Star 2023-04-25

PURPLE Group’s share price plunged more than 9% after it reported a 152% decline in headline earnings to an 85 cents headline loss per share for the six months to February 28. The group’s expenses increased sharply as new projects took longer and proved more costly than expected to implement. On top of the headline loss, the online share-trading and investing group, said it would shortly announce plans to raise R150 million in new capital to fund growth over the next years. Purple’s share price closed 8.87% lower at R1.13 on the JSE yesterday, after the price had declined over the year from R2.70. The share, a favourite among many retail investors, drew mixed reactions. Junior Smith (@JuniorBuffet) commented on Twitter: “Purple group I still believe in the…

Plan to do it over the next four years in a bid to recover at least 7 000MW into the grid and end the load shedding ESKOM has proposed to embark on a R16 billion programme of installing smart-meters in every household in South Africa over the next four years in a bid to recover at least 7 000MW into the grid and end load shedding. If this demand management strategy is given the green light, it would represent a change of approach in Eskom’s cocktail to end rotational power cuts as load shedding is a tactic of limiting electricity supply based on generation capacity. Eskom first touted an approach to demand-side management in 2012 as it warned that 3 000MW of committed capacity from supply…

TWO OUT of five South African CEOs don’t believe their businesses will be economically viable in a decade, making the building of business resilience imperative, including against possible impacts of greylisting, according to PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PwC’s) latest annual Global CEO Survey. Resilience needed to be built against long-term socioeconomic headwinds in South Africa, and against five key long-term global megatrends: climate change’s impact on food production; technological disruption hurting job creation; a growing youth population; supply chain disruptions due to fracturing; and domestic social instability. “The confluence of crises facing local business leaders is nothing short of remarkable. Some of the emergencies are manifestations of once-in-a-generation risks: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, double-digit inflation in developed economies, and the ripple effects of the pandemic and the ‘great resignation’. “Other factors,…

THE SHARE price in South32, a global mining and metals group, slid to a 7% low after it said yesterday that despite remaining on track to meet its 2023 production guidance at the majority of its operations, its group guidance was revised down due to weather and other temporary impacts. The shares closed 5.73% lower at R50.22 on the JSE yesterday. In its quarterly report, the diversified miner, listed on the JSE, AltX, and London Stock Exchange, reported that its group guidance would be revised down by 8%, as group production was below plan in the March, 2023, quarter. South32 CEO Graham Kerr said: “We remain well-positioned to capitalise on improved market conditions, with higher production volumes expected to finish the 2023 financial year, with operating unit cost and capital…

SIBANYE-Stillwater, a precious metals producer, said yesterday that 2022 was a challenging year due to load curtailment, flooding and a strike as these negatively impacted its production, but proved the group’s resilience. In its 2022 integrated report released yesterday, the group said, despite industrial action and electrical load curtailment at its South African operations and extreme weather-related regional flooding, which affected its US operations, it still delivered its third-highest annual adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation. The JSE and New York-listed mining company, headed by chairperson Vincent Maphai and CEO Neal Froneman said: “Our operating results for 2022 were strongly influenced by two significant events: the industrial action and lockout at the SA gold operations; and the extreme weather-related regional flooding which severely disrupted our US platinum group…

ZIMBABWE’S proposed gold-backed digital currency will be susceptible to the lack of trust that has plagued its other monetary instruments, economists said yesterday. However, fintech experts were more welcoming to the new instrument, saying it would be a worthy store of value. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya said on Sunday that the inflation-plagued northern neighbour to South Africa was looking to introduce a gold-backed digital token to fight inflation and loss of value in the Zim dollar local unit of exchange. Zimbabwe introduced physical gold coins last year to mop up excess local currency liquidity. “We shall soon be introducing digi- tal gold tokens to ensure that those with low amounts of local currency are able to purchase the gold units (gold coins),” State-controlled media quoted Mangudya as…