Star 2024-06-21

NAMPAK’S share price closed a whopping 23.4% higher at R228 on the JSE yesterday after the packaging group, which is undergoing massive restructuring due to financial difficulties, said it would likely report a turnaround to a profit on a per share basis for the six months to March 31. “The most salient first-half performance drivers include a step change in performance of the continuing operations, an effective cost reduction programme, lower foreign exchange losses, improved working capital, progress on asset disposals and lower impairments,” the group said in a trading statement yesterday. As an indication of how favour-ably investors have viewed Nampak’s restructuring so far, the share price was closing at R22.80 yesterday, while a year ago it was trading at only 76 cents. During the first half, various…

TRANSNET National Ports Authority (TNPA) has appointed Grindrod South Africa as the preferred bidder to develop and operate a container-handling facility at the Port of Richards Bay, as part of plans to drive im- proved port efficiency and service levels. This comes as Transnet embarks on a strat- egy to attract more private sector players into the development and maintenance of port infrastructure as part of structural reforms on the back of financial constraints. TNPA said yesterday that this development will enable an increase in the port’s container handling capacity from 50 000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to 200 000 TEUs per annum, in alignment with the provincial ports master plan. Grindrod SA is ideally positioned to spearhead the development and operation of this facility, which is scheduled…

DESPITE advances in financial inclusion, boosted by digital and mobile finance platforms that are blossoming across the region, authorities in southern Africa should enhance competition in banking systems. This was according to Absa Bank chief strategy and sustainability officer Punki Modise, who said that there were varying levels of debt-to-GDP ratios across African countries, while some regional sovereigns such as Kenya, Ghana and Egypt have adopted unsustainable debt strategies. Standard Bank said yesterday that currency volatility in some regional markets had intensified in the first five months of the current year. This comes as South African banks expect non-performing loans to escalate in their home market. Nonetheless, regional financial experts reckon that robust competition in South Africa’s and regional financial ecosystem will improve bankability in the private sector and improve…

PETROCHEMICAL giant Sasol closed 2.1% higher on the JSE after it won a R3.8 billion claim against transport utility Transnet, plus about R2.3bn in interest, after litigation that started in 2013. Sasol and TotalEnergies had accused Transnet’s pipelines subsidiary of overcharging on the transportation of crude oil from Durban to the Natref crude oil refinery in Sasolburg by not correctly using an agreed formula to determine the tariff. Transnet said yesterday it would appeal the High Court judgment. Transnet said the dispute flowed from the transportation of crude oil on their pipeline from a historic agreement that was cancelled in 1991, allowing for neutrality tariffs, maintaining that Total and Sasol had a transportation benefit from a finite public resource, which other oil companies like BP, Shell and Caltex did…

THE MILESTONES that the Barokolo- gadi Communal Property Association (CPA) achieved after having the 26 000 hectares adjacent to the world famous Madikwe Game Reserve in the North West province returned to them, bucking the widespread narrative of failed land reform programmes. Amos Setou, the general manager of the Barokologadi CPA, credits a clear growth plan for the success of this land reform project. “Having a clear plan for the community provided a foun- dation for the co-ordinated strategic development efforts that needed to take place on the farm to ensure that the restored land benefited our people – the Barokologadi ba ga Maotoe community, Setou said. When the CPA held its first annual general meeting back in 2007, it took the decision to formulate measured plans…

THE KERFUFFLE around coalitions should have been seen for what it was: political gimmickry. With the ANC failing to achieve a governing majority in the May 2024 elections, the question should not have been with whom to rule, but rather, what are to be the most likely social, economic and political implications of an ANC-led government that has a DA in it. Tell tales of some pact could be discerned long ago. During the 2021 local government elections, the ANC’s Paul Mashatile had let it slip that they “want to keep the ANC position below 50% even in the national elections”. Such puerile, crime against logic talk, did not excite much attention, or censure from the ANC. Elsewhere, the DA had been rightly gloating that the ANC was implementing its…