Star 2023-06-20

SEVENTY-YEAR old Omnia Holdings, the diversified chemicals group, lifted its dividend 36% to 375 cents in the year to March 31 after it produced another set of strong results in a very challenging environment, CEO Seelan Gobalsamy said yesterday. The board of the diversified chemi- cals group was seeking shareholder approval for a share repurchase of up to 10% of the shares, or up to R500 million of share repurchases, he said in a telephone interview. On the availability of fertiliser to the local market, something that had been of broader concern last year due to global and local supply chain constraints, Gobalsamy said commo- dity prices had “fallen precipitously” and commodity supplies were now “fairly stable”, but there remained concerns around local transport infrastructure. Revenue increased 24%…

OLD MUTUAL Insure expects an influx of storm and rain-related claims in the Western Cape once customers had an opportunity to assess the damage, the insurer’s chief executive for retail, Soul Abraham said yesterday. They had so far received mostly claims for flooding and for collapsed structures that were related to the recent storms in the province, he said in response to Business Report questions. “As a risk business, we take proactive measures to ensure we are equipped for crises like these. We understand the sense of urgency on behalf of our clients so we have instituted various measures to ensure our affected customers are helped as quickly as possible,” he said. Additional resources had been deployed, including a dedicated management team and manager to handle the specific claims arising…

In wake of wrangle between major suppliers Vita Energy and Sunrise Energy THE PRICE OF liquid petroleum gas (LPG) is set to increase by at least R4 to R4.50/kg this winter as chronic industry challenges, including vessels not being able to access terminals due to bad weather and the shortage of trucks to haul the product overland become insufficient to provide the 15 000kg monthly winter peak requirements. In the wake of a wrangle be- tween major suppliers Vita Energy and Sunrise Energy, which will likely take a big chunk of product of the market, industry insiders who declined to be named said there was not sufficient supply. They said what was available from other players, including Avedia Energy would not be enough to stock up supplies. “The gas…

ROUGHLY 200 security guards are expected to march to Eskom today to demand clarity over a controversial Fidelity Services’ R500 million contract. The African Security Congress (ASC), a political party that looks after the interest of private security guards, in particular the public sector, which yesterday held a press conference in Johannesburg, said it was taking on Eskom's head of security, Karen Pillay, who “should be suspended while she was being investigated” as well as operations manager Jan Oberholzer, who together with former CEO André de Ruyter, they allege colluded to give Fidelity Security an uncontested tender for half a billion rands. “We have sought answers for a long time and we are not getting any response. Eskom should clarify why a tender of this amount was never advertised…

STOR-AGE, THE JSE-listed self-storage property fund, has a business model that has proved resilient through economic crises, and its management has confidently predicted it would declare another dividend in its 2024 financial year. Yesterday the group declared a full-year dividend of 118.14 cents per share for the year to March 31 – up 5.6% year-on-year. Management has forecast a dividend of between 115c and 121c for 2024. “Although not immune to economic shocks and volatility, the self-storage sector has displayed remarkable resilience in coping with economic stresses, as evidenced during the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic,” CEO Gavin Lucas said in a statement yesterday. Self storage benefits from a diverse set of demand drivers that remain present throughout all economic cycles. Demand is underpinned by life-changing events…

NATIONAL Treasury yesterday officially launched the Spatial Economic Activity Data South Africa (SEAD-SA) programme, a project focused on clarifying the geographic distribution and characteristics of economic activities within the country. Delivering his keynote speech, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the launch represented an important milestone on a journey that started about nine years ago when the metropolitan municipalities lobbied the national government to make available national administrative data sets that could assist them in making sense of their city economies. “The problem they wanted to be solved was the lack of spatialised economic activity data in South Africa. Metros did not know where firms and jobs were located within their boundaries, and how firm and employment activity changed over time. “The cities explained that this meant that they were making…