Star 2023-04-20

THE AFRICAN Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is one of the African Union’s 13 flagship projects comprising its Agenda 2063 initiative aimed at unlocking Africa’s potential as a global economic powerhouse. Once implemented, the AfCFTA will be the world’s largest free trade area, uniting 54 of Africa’s 55 states and all eight of the continent’s regional economic associations in a partnership that aims to create a single continental market representing a population of about 1.3 billion and combined gross domestic product (GDP) of approximately $3.4 trillion. Standard Bank is a key partner of the African Continental Free Trade Area Business Forum taking place from April 16 to 18, 2023, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. As Africa’s largest bank by assets, present in 20 markets across sub-Saharan…

StatsSA said food inflation, with transport and education fees, main drivers of rise in CPI CONSUMERS in South Africa could be in for a tough few months ahead as the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) looks set to ramp up its interest-rates hiking cycle in a bid to curb the stubbornly high inflation as food prices rose the highest in 14 years. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that the headline consumer price inflation (CPI) rose for the second month in a row in March, which could force the SARB’s hand for another interest rate hike in May. StatsSA yesterday said inflation edged higher to 7.1% year-on-year in March, from 7% in February and 6.9% in January. This was against market expectations of a 6.9% drop, meaning that inflation…

RAUBEX Group’s share price leapt 5.38% to close at R27.40 on the JSE yesterday after predicting that headline earnings per share for the year to February 28 would be a “pleasing” 25% and 35% higher than the previous year. The construction, bulk materials handling and mining group said in a trading statement that earnings per share would be between 20% and 30% higher than the previous corresponding period, at between 367.1 cents and 397.7c. Headline earnings per share was expected to be between 371.8c and 401.5c. The directors said the results reflected progress made against the strategy to diversify into Australia, public-private partnerships and mining, which had been successfully executed to date. A main contributor to the earnings growth was the expansion, upgrading and improvement of the Beitbridge border…

ZEDER, with investments across the agribusiness spectrum, benefited from a better climatic cycle in the year to February 28, but the macro-economic environment in which the group operates remains constrained. However, CEO Johann le Roux said they were well positioned with a stable balance sheet and strong cash resources, despite the uncertainty and volatility of the world markets that was likely to continue in the short to medium term, a trend driven by rising inflation, higher interest rates, risks to energy availability and supply chain constraints. Taking a cautious view and considering the amount of unrestricted cash available, no dividend was declared as part of the year-end results. Le Roux said in a telephone interview that if there were no further portfolio requirements, further special dividends might be considered…

GLOBAL miner Glencore said yesterday that it was willing to consider making improvements to its $23 billion (R419bn) proposal for a merger with Teck Resources if they could meet and talk as the Teck board had refused engagement. Glencore’s shares on the JSE closed -1.09% lower at R111.20 yesterday. In an open letter directed at the Teck shareholders, Glencore CEO Gary Nagle said the miner had never stated that its proposal was “best and final” and that it was not willing to make changes and improvements to its proposal. This comes after Teck Resources unanimously rejected Glencore’s bid for the Canadian miner. Teck said the offer was an unsolicited and opportunistic acquisition proposal from Glencore plc. The miner instead said it wants to continue with its own plan to…

RETAIL activity in South Africa has remained subdued as consumers have continued cutting back spending on general household and hardware items as the rising cost of living squeezes out disposable cash. Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday said retail trade sales fell for the third consecutive month in February, decreasing by 0.5% following a 0.8% decrease in January. This third consecutive month of declines in retail activity was worse than market estimates of a 0.3% fall, mainly reflecting hard electricity load shedding and elevated living costs for consumers. StatsSA’s deputy director for distri- butive trade statistics Raquel Floris said general dealers and hardware, paint and glass were the biggest drags on growth. “General dealers recorded a decrease of 1.5% year-on-year. Hardware, paint and glass recorded a decline of 7.7%,” Floris said.…