Star 2023-10-12

Damage caused by infrastructure bottlenecks, load shedding and poor municipal service SOUTH Africa’s consumer goods industry has warned that the economy can no longer withstand the damage being caused by infrastructure bottlenecks, load shedding and poor municipal service delivery. The Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA) yesterday said the government needed to do the right things to fix the economy before the country runs out of runway. CGCSA co-chairpersons Gareth Ackerman and Johann Vorster sepa- rately said the cost of doing business had gone up as companies battle with a tough economic environment, which was affecting their ability to operate profitably, create value and invest for growth and employment creation. Ackerman, who is the chairperson of Pick n Pay Stores, said the government was failing to do…

POSTBANK posted a R2 billion annual loss yesterday as it complained the variation notice imposed by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) was restricting its growth and took a massive loss from a credit loss provision relating to the SA Post Office (Sapo). The State-owned entity yesterday, presenting its financial results before the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies in Parliament, reported a net loss of R2bn in 2022/23 financial year as compared to a profit of R302 million the prior year. It attributed this to the R2.2bn expected credit loss provision relating to the R4.3bn Sapo exposure. Postbank CEO Nikki Mbengashe said the SARB’s variation notice, issued in December 2021, with several conditions, one of which was for Postbank not to on-board new customers or offer…

THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned financially-constrained countries about the fiscal implications of the green transition, saying the current national objectives and policies could fail to deliver net zero, with catastrophic consequences. This comes as South Africa is in the middle of a Just Energy Transition Programme (JETP) to accelerate the just transition and the decarbonisation of the electricity system after mobilising $8.5 billion, or R163bn, from rich countries. IMF director of fiscal affairs Vitor Gaspar said yesterday that balancing public finances had become increasingly difficult for all countries as a result of growing demands for public spending, rising interest rates, high debts and deficit and political resistance to taxes. During the release of the IMF’s Global Fiscal Monitor report, Gaspar said countries with limited fiscal space, low…

PSG FINANCIAL Services, which changed its name in July from PSG Konsult, said yesterday that it had increased its interim dividend by 23% due to double-digit earnings growth despite challenging operating conditions. In its interim results for the six months that ended August 31, 2023, the group said it achieved robust earnings growth across its three main business units, which span investment advice, insurance, and asset management. Recurring headline earnings per share per share rose 21% to 37.6 cents per share following net inflows into managed assets of R9.5bn. The group declared an interim gross dividend of 13.5c per share from income reserves, compared to last year’s 11c per share, up 23%. PSG Financial Services said this reflected its sound financial position and confidence in its prospects. CEO…

Jubilee Metals, the diversified metal processing group, saw a strong operating performance in the year ended June 30, which assisted in buffering the group against market challenges, including a fast falling platinum price and rising costs. It demonstrated “Jubilee’s ability to challenge industry norms by breaking through technical barriers and implementing solutions that extract value from materials and ore sources that were previously regarded by others as waste or too complex,” its directors said in the results published yesterday. Its share price at the end of the day was 14.97% down to close at R1.42 on the JSE yesterday. “As a consequence of the investments made in the last financial year, we can report that our expansion into higher margin chrome mining and processing activities has already started to yield…

ZIMBABWE-listed companies are now allowed to report financials in US dollars as the economy rapidly dollarises, with the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) CEO revealing yesterday that corporate boards and shareholders have room to decide which currency to report financials in. Zimbabwe uses a multiple currency regime that includes the Zimbabwe dollar, which is increasingly being sidelined for transactions, the rand and the US dollar. Listed companies have also been reporting an uptick in US dollar transactions, although the government insists on pegging prices in the local currency with the option of translating prices to US dollar using the official exchange rate. “Reporting issues are for the board and shareholders … they can use any currency that they feel best represent the performance of their organisation. We are in a multicurrency…