Star 2024-05-28

SOUTH Africa’s largest short-term insurer, Santam, has wholly acquired Kandua, a leading online marketplace company for home services. Kandua will merge with Santam’s home service offering, Home+, forming a wholly owned, independent subsidiary of the insurer. The Kandua.com website offers an online marketplace for home services that enable consumers to connect with, compare and hire professionals across hundreds of service types, such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters and more. Service providers can use the “Kandua for Pros” app to find new customers and easily manage their core business processes. Gloria Tapon-Njamo, the CEO of Santam Partnership Solutions, said Kandua’s talent, technology and customer base were valuable assets for their business as it opened new avenues for client growth and digital innovation. “The business has an established technology and extensive network of…

SOUTH Africa’s corporate and investment bank, RMB, yesterday said the Indo-Africa trade corridor had surged to a staggering $95 billion (R1.76 trillion) in size, showcasing a dynamic and growing economic partnership between the regions. Ritesh Sharma, head of foreign investment and trade for RMB’s India team, said this marked a significant increase from only $5bn in 2002, highlighting the corridor's impressive trajectory. Sharma noted that while the initial trade focus was on energy products, the corridor had witnessed remarkable diversification in recent years. He said: “By our estimation, we expect the value of trade in the corridor to hit $100bn next year “India’s exports to Africa now encompass a wider range of products, including agri-products like rice, wheat and meat ($8bn), pharmaceuticals ($4.5bn) and automobiles ($4.2b). “Projects, machines,…

THE BUSINESS sector in South Africa has expressed hope that the seventh government administration will forge ahead with the structural reforms post the general elections. This as South Africans go to the polls tomorrow to elect the government of their choosing after 30 years of democracy. Business Leadership SA (BLSA) said yesterday that the sixth administration had made solid progress in stabilising institutions and driving reforms necessary to get the economy out of the low growth, low employment trap we were stuck in for more than a decade. BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso said business acknowledged that important economic reforms had been made during the sixth government administration, including Operation Vulindlela to address systemic crises such as in the energy and logistics sectors. Mavuso said the challenge for any democratic government…

PICK N PAY has embarked on a new strategy to restore it’s core Pick n Pay supermarket business to profit after its R3.2 billion taxed loss for the year to February 25, and plans for a R4bn rights issue and the listing of Boxer in November are in full swing, CEO Sean Summers said yesterday. Summers, interviewed at the release of results yesterday, said it was still early days for their new six-point multiyear strategy. Although the results were a “disappointment”, he said it was made clear upon his re-appointment in December that the group was “under duress” after years of steady decline in the core business. He said early indications were “encouraging”. Regarding the rights issue, he said the Ackerman family indicated they would…

THE RAND STABILISED by 0.4% to R18.34 against the US dollar yesterday as the market sentiment improved following last week’s volatility spiked by the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) concern over the stickiness of inflation. However, market analysts yesterday warned that there was volatility ahead for the rand, depending on the outcome of the general elections. More than 27 million eligible voters will tomorrow cast their votes in South Africa’s fiercely contested 2024 national and provincial elections, which the markets expect will result in the first-ever national coalition government as the ruling ANC’s support wanes. This comes as the rand lost ground in the second half of last week after the release of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes showing the lack of significant progress on inflation returning to…

DISCOVERY Bank has launched its new Home Loan product in a key milestone as the bank expands its growing footprint. The bank, which was launched in March 2019 by Discovery Limited, is the world’s first behavioural bank. The digital bank yesterday said it would offer clients competitive, personalised rates based on their individual risk profiles, and use its established shared-value banking model to enable clients to further reduce their interest rate by up to 1% at a time when the current prime lending rate is at a 14-year-high of 11.75%. This would be done by managing their money well with Vitality Money and protecting their home loan and their home with the relevant insurance products Discovery offered. Discovery Bank will face stiff competition against established players. According to Statista, Standard…