Star 2023-03-09

THE MARKETS yesterday cold-shouldered the phase 2 guidance note of helium producer Renergen as it signalled it was considering a potential international public offering (IPO) as well as taking on billions of rand in debt to finance construction. By the close of the JSE yesterday the shares in Renergen, which owns one of the richest and largest helium reserves, the Virginia Gas Project (VGP), had tumbled 4.07% to R19.18 after it had put out a phase 2 guidance note. The guidance comes hot on the heels of an announcement on Tuesday that the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) had purchased a 5.118% stake in the firm. Renergen said yesterday that it had successfully produced both liquefied natural gas and liquid helium from the phase 1 pilot plant in the VGP. The…

ROYAL Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) CEO Steve Phiri said, as he released the firm’s financial results or the year ended December 31, 2022, that the risk of doing business in South Africa had increased significantly. “In 2022, the unreliability of electricity supply impacted our production and consequently increased our unit costs, which were also affected by an increase in our overall mining inflation of 10.3%. “Our costs will be further impacted by the recently approved 18.65% increase in the electricity tariff,” he said. Production of 4E – platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold – decreased by 3.9% to 449 000 ounces. And as metal prices weakened and operational challenges prevailed, BPlat reported a 46.3% drop in annual headline earnings in 2022 to R3.48 billion, down from R6.48bn the prior year.…

THE PUBLIC Investment Corporation (PIC) this week began legal proceedings against AYO Technology Solutions to set aside its subscription agreement and recover the R4.3 billion it invested for a 29% stake in AYO when the company listed in 2017. The investment occurred through the PIC’s participating in the initial public offering by AYO through a private placement in December. AYO’s senior counsel, Nazeer Cassim, began his cross-examination of witness, Victor Seanie, a former PIC analyst and assistant portfolio manager, yesterday afternoon, showing documentation to Seanie, and saying that it could not be disputed that British Telecom South Africa (BTSA) and major client, Sasol, were supportive of AYO’s black empowerment credentials, given AYO was more than 51% black owned and 31% owned by black women, and that in fact…

THE SPECTRE of load shedding in South Africa led to business confidence continuing to deteriorate in the first quarter of 2023, while the manufacturing sector is on its knees. The RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (BCI), released yesterday, declined further from 38 points in the fourth quarter to 36 points in the first quarter of 2023. Annabel Bishop, the chief economist at Investec, said: “Overall business confidence continued its downward slide as load shedding intensified, with whistleblower reports of the high levels of corruption and sabotage to Eskom’s operations and so electricity producing capacity, not as yet a stated, serious concern of the State, itself depressing confidence for businesses in the future operating environment.” However, at risk are jobs and the de-industrialisation of the country as the index showed manufacturing…

THE GENDER pay gap in the South African technology sector continues to widen as it increased to 13.2%, up from 6.4% last year among entry-level developers and widened from 16.3% to 25.7% at senior level, according to the 2023 State of the South Africa Software Developer Nation report released this week. This data report on developer career trends in South Africa, and the fourth annual report of its kind was released by OfferZen. It is based on a survey of motre than 4 500 developers. OfferZen’s CEO and co-founder, Phil Joubert, encouraged HR and People team leads to consider the nuance behind the data. “It’s easy to reduce the data to a headline, but there are multiple factors at play here. This includes the fact that male developers…

AROUND the world, progress on women’s rights is vanishing before our eyes. The latest forecasts estimate that on our current track, it will take another 300 years to reach full gender equality. Today’s cascading crises, from the war in Ukraine to the climate emergency, affect women and girls first and worst. And as part of the global push back against democracy, women’s rights over their bodies and autonomy over their lives are being questioned and denied. Two statistics make our failure very clear: ■ Every ten minutes, one woman or girl is murdered by a family member or intimate partner. ■ And one woman dies every two minutes during pregnancy or childbirth. Most of those deaths are entirely preventable. On International Women’s Day, we must commit to doing better.…