Star 2022-12-01

STANDARD Bank Group assisted more than 40 African businesses showcase their products at the 2022 China International Import Expo (CIIE) recently held in Shanghai from November 5 to 10. As the largest global import promotion event, the 5th CIIE exhibited products from more than 100 countries, including 280 of the world's top 500 enterprises. Over the past four years, the CIIE has successfully introduced more than 1 500 new products, technologies, and services, with an accumulated turnover exceeding $270 billion (R4,6 trillion) to the Chinese domestic market. Since travel to China is currently restricted due to Covid-19, this year’s CIIE allowed the physical exhibition of products, even though business owners couldn’t attend in person to promote their goods. The physical exhibition of pro- ducts, supported by…

Allegations about ‘kickbacks’ relating to the sale of the Pharma division ASCENDIS Health’s chairperson Harry Smit, who last year gathered a group of shareholders to oust the previous management and put the wellness product company on the road to financial health, was voted off the board at the annual meeting yesterday after raising questions about corporate espionage. The annual meeting was held at 10am yesterday morning, and at about 5.30pm, the prior evening, Smit said a board director Bharti Hari had called him to tell him that if he raised questions about his allegations of corporate espionage at the meeting, he would be voted off the board. Smit said in a telephone interview after the meeting yesterday that he had laid the complaint relating to “corporate espionage” at the Financial…

INDUSTRY players yesterday welcomed the announcement that a grower-led consortium of all Tongaat Hulett-supplying growers had submitted a proposal to acquire the ailing business’s sugar assets. In a statement, the consortium said it had submitted an expression of interest to Tongaat Hulett’s business rescue practitioners to buy its South African assets, including the operating mills at Maidstone, Amatikulu, and Felixton, the mothballed factory at Darnall, the Huletts refinery, Voermol animal feeds, and all associated brands and trademarks, the consortium said. “The offer is made on behalf of growers delivering more than five million tons of sugar cane to the Tongaat Hulett mills in the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal to ensure the survival of these farming operations, the thousands of livelihoods they support and socio-economic stability for the greater region,” the…

TRANSNET Freight Rail (TFR) has pinned hopes of increasing volumes of agricultural produce on its Cape Corridor on accelerated implementation of third-party access to privately-owned train operating companies in a bid to boost economic activity. This comes as TFR conditionally awarded slots to Traxtion Sheltam on the Kroonstad to East London route on the Cape Corridor following a successful completion of the first stage of the evaluation process to operate on the advertised parts of the TFR rail network. Traxtion Sheltam is a cargo, freight, locomotive hire and repair company based in Port Elizabeth, and has been delivering rail solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa for more than three decades. TFR’s contract with Traxtion is expected to start on April 1, 2023, after the private operator has completed the rest of…

SENTIMENT in the construction sector in South Africa ended the year on a subdued footing as three sectors recorded sharply higher confidence while the other three saw a marked decrease in sentiment. The FNB/BER Building Confidence Index slipped to 33 points in the fourth quarter, from 34 points in the third quarter, meaning it remained broadly stable at a historically low level for much of the year. The index is compiled using surveys conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) at Stellenbosch University, on behalf of FNB, and it can vary between 0 points, indicating an extreme lack of confidence, and 100 points, indicating extreme confidence. FNB said the sub-sectors that comprise the composite index all registered significant changes in confidence compared to the third…

AYO TECHNOLOGY Solutions’ com- munications, managed services, software and consulting divisions performed well in the year to August 31, helping the ICT technology investment group to lift revenue by 3% to R1.8 billion. “The increased revenue demonstrates AYO’s capability to deliver on its professional mandate despite the enormous challenges we faced and that we are well-positioned to take advantage of the swing to a more digital-centric living and working world. AYO has continued to build on its turnaround plan, which is expected to return it back in the black by 2024,” chief executive Howard Plaatjes said yesterday. In the past year the headline loss per share decreased by 10% to 60.25c and the overall dividend for the year doubled to 60c. Prioritising shareholders’ interests, whose beneficiaries include the Government…