Star 2023-11-09

It will also put the company in a position to supply excess energy to the SA power grid FORD MOTOR Company South Africa, which yesterday announced plans to produce the first-ever Ford Ranger Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle as part of its 100-year legacy in South Africa, also plans to operate purely on its own renewable energy in future, as well as provide electricity to the grid. Andrea Cavallaro, operations director, Ford International Markets Group, said yesterday in Pretoria that their Silverton plant in Tshwane was already home to more than 30 000 solar panels that were capable of providing 13.4MW of power, which is capable of operating its entire assembly plant during the day. He said the world was moving to electric vehicles and Ford had been part of…

AS SOUTH African platinum group metals miners cut jobs and their Zimbabwe units scramble for capital to sustain productivity and expansion, weaker commodity prices and growing transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is casting doubt over sustained demand for the precious metal that is mainly used in internal combustion engine catalytic converters. South Africa has the world’s largest reserves of platinum and is home to the biggest producers of the metal in Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Sibanye-Stillwater and Impala Platinum (Implats). Although Sibanye-Stillwater has made a good case to transition its investments into battery metals such as lithium, South African platinum group metal (PGM) companies are big employers in the country and in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where they also have large mining operations. “South Africa holds about four-fifths of the world’s known…

THE RAND FELL by nearly 1% yesterday on the back of the US dollar extending its strength for a third day in a row after some US Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers left the door open to further rate hikes. The markets were gripped by ten- sion yesterday as investors awaited clues on the outlook of interest rates from a slew of central bank officials, including a speech from the US Fed chairperson Jerome Powell on the central bank’s future policy path in the evening. The sentiment across the market has been that the Fed will increase rates one last time before the year end by at least 25 basis points, which drove a sell-on to the greenback. As a result, the rand lowered 0.8% to R18.50/$1 by 5pm, weaker than…

A2X MARKETS, a South African stock exchange that operates an alternative trading platform for listed securities, said yesterday that it had successfully grown its trade value from just R657 million in trade value in its first year in 2017, to more than R75 billion six years later. The original bourse – the JSE – has been given a run for its money by industry participants, such as the A2X Markets and Cape Town Stock Exchange. A2X is an authorised stock exchange that offers a complementary platform where companies can secondary list their shares for trade and provides a company’s shareholders with the opportunity to save money when they transact by taking advantage of the platform’s low fee structure, narrower spreads and increased liquidity. A2X CEO Kevin Brady said:…

SOUTH African telecom groups may be facing currency upheavals in other African markets, but Vodacom remains unfazed by this problem in its Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) market, believing that ongoing engagement with the authorities have set the groundwork for a settlement to its protracted tax dispute. Last year the DRC government locked up offices of Vodacom and prevented telecom executives from leaving the country over a tax dispute to the sum of $245 million (R4.5 billion), but now reduced to $165m following an audit of its accounts covering the period 2016 to 2019. Rival operator, MTN, is also battling to contain a bitter fall-out with Nigerian authorities who recently slapped it with a bill of $72.6m in overdue taxes. Khalil Al Americani, the Vodacom Congo CEO, said…

ALEXFORBES’S shares yesterday fell after it announced the purchase of digital wealth platform OUTvest from a unit of subsidiary of OUTsurance Group Holdings (OGL) for an undisclosed amount as it continues to snap up acquisitions. Alexforbes said the acquisition accelerated its digital journey and supported its strategy of transforming into the most impactful provider of advice to retirement fund members. Alexforbes said Alexander Forbes Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, had concluded a binding agreement with OUTsurance Holdings Limited, an 89.8%-held subsidiary of OGL, for the acquisition of 100% of the shares in OUTvest, subject to regulatory approvals. The effective date of the acquisition was expected to occur towards the end of March 2024. Alexforbes shares slid 2.4% to close at R6.10, while OGL’s investors cheered the move, which…