Star 2023-03-03

The ‘foolhardy’ friendship has raised ‘profound’ geopolitical risk for the local banking sector FIRSTRAND does not share the government’s “enthusiasm for Russia”, and the friendship has raised “profound” geopolitical risk for the local banking sector, FirstRand CEO Steve Pullinger warned yesterday. Speaking in an online presentation at the release of the financial services group’s results for six months to December 31, he labelled as “foolhardy in the extreme” the government’s “left-leaning friendship with Russia and China”, in the light of Russia’s role in the war in Ukraine. He said many of the countries “were vehemently opposed” to Russia’s role in the Ukraine war such as the US, UK and in the EU, who were historically South Africa’s biggest trading partners, far more so than Russia. Also, the South African banking…

PRIVATE renewable energy projects currently under development will go a long way to alleviate power shortages, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) CEO Emrie Brown said yesterday. She said RMB at present had a pipeline of more than 5 000MW. In the six months, RMB’s sustainability finance and ESG advisory teams facilitated deals worth R17.3 billion, adding to the R26.41bn facilitated over the previous financial year. “This enables clients to have access to reliable power supply to ensure they positively contribute to our economy,” she said at the release of the bank’s interim results for the six months to December 31. She said RMB, the corporate and investment banking arm of FirstRand had ramped up its transition and infrastructure financing and continued to grow its broader Africa business in the…

THE CABINET has approved the newly- gazetted regulations governing the National State of Disaster on Energy, but did not go as far as announcing whether any funds are to be repriori- tised from any department towards resolving the crisis. This is a departure from the approach the government took when it implemented the National State of Disaster on Covid-19 pandemic, as it reprioritised and made additional allocations of more than R20 billion to respond to the pandemic. Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele yesterday briefed the media following a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss a number of issues affecting the economy, including the ongoing energy crisis. Gungubele said the commitments from the State of the Nation Address and the Budget allocations last month strengthened the capability of the…

PROSUS, the JSE-listed e-commerce firm and its South African parent Naspers yesterday flagged that OLX Autos was dragging down the profitability of its core classifieds business, OLX Group, and wants to sell the business. Prosus’s shares closed 3.29% lower at R1 338.40 on the JSE yesterday, while Naspers’s shares slid 4.29% to R3 272.71. Prosus and Naspers are tightening their corporate structures after Naspers announced last year that earnings per share were expected to drop by between a massive 81.4% and 88.4%, while headline earnings per share are expected to drop by between 100.6% and 107.6%. The announcement comes after the firms said in January that they are cutting up to 30% of jobs at their corporate offices. According to reports in January, Euronext-listed Prosus was seeking to…

SANTAM, South Africa’s largest short-term insurer proved its resilience last year after paying out just under R30 billion in insurance claims and it was still able to pay out a competitive dividend, CEO Tavaziva Madzinga said yesterday. He said the group faced its most difficult year to December 31, after adverse weather and devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal in April, 2022; increased claims inflation ahead of premium increases; higher than expected fire losses; an increase in power surges; crime and motor theft-related claims, and weaker investment returns from financial markets. Gross written premiums grew 8% in the year to December 31, (2021: 5%) but the net underwriting margin was lower at 5.1% (8%). The net underwriting margin was at the bottom-end of the group’s target range of 5% to…

JSE-LISTED South African private schools operator, Curro Holdings, has slammed the door on new acquisitions, with executives at the company saying they prefer to raise dividends in the medium term as well as revamping the current portfolio through a R2.8 billion capex spend over the next three years. Curro yesterday reported a 34.7% rise in recurring headline earnings, which amounted to R330 million for the year to the end of December 2022, while headline earnings per share quickened by as much as 50% to 61.4 cents per share over the same period. It paid a final dividend, to be drawn down from income reserves for the period, of 11.08c per share. Despite of this robust financial performance, CEO Cobus Loubser told investors in the company after…