Star 2023-11-01

Sasfin Group, which reported a 19.4% slide in headline earnings a share in the year to June 30, is resetting strategy as it continues to grapple with issues of financial misconduct among staff and clients. Last year Sasfin indicated that no stone would be left unturned in an expanded investigation into allegations of financial misconduct by clients and staff of its foreign exchange operations. The bank’s investigation revealed a criminal syndicate who colluded to circumvent internal controls. Criminal charges were laid against all implicated erstwhile employees, and information was shared with the relevant authorities. The SA Reserve Bank also started its own investigation into the matter, including a review of Sasfin's compliance, governance, and internal control standards, which Sasfin co-operated with. “The outcome of this investigation has resulted in allegations…

TROUBLED South African sugar processor, Tongaat Hulett, which has postponed a key meeting to consider and approve a business rescue plan, saw basic losses for the year to March 2022 from continuing operations widen from R762 million to R1.07 billion, even as it started to receive dividends from Zimbabwe. The government of Zimbabwe and other losing bidders are disputing Tongaat Hulett’s preference for Tanzanian entity, Kagera to acquire assets of the South African agro-processing group, which also has operations in Mozambique and Botswana. There has also been widespread speculation that Mozambican entity RGS – which is offering double the offer by Kagera – has emerged as the third preferred bidder after the little known but preferred Tanzanian bidder and a consortium led by Mpumalanga businessperson, Robert Gumede. Zimbabwe,…

MARKETS and the credit rating agencies will be watching South Africa’s debt projections as Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivers his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) today. Moody’s Investor Service and other rating agencies will be checking to see if South Africa is able to reduce its fiscal deficit and taking measures to cut expenditure. However, South Africa is struggling on both fronts. Annabel Bishop, the chief economist at Investec, said: “We now expect the gross loan debt estimate for 2023/24 to be raised to -72.8%/GDP (gross domestic product) and 2024/25’s figure will be revised to -73.5%/GDP, while 2025/26’s projection deteriorates to -74%/GDP and 2026/27 to -73.9/GDP.” The September 30 data showed that expenditure was higher than it was this time last year, at 51% for the first half of 2023/24…

Caused by costs of diesel to supplement generation performance and decrease in sales ESKOM has warned of serious deterioration in its finances for the 2023/24 financial year after doubling its losses in the past 12 months, largely driven by primary energy costs of diesel to supplement poor generation performance, a decrease in sales volumes due to load shedding, and rising municipal debt. The struggling power utility yesterday reported a net loss after tax of R23.9 billion for the financial year ended March 31, 2023, its biggest loss ever, up from R11.9bn the year before. Eskom’s acting CEO, Calib Cassim, said that the generation performance continued to deteriorate, while networks and new build delivered variable performance. Cassim said plant availability deteriorated to 56.03% in the 12 months ended in March,…

THE SOUTH African alcohol industry was experiencing a tough year of falling sales and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana would hopefully “stick to policy” and keep customs and excise duty increases on alcohol products in line with inflation, SAB CEO Richard Rivett-Carnac said yesterday. Godongwana would announce his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement today, an event that often highlights planned changes to taxes. Customs and excise duties on alcohol products are routinely increased every year in the government’s Budget, but “to their credit”, over the past few years the increases had been much in line with inflation, Rivett-Carnac said yesterday in an interview at the release of SAB’s third-quarter results. SAB’s results formed part of the results of its parent, the beer multinational Anheuser-Busch InBev, for the three months to September 30.…

ONE OF SOUTH Africa’s most popular retailers, Woolworths Holdings Limited (WHL) announced its intention yesterday to acquire 93.45% of the shares in privately owned pet retailer Absolute Pets from Sanlam Private Equity and Absolute Pets management. In a statement issued on the JSE news service, Sens, the group said the remaining management-retained shareholding would be acquired by Woolworths over an agreed period, post the completion of the transaction. Absolute Pets was established in 2005 and has become one of the country’s leading specialist pet care retailer, with extensive knowledge of pet care, loyal customer base and compelling product offering. The business has a national presence of more than 150 stores countrywide, including online, pet spas and pet services. Woolworths said pet care was an attractive and rapidly developing market, with…