Star 2024-05-17

AT THE RECENT passing of its founder, Dr Sam Motsuenyane, Africanbank is stepping into a new era of growth and innovation. Yesterday it unveiled a revamped logo and a new campaign message, “Africanbank backs you”. For major long-standing South African brands, it takes great deal of courage to change a logo, key messages and other accoutrements of corporate identity, as the brand could lose or even alienate its existing client base that has been built up over a long period of time with the previous branding. “We celebrate this growth at a time of sadness as we remember our founder, Dr Sam Motsuenyane. “His triumph in establishing South Africa’s first black bank was a victory for us all and his story remains a source of inspiration,” Africanbank group chief…

NAMPAK, Africa’s biggest packaging group that is struggling through a severe restructuring due to high debt, saw its share price surge yesterday after it announced the $68.5 million (R1.25 billion) sale of its Nigerian business. The share was closing 14.46% higher at R190 on the JSE yesterday, indicating the disposal was positively received by shareholders. Proceeds from the disposal would go towards reducing Nampak’s debt. The book value of the assets being sold, at September 30, 2023, was R69.4m. Opportune Investments chief investment officer Chris Logan said it was “great that they have managed to sell at a reasonable price”. He said the rise of the share price indicated that the market was “relieved” about the disposal, so that Nampak’s management could focus squarely on getting the group’s…

NATIONAL Health Insurance (NHI) “will be a systemic shock to the medical system” when it becomes a reality, Insight Actuaries & Consultants joint CEO Barry Childs has warned. Childs was talking at the Nedbank Healthcare Conference yesterday, which was held at an opportune time as the country grapples to understand the implications of the BHI Bill that President Cyril Ramaphosa signed on Wednesday. However, Childs said that in the meantime there was no need to panic or cancel medical aids as the process of implementation would take nearly 10 years. A tax credit on the medical aid schemes would be removed, of which there was no Treasury papers on, but which they had calculated at roughly 14% of “your medical aid contribution, so this was meaningful”. The NHI would mean…

SHELL South Africa said yesterday that the future of its investments into oil and gas exploration on the Wild Coast would be determined by the outcome of today’s Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) hearing in which fishing communities and environmental groups are interdicting the company’s offshore exploration activities. This comes as Shell South Africa has recently announced that it was exiting its downstream business operations in South Africa, although it would still retain its investments in the country’s upstream and offshore activities. One of these activities is the exploration for gas and oil on the pristine Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape province. Although the government approved Shell’s exploration activities on the Wild Coast, the Makhanda High Court prevented the global energy firm from continuing with exploration activities in the…

TRADE conditions in South Africa are expected to improve in the next six months after reaching this year’s best level during April on the back of load shedding being suspended the whole month, though the high rate of crime is still a major concern. The SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) yesterday said the Trade Activity Index (TAI) recovered to reach the best level thus far in 2024, although it went through a tough period at the start of the year. Sacci said that after only 28% of the respondents were positive about conditions in January 2024, the TAI gradually improved to measure 45 in April – or 45% of respondents being optimistic about trade. Sacci economist Richard Downing said though conditions were still in negative territory, below the…

SWISS RESOURCE giant Glencore is well primed to make a run for Anglo American assets being spun off, after the British multinational mining group rebuffed BHP for the second time this week. This comes as BHP is running out of time to make a firm offer for Anglo American, with London listing rules stipulating that it has until Wednesday next week. In any case, Anglo American has already said that it will essentially break itself apart by disposing of its platinum and diamonds businesses, while curtailing investment into its crop nutrients operations as a defence strategy against the BHP offer. Although BHP is still emboldened, analysts told Business Report yesterday that Glencore was an almost natural fit to go after Anglo American, rocking the boat for the Australian resource giant’s…