Star 2024-04-26

Anglo American share price rallied by as much as 18.92% to close at R611 on the JSE yesterday, following the announcement by the company that it had received an unsolicited and conditional share acquisition offer from its bigger rival, BHP. BHP’s daring $39 billion (R738bn) offer to acquire its smaller rival under an all-share buyout scheme is expected to shake up the global mining industry, create a large mining firm with heavy tentacles over world production of copper. In London, BHP’s proposed acquisition of Anglo American drove up the FTSE 100 index to a new all time high of 8 102.14 points for a third session running, the AFP agency reported. “Anglo has not had a great year – the rally (yesterday morning) has erased the losses…

IN THIS WEEK’S Personal Finance Saturday Page, we look at how the Pension Funds Adjudicator can help with unpaid pension contributions. Muvhango Lukhaimane, the Pension Funds Adjudicator, has recourse and can order employers to pay benefits that are due, and this order can be executed by a sheriff of the court. ■ On investing offshore, we answer whether an investor should wait for the rand to strengthen before taking their money offshore. ■ We also look at the world of cryptocurrency, and why there are fewer Bitcoin billionaires than you think. ■ South African learning institutions have been plagued with corruption for years. In this week’s edition, we look at how corruption at these learning institutions is much worse than anyone anticipated. ■ If you have…

THE ONGOING tensions in the Middle East threaten to halt – or even reverse – some of the recent progress made in tackling global inflation, the World Bank said yesterday. Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza has caused tensions to rise across the region and pushed up oil prices. “Heightened tensions in the Middle East have been exerting upward pressure on prices for key commodities, notably oil and gold,” the World Bank announced in its outlook for global commodity markets. “Disinflationary tailwinds from moderating commodity prices appear essentially over,” it added. A worst-case scenario shock to oil prices meanwhile could raise global inflation. +Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 34 262 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. “A key…

PRICES of goods at the factory gate are forecast to accelerate to the top end of the target band by the end of the year as the Producer Price Index (PPI) edged up in March after food and beverages rose to a 3-month high. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that the annual producer price inflation inched higher in March, rising to 4.6% from 4.5% in February. StatsSA said the main contributors to the acceleration in overall PPI inflation were food products, beverages and tobacco products. Inflation for food, beverages and tobacco products accelerated further to a 3-month high of 4.4% in March from 4.3% in February, with most of the upward pressure coming from elevated fruit and vegetable prices which increased by 13.5% year-on-year. Grain mill product…

CONSUMERS can rest easier about the safety of their money after the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) yesterday launched the Corporation for Deposit Insurance (Codi) to safeguard depositors in case of bank failures. This as Bank Zero says the move is significant and will disrupt South African banking dramatically away from “the banking oligopoly”. Codi aims to protect qualifying depositors in the face of bank collapses. It provides cover of up to R100 000 to each qualifying depositor per bank in the unlikely event of a bank’s collapse. This coverage limit protected nine out of 10 qualifying depositors in the country. Codi protects deposits held by retail and private non-financial corporate depositors in qualifying products. They typically include individual depositors and non-financial businesses, charitable or non-profit organisations, religious entities,…

AS WE CELEBRATE Freedom Day, we’re reminded of the courage of those who fought for our democracy. Yet, members of the anti-apartheid movement not only fought for the equal right to vote and take political office, but for the economic freedom of every black South African. With this in mind, we must acknowledge that 30 years into demo- cracy, we have come a long way – but not nearly far enough. A critical challenge remains even in today’s society: a lack of transformation, economic inclusivity, and empowerment. Too few black South Africans hold executive positions in our country’s most influential corporations. Consider that according to the Commission for Employment Equity’s latest annual report, 62.9% of top management positions remain occupied by white people, while nearly three-quarters of these positions are…