Star 2023-05-04

AVENG, the construction and open-cut contract mining group at the tail end of a long turnaround, said yesterday that all conditions had been met for the R1.22 billion sale of its Trident Steel subsidiary, a deal that finally extinguishes the last of the group’s legacy debt. Aveng announced a strategy in February 2018 to simplify its business, de-risk its balance sheet and reduce its debt. This required it to reduce from 23 business units to five, and turn around and dispose of non-core assets to allow it to focus on the core assets of McConnell Dowell and Moolmans. The disposal results in the parent company being debt free, removes the substantial working capital requirements of Trident Steel and leaves simplified operations with two operating segments McConnell Dowell and Moolmans.…

COMBINED Motor Holdings (CMH) lifted its dividend 67% to 393 cents per share in the year to February 28 off strong financial results, but it has warned trading conditions in the year ahead are likely to be tough. CEO Jebb McIntosh said in the motor retail and distribution and car hire group’s annual report that the South African socio-economic environment would likely be driven by a continued power outages, infrastructure failure, violent crime and high youth unemployment. “Corruption remains endemic, with little evidence of the government’s pledge to root it out and hold the perpetrators accountable. “On the economic front, nine interest rate hikes and a weakened currency have placed severe strain on households, where the rising cost of housing and transport is now exacerbated by the need to…

SOUTH African markets ended the day on a positive footing yesterday – amid a weak US dollar as investors braced for the latest policy decision by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) while fears of a recession still lingered. The rand strengthened by 0.7% to R18.26 against the US dollar after recovering from R18.49/$1 on Tuesday as the bleak jobs data from the US put the dollar on the back foot. Data on Tuesday pointed to a slowing in the US labour market as the jobs report fell for a third straight month and hit a two-year low, down to 9.59 million vacancies from an upward revised 9.97 million in February, the lowest since April 2021. This suggested that employers were becoming more cautious amid heightened economic uncertainties. The…

THE NATIONAL Treasury has hinted that it could possibly revise downwards South Africa’s growth forecast for 2023 as the country teeters on the brink of an economic recession on the back of persistent energy crisis. Deputy Minister of Finance David Masondo yesterday said Treasury would announce a further update on its projections in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in October. This comes as the International Monetary Fund has projected growth of 0.1% for 2023, which is lower than the National Treasury’s projected growth of 0.9%. There are other more recent projections on growth in 2023, and market consensus is currently for growth of 0.6% in 2023. Masondo said that part of the major reasons for South Africa’s poor economic performance has been due to supply-side constraints – supply of electricity,…

AT THE END of March this year, South Africa’s headline consumer inflation had risen for the second month in a row to 7.1% year-on-year from 7% in February, according to Statistics South Africa. Since peaking at 7.8% in July 2022, inflation has remained stubbornly high, putting ongoing pressure on retirees’ incomes. The effects of inflation should be factored in when choosing a product to provide an income throughout retirement. Inflation is typically measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which relates to a basket of goods that an average person will buy. But in retirement, it is important to recognise that a pensioner may also experience different types of inflation, like medical or lifestyle inflation (the rising medical or lifestyle costs associated with ageing), which can be greater than CPI.…

MTN UGANDA’S mobile subscribers increased by almost 12%, boosted by financial technology and data services for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, the telecom operator said yesterday. Its mobile subscribers increased by 11.6% to 17.8 million. MTN Uganda CEO Sylvia Mulinge said: “MTN Uganda recorded a good start to the year with a solid Q1 (quarter one) performance, tracking positively against our medium-term targets with a solid revenue performance and margin expansion. This was delivered through disciplined execution of our strategy and incremental improvements in the trading environment with a relatively stable currency coupled with subsiding albeit high inflation”. Profit after tax grew 20% to 120.6 billion Ugandan shillings (U/sh) (about R600 million) in the reported period. MTN Uganda flagged that active data subscribers grew by…