Star 2024-05-08

ATTACQ, the JSE-listed real estate investment trust (Reit) and strategic development partner in Waterfall City, said yesterday that its 70% held subsidiary, Attacq Waterfall Investment Company (Awic) had acquired the remaining 20% stake in Mall of Africa for R1.07 billion from the Atterbury Group. Awic currently holds an 80% stake in the asset. The Mall of Africa is one of South Africa’s leading super regional malls and anchors Waterfall City, a growing, large scale mixed-use precinct encompassing residential, logistics and collaboration hubs as well as two strongly performing hotels, all of which provide high volumes of quality foot traffic to the mall. As at December 31, 2023, the mall’s compounded annual trading density growth over the past three years was 16.1%, whilst its rent to turnover ratio was healthy…

SAPPI has reached a power purchase agreement with Nersa-licensed private electricity trading company Enpower Trading – the first agreement of its kind in South Africa – for 175GW/h per year of renewable power. The renewable power will enable the forestry, paper and pulp group to reduce its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 4% and 5% respectively, in South Africa. The companies believe also this first-of-its-kind agreement in South Africa will become a template for other similar agreements, which will also help to resolve the load shedding challenges faced by big companies in South Africa. The power supplied to Sappi would be sourced from SolarAfrica Energy’s Sun Central Photovoltaic (PV) project. SolarAfrica Energy, an integrated energy solutions provider, is establishing one of the largest solar farms in South Africa…

ONLINE retail giant Amazon.com, which started as a bookseller in 1995 out of founder Jeff Bezos’s garage, launched a South African shopping portal with a .co.za domain yesterday as it seeks to capture some of the more than a third of South African adults who shop online. Amazon.co.za is promising shoppers a reliable online shopping experience featuring great value, including same-day delivery, more than 3 000 pick-up points, easy returns, 24/7 customer support and free delivery on first orders either via its app or in a browser. Amazon managing director of Sub-Saharan Africa, Robert Koen, said they were excited to launch Amazon.co.za, along with thousands of independent sellers in South Africa. nlightencx marketing specialist Mathabo Sekhonyana added that Amazon was viewed as having strong brand credibility and a reputation…

THE WAIVING of visa requirements from some African countries has helped South Africa’s tourism sector to continue on a positive trajectory as the latest international arrival figures pointed to robust growth in the three months to March. According to Statistics South Africa, international tourist arrivals from January to March 2024 totalled 2.4 million, representing a remarkable 15.4% increase when compared with the same period in 2023. Data pointed out that South Africa welcomed 1.8 million tourist arrivals from the rest of the African continent during the period, marking a significant 74.5% of all arrivals. Zimbabwe and Ghana stood out for their remarkable growth, with Zimbabwe experiencing a 21.8% increase in tourist arrivals to South Africa when compared with the first three months of 2023, totalling 613 675…

JSE EXECUTIVES said yesterday that they were doing all they could to slow the shrinkage of the bourse and encourage more listings. Their proactive initiatives included regular meetings with policymakers and measures to make it easier and less costly to list smaller companies. JSE executives faced tough questions from its shareholders at the annual meeting. There were sentiments if the JSE had lost the confidence of policy makers or had simply failed to let policy makers know that there was a problem with the stock market, the shrinkage of which could have a very real effect on the overall economy. For instance, a shareholder, Chris Logan, chief investment officer of Opportune Investments, questioned why the JSE board had not been able to get stock market supportive policies in place, as…

THE BEEFMASTER Group has warned that the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak which occurred on a farm in Humansdorp, in the Eastern Cape, could be more pervasive than what it was believed to be, given a lack of evidence of biosecurity measures. The affected farm has been placed under quarantine and a full epidemio- logical investigation has commenced to identify the possible origin of the virus. The Kouga Local Municipality announced the prohibition of movement of animals within its borders to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious viral infection as surrounding areas have also been affected. Beefmaster supply chain executive, Roelie van Reenen, said the FMD continued to be a threat due to several factors, including the movement of animals from FMD control zones or hotspots, to other areas, a…