Star 2023-01-23

KAROOOO, the Singapore-headquartered owner of Cartrack Holdings, said on Friday that strong demand for among businesses supported good growth in the number of connected vehicles and platform-using subscribers in the third quarter to November 30, 2022. The number of Cartrack subscribers increased to 1 678 606 at November 30, 2022 up 14% from 1 470 385 in the third quarter of 2022. Net Cartrack subscriber additions of 78 593 represented a 27% increase on 61 776 in the third quarter of the 2022 financial year, the group, which is listed in New York and on the JSE, said in its results on Friday. CEO and founder Zak Calisto said in a telephone interview that demand from businesses – the group has more than 100…

MR PRICE shares tanked 10.08% on Friday as the market digested the retailer’s warning that despite its business plans to cope with load shedding at its stores, the power crisis was expected to worsen, placing consumers under further financial stress. It warned that load shedding levels were anticipated to worsen in quarter four of financial year 2023, which would continue to burden business effectiveness. Chairperson Nigel Payne said: “It is critical for the government to communicate its official and detailed plan for the solution to the energy crisis in South Africa to protect and grow the economy and for business to plan accordingly. “The current situation is untenable, and the government needs to take decisive action and be held accountable for implementation.” For the third quarter of the 2023 financial…

ZIMBABWEAN-listed companies fear the country’s upcoming elections will disrupt business owing to the highly charged electoral and polarised political framework, as well as possible policy uncertainties that could reverse volume and revenue-growth prospects. Companies in Zimbabwe, among them units of South African corporates such as Nedbank, Tiger Brands, Pick n Pay and Distell have been facing lengthy power outages and difficulties with a monetary sector in which the local currency is being sidelined Delta Corporation, the country’s biggest alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages manufacturer, as well as Distell’s associate unit, African Distillers, have reported stronger volume growth in the quarter to the end of December. This has been aided by growth in dollar revenues. “The operating environment is envisaged to remain unstable. However, management has put in place measures to exploit…

Market driven by optimism around China’s recovery, hope of smaller US rate hikes SOUTH African stocks ended the week in the red on Friday after rallying to another all-time record high above the 80 000 points mark, buoyed by risk-on global investor sentiment. The market was boosted by optimism around China’s recovery and hopes for smaller interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve, despite ongoing global recession worries and the domestic energy crisis. The JSE All-Share Index powered to 80 226 index points for the first time ever on Friday, with the tech stocks and resource-linked sectors providing the main support. In intra-day trade on Friday Bytes Technology Group rose 2.32% to R85.45 per share while Thungela Resources and DRDGold were 1.5% and 1% higher to R240.84…

Vuyisa Mqosomba, 29, was recently found dead in Stellenbosch in what seems to be a killing of a driver on Uber. He is one of the few drivers on Uber who have become victims of people targeting e-hailing drivers in townships. This begs the question, what is Uber and Bolt doing about attacks on drivers who are using the platform? As drivers decide to avoid township trips, how should township residents handle the fact that Uber and Bolt may not be available in townships? E-hailing platforms have tried various ways of improving passenger safety but little has been done to protect the driver. Is it impossible to develop a feature on e-hailing platforms to protect drivers? An Uber feature in this case can form part of the app or the…

FORTRESS Real Estate Investments said on Friday that it would cease to be a real estate investment trust from February 1, but would remain a listed property company with the existing dual-class share structure. The rights of holders of Fortress A shares and holders of Fortress B shares, as prescribed in the memorandum of incorporation will remain the same after it ceases to be a real estate investment trust. The “B” shares gained 3.1% on the JSE late on Friday to reach R5.03, while the “A” class shares fell 3.2% to R10.10. Fortress, which has a strong logistics and retail focus among its directly held local portfolio and its investments in other listed property groups on December 7, last year lodged an objection to a JSE decision to remove the…