Star 2023-09-07

THE RESTAURANT Association of South Africa (Rasa) has invited DStv management to immediate talks about the television group’s near tripling of the prices of its packages to the hospitality sector at the start of the Rugby World Cup. Many local rugby fans are fuming that the SABC will not be broadcasting the 2023 Rugby World Cup, which kicks off tomorrow, as the SABC has refused to pay MultiChoice R37.7 million for the rights to broadcast live all potential Springbok games. The games will only be available on SuperSport Grandstand and Rugby channels on the most expensive DStv Premium package. Rasa CEO Wendy Albert said yesterday in an interview that the hospitality industry had on several occasions requested DStv to talks about pricing, which DStv had ignored, and the association…

HARMONY Gold, South Africa’s top gold producer by output, yesterday reported two deaths at its Kusasalethu mine, 90km west of Johannesburg. The work area had been temporarily closed pending an internal investigation, Harmony said. “Harmony Gold Mining Company regrets to announce that two employees tragically lost their lives at its Kusasalethu mine, following a fall of ground incident caused by a seismic event on Tuesday, 5 September 2023,” the miner said in a statement. The company recorded six fatalities in its financial year, which ended on June 30. It registered 13 deaths in the previous financial year. On Tuesday, the National Union of Mineworkers, South Africa’s biggest mineworkers’ union, said the mining sector had recorded 27 fatal accidents so far this year, with gold miners accounting for 15 of them.…

The renewable energy platform, opened for business yesterday, will unlock an investment of roughly R20bn to R25bn IN ANOTHER innovative first, Discovery CEO Adrian Gore unveiled Discovery Green, a renewable energy platform, which opened for business yesterday, that will unlock an investment of roughly R20 billion to R25bn in South Africa’s energy infrastructure. The platform, developed with the support of RMB, Discovery’s investment banking partner, connects businesses across South Africa to affordable, renewable power generated by utility-scale renewable plants. However, for companies joining Discovery Green, there is a two-year waiting period to be connected up with renewable energy, with it expects to come online in 2026. “A number of years ago, we started to think about could we apply the Vitality science to how people think about climate? Could…

SOUTH Africa’s business confidence edged higher in the third quarter, but remained in depressed territory, as fewer power cuts provided respite to firms battling high-inter- est rates, according to a survey by a private investment bank. The survey by the Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) and compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research showed the business confidence index climbed to 33 points in the third quarter, up from 27 points the previous quarter. Nearly two-thirds of 1 050 senior executives surveyed said they were dissatisfied with current busi- ness conditions and the sentiment remained “still very weak”. Annabel Bishop, the chief economist at Investec, said business confidence remained in depressed territory. “A RMB/BER business confidence index (BCI) reading below the neutral 50 level shows that the majority of…

THE WORLD Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) said yesterday that it had revised the platinum deficit forecast for the full-year 2023 upwards to more than one million ounces, the largest deficit on record, due to strong automotive and industrial demand growth and flat supply. This was in terms of both absolute ounces and as a percentage of annual demand. Total supply is expected to remain flat, aligned with the weak 2022 level of 7 224 ounces, down 31 ounces, while demand was expected to increase significantly by 27% to 8 230 ounces. The council said the core drivers of platinum’s expected 27% demand growth in 2023 – including strong growth in automotive and industrial demand – were clear to see in the second quarter and built…

NAMPAK’S share price fell 22.57% to close at R226.49 on the JSE yesterday, two days after releasing full terms of its rights issue and on a day when a newly appointed non-executive director bought shares in the ailing group. A JSE notice said yesterday that Tjaart Kruger, a Nampak non-executive director appointed in March this year, had acquired Nampak shares worth R1.57 million through a family trust on Monday. He was appointed along with Phildon Roux, who has subsequently been made CEO of Africa’s biggest packaging manufacturing group, and Andre van der Veen. Typically, directors purchasing shares in their own company is viewed as a positive sign for investors and shareholders of listed shares. Opportune Investments chief in- vestment officer Chris Logan said the lower share price was not…