Star 2024-06-19

TELKOM, the third-largest telecoms company in South Africa, has reported a profit of R1.9 billion in the year ended March 31, 2024, up from a loss of nearly R10bn the previous year, partially because it had booked a R13bn impairment in 2023, because of its legacy copper business – and these headwinds were now behind it. Although headline earnings per share (Heps), a key measure of profitability, gained 201.3% to 376 cents a share, Telkom did not declare a dividend for the fifth year in a row. Instead, Telkom yesterday said it will be able to share cash with shareholders in “the near term” with the next 12-month period targeted as the first year-end to consider paying a dividend. Telkom’s new dividend policy is to pay out a…

SANLAM is acquiring 60% of Multi- Choice’s insurance business, NMS Insurance Services (NMSIS), as well as a long-term arrangement to expand insurance and financial service offerings into MultiChoice’s African subscriber base, in a deal of about R2.7 billion. Sanlam’s share price reached fresh highs at the announcement of the transaction yesterday, and its shares closed 8.88% higher at R83.27 on the JSE yesterday. That said, the share price of its biggest local competitor Old Mutual closed also 7.96% higher at R12.21 on the JSE yesterday. MultiChoice’s share price closed 2.13% lower at R102.69. Sanlam will pay R1.2bn up front in cash to MultiChoice for the 60% stake, while a performance-based cash earn-out, of up to R1.5bn, contingent upon the amount of gross written premium generated (GWP) by NMSIS…

THE COMPETITION Commission has thrown the book at the fresh produce market chain, citing major retailers and wholesalers, agro-processing companies and seed companies for cartel behaviour that enforces barriers to new entrants and manipulating the product gene pool, among other indictments in South Africa’s more than R53 billion industry. The commission yesterday said that Spar, Woolworths, Food Lover’s Market, and Shoprite, seed company Starke Ayres, and JSE-listed entities African Rainbow Capital and agrochemicals giant Bayer South Africa as all being separately and collectively implicit or responsible for price distortions in the market. In a provisional report on the Fresh Produce Market Inquiry, Deputy Commissioner Hardin Ratshisusu recommended sweeping changes to the fresh produce value chain from farm to fork, criticising the conduct of dominant players, saying it had resulted…

THE JSE YESTERDAY rallied to a 1-month high to within a touch of 80 000 points, buoyed by “hot money” in resources, financials and industrial stocks, while the rand strengthened on peaceful establishment of the Government of National Unity (GNU). The risk-on sentiment on the JSE was driven by expectations that the GNU will build on the relationship that the government has had with the private business sector in improving freight, electricity supply and crime prevention, broadening the relationship to strengthen economic growth and the rule of law. President Cyril Ramaphosa will be sworn-in for his second term today after the formation of the GNU, which includes five parties and represents more than two-thirds of the National Assembly seats, proceeded peacefully in spite of challenges, giving the domestic financial…

MUSICIANS across the world have described artificial intelligence (AI) as a threat to creativity, but the CEO of one popular platform says critics are looking at it all wrong. BandLab, a mostly free online music workstation and distribution platform in Singapore, has more than 100 million registered users. It recently incorporated an AI music creation tool, dubbed SongStarter, which generates song ideas from genre, key, tempo and lyric prompts. For BandLab founder and CEO Meng Ru Kwok, whose company bought music magazine NME in 2019, AI is no substitute for a real musician. “It’s not called SongFinisher. It’s called SongStarter. It’s not trying to replace people’s creativity … (with) a vending machine approach of a magic button where you press and a song comes out,” Meng said. “You still…

THERE was plenty of humble pie to be had at this year’s Money20/20 Europe event in Amsterdam, Nether- lands. The gathering serves as a premium platform for content, sales and networking, attracting leading brands and personalities from the global money ecosystem, including payments, fintech and financial services. Bottom basics With the fintech industry experiencing a dramatic drop in funding – from $238.9 billion in 2021 to $113.7bn in 2023 (about R2.055 trillion) – regardless of the bullish sentiment of fintech proponents worldwide, the data points to a broader recalibration driven by a plethora of complex economic factors, not least the global trend towards higher interest rates. The shift has made it increasingly difficult for even the most promising and rapidly expanding companies to secure funding, which is now being…