hovering between level 5 and level 6 and possibly higher. Maintenance on Eskom coal plants is being delayed due to “skills and liquidity challenges”, the Eskom gas power plants in the Cape and the private Avon and Dedisa gas power plants are running up billions in fuel and operating costs, and sometimes the diesel fuel logistics can’t keep up. Koeberg appears to be hurtling towards a disaster with a dropped reactor, an expiring nuclear operating licence and delayed maintenance and upgrades, and there is an exodus of key technical and managerial skills. When both Koeberg units are off, transmission losses to the Cape amount to an entire unit of a typical Eskom “six-pack”…

BLUE LABEL’S shares surged on the JSE yesterday by almost 6% after it announced that it finished the recapi- talisation of mobile operator Cell C and its financial stakeholders. Blue Label shares traded at R6.60 and have increased by 13.84% in the past year. Blue Label said it had concluded the binding long-form agreements. Cell C will be restructured and refinanced to deleverage its balance sheet, providing it with liquidity with which to operate and grow its businesses and to position itself to achieve long-term success for the benefit of its customers, employees, creditors, shareholders and Cell C’s other stakeholders. Cell C implemented a turnaround strategy in 2019, focusing on operational efficiencies, reducing operational expenditure and optimising traffic. “This includes a significant re- duction in capital expenditure and a conversion…