Star 2023-11-30

NASPERS’S 15% half-year revenue growth was more than double its peers and core headline earnings was more than doubled, increasing by 112%. The stronger performance was due to improved e-commerce and higher profits from Naspers’s Amsterdam-listed subsidiary Prosus’s 25% investment in the very large China internet group, Tencent, the results showed yesterday. Naspers’s directors said yesterday in results for the six months to September 30 that the fundamentals of its e-commerce businesses were improving. The “meaningful improvement” in profitability had enabled the group to bring forward its Prosus’s e-commerce profitability target by six months to the second half of the 2024 financial year. Core headline earnings a share, a key indicator of operating performance, rose to 454 US cents (R84.65) for the six months, more than double 214 US cents,…

The country’s major steel maker has also been weighing its options on a large steel plant being built in Zimbabwe AFTER shutting down its long steel manufacturing at Newcastle and Vereeniging, ArcelorMittal South Africa said yesterday it would grow its flat steel business through import replacement and localisation as Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to reverse South Africa’s scrap metal policies. ArcelorMittal South Africa on Tuesday announced that it was axing 3 500 jobs at its long steel businesses, citing weaker economic growth, poor logistics and erratic infrastructure. Amid widespread concern over the closure of the Vereeniging and New- castle long steel operations, ArcelorMittal South Africa CEO Kobus Verster insisted yesterday that the issues that had contributed to the winding…

THE SOUTH African Reserve Bank (SARB) has flagged six micro and macroeconomic challenges, including intensified load shedding, as key risks to domestic financial stability in the short-, medium-, and long-term. The SARB said yesterday that the sharp repricing in government debt, capital outflows and declining market depth and liquidity, insufficient and unreliable electricity supply, intensification of geopolitical risks, remaining on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist for longer, as well as further deterioration of household and non-financial corporate (NFC) buffers were the main risks to the country’s financial stability. SARB’s lead macroprudential specialist, Dr Herco Steyn, said the financial sector’s exposure to government debt increased markedly over the past decade, while at the same time the fiscal position and the credit rating of government debt deteriorated. Steyn said…

EXXARO Resources was expanding its search for critical mineral assets to greenfield projects, the mining company said yesterday, as it pursued its strategy to diversify away from coal. Exxaro, one of South Africa’s top coal producers, also has interests in iron ore and renewable energy. The company plans to acquire manganese and copper assets, both minerals considered vital for the global transition from polluting fossil fuels to cleaner energy. The miner was among several firms that were interested in buying Botswana’s Khoemacau copper mine, which holds one of Africa’s largest copper deposits. The $1.88 billion (R35bn) mine was eventually sold to Chinese miner MMG. Exxaro’s chief growth officer Richard Lilleike, who is leading the miner’s mergers and acquisitions drive, told analysts that while the company was still interested…

THE COMPETITION Commission of South Africa wants former SABMiller employees to be paid entitlements under the Zenzele Employee Share Ownership Programme to bring finality to the issue and to help the former workers who are faced with a tough economic situation. The Competition Tribunal of South Africa heard submissions on the merits relating to a settlement agreement signed by the Competition Commission, the South African Breweries and the chairperson and trustees of the SAB Zenzele Employee Share Trust. This became necessary after the Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa lodged a complaint with the Commission in 2020, alleging a breach of a condition to the 2017 merger which saw the Coca-Cola Company South Africa acquire the interests of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa. AB InBev exited as a shareholder…

EARNINGS in Pepkor, the owner of household brands PEP, Ackermans, Tekkie Town, Buco and Incredible, took a knock for the year ended September 30, 2023, amid a challenging operating environment in South Africa with consumers under severe financial strain. Headline earnings per share fell 8.7% to 149.1 cents. Headline earnings of R5.5 billion was in line with expectations, negatively impacted by elevated debtors’ costs and net finance costs. Despite this, the board declared a cash dividend of 48.1c per ordinary share payable to shareholders on January 22, 2024. This was down nearly 13% from the prior year’s 55.2c per share dividend. Pepkor CEO Pieter Erasmus said: “Consumers in South Africa have continued to experience severe economic and social challenges during this reporting period. The result is extreme financial…