Star 2024-03-08

AS SOUTH Africa’s mining industry flounders amid closure of shafts and wor- sening job losses, the Bench Marks Foundation (BMF) is calling for the repurposing of affected areas and communities to put them on a sustainable footing. Massive retrenchments, especially in platinum mining, where loss making shafts are being mothballed, have rocked South Africa over the past few months. There has also been rapid closure of some gold mining shafts, with reduced investment into exploration across the mining industry, posing further uncertainty to one of the country’s key economic pillars. The BMF told Business Report in an interview that there were increased instances of dying and ghost towns in South Africa as a result of the closure of mines and retrenchments of mining workers. Anglo American Platinum, Sibanye- Stillwater and…

IT’S ALMOST time for the prestigious Raging Bull Awards, which will be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on March 11. Independent Media’s Personal Finance publication hosts the awards to honour the leaders of the South African collective investment industry. The winners of the awards are determined by ProfileData, using its PlexCrown Ratings methodology. The Raging Bull trophies and certificates are awarded for straight performance over three years and for risk-adjusted performance over five years to the end of 2023. A nominated list of the winners was published last week on Saturday in Independent’s publication and on its online platform. Dr Iqbal Survé, executive chairman of Independent Media, said: “The Raging Bull Awards carry huge prestige for not only the winning funds and the managers – which…

GRINDROD lifted its 2023 dividend by 84% to 72.4 cents following a record performance from the Maputo port operations, from sea freight trade and good deployment of its rail facilities. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased 16% to R2.51 billion, while headline earnings increased 29% to R1.36bn, annual results for the year to December 31 showed yesterday. Cratos Asset Management (@CratosAM) said on social media platform X: “Ports & Terminals, which was 56% of profit, grew revenue by 19% and profit 14%, while Logistics, which makes up 44% of its profit, saw revenue grow 14% and profit 2%.” Market analyst Marco Olevano (@MarcoOlevano) said on X: “These results put Grindrod on a PE of around 8.4x with a dividend yield at current prices of 5.6%. Not…

Shares soar after the offloading by Astral Foods of its 9.8% interest in the company SHARES in Quantum Foods soared 72.93% on the JSE yesterday to close at R9.20 on the JSE following the offloading by Astral Foods of its 9.8% interest in the diversified feeds and poultry business this week for R141.7 million to Country Bird Holdings (CBH) in a shake-up that has sparked renewed interest and attention on the South African poultry industry. The acquisition of the 19 550 855 shares in Quantum Foods by CBH, which already had a 6.45% interest, has bumped up its stake in the company to 16.25%. “Quantum Foods’ shareholders are hereby advised that the company has received a notification, in the prescribed form, from Astral Foods Limited, advising that…

THIS WEEK MARKED International Women in Tech Week, which coincides with International Women’s Day today, March 8. Despite progress being made in gender equality and equity over the last decade, the under-representation of women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) fields continues to persist. According to the latest Unesco report on gender-responsive education, too many girls and women are held back by biases, social norms and expectations influencing the quality of the education they receive and the subjects they study. Girls are under-represented in developing countries in the African continent; particularly around Stem education and, consequently, in Stem careers. Salesforce empowers women in AI The greatest challenge to advancing gender equality in the workplace, particularly in the technology industry, is addressing women’s under-represen- tation in emerging roles,…

AS WE CELEBRATE International Women’s Day, it is important to reflect on the strides made toward achieving gender equality, while acknowledging the challenges women face when it comes to economic empowerment. In South Africa and across Africa, the number of female investors is extremely low, compared to counterparts in more developed nations as reported by femaleinvest.com. Thirty-eight percent of women are leading households and serve as primary breadwinners, which in turn creates hesitancy towards investment, as that is often the money used to survive and meet daily needs, according to Kerryn Campion, the chief operations officer of Aions Creative Technology and Aions Exchange. “A major factor contributing to this hesitancy can be attributed to the risks involved. Many women, although most of them experts in managing household finances, are not…