Star 2024-09-12

MUSTEK said yesterday its headline earnings a share (Heps) were expected to be between 70% and 80% lower for the year to June 30 after the cessation of load shedding led to an end to the renewable energy boom that fuelled the technology distributor’s growth in the prior year. The share price fell 8.9% to R12.29 following the release of a trading statement. Heps were expected to be between 75 cents and 112.5c compared with 374.99c in the 2023 year. Basic earnings a share were expected to be between 85% and 95% lower at between 18.63c and 55.89c compared with 372.61c in 2023. The difference between headline and basic earnings was due to an impairment of the investment in Zaloserve (Sizwe IT Africa), which had been classified as an…

ANGLO American plc may have quickly moved to place shares in Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) on the market after completing a bookbuild that raised R7.5 billion earlier this week as a result of persistently lower platinum group metals (PGM) prices and a less rosy outlook on demand. The London and Johannesburg- listed group, which rebuffed an unsolicited offer from BHP earlier this year, on Tuesday sold 13.9 million ordinary shares in Amplats at R515 per share. This represents about 5.3% of the South African PGM producer’s total issued ordinary shares that plunged by 11.15% on the JSE yesterday to close at R506.95. Analysts have told Business Report that Anglo American may have felt pressured to place some shares in Amplats on the market ahead of the planned…

THE THREE-WEEK strike at Premier FMCG’s confectionery plant, Mister Sweet, is set to continue after the Johannesburg Labour Court shot down its attempt to interdict and halt the strike. Employees at Premier’s Wadeville confectionery operations embarked on a protected strike last month due to a wage dispute as they demand a living wage of R19 500 from the current R6 000 per month for the lowest paid workers. In a statement yesterday, the Simunye Workers Forum union said it had defeated Mister Sweet’s attempts to bring an interdict against the crippling strike at its factory in Johannesburg, which began on August 19. Johannesburg Labour Court Judge J Daniels had ruled on Tuesday that the employer was unable to show any link between the alleged violence they complained of…

PRICE increases for poultry products in South Africa are expected to ease following double-digit hikes over the past two years, bringing relief to financially- constrained consumers who have faced rising food inflation. According to the Absa AgriTrends Report released yesterday, these good news to the consumer come as a result of a stronger rand and robust growth in production by key global suppliers such as Brazil, possibly seeing average price of chicken products increase by just over 1% this year in some instances. Dr Marlene Louw, senior Economist at Absa AgriBusiness, said in recent times, the outbreak of diseases like Avian Influenza had caused a global shortage of this protein source, which put upward pressure on prices. “While potential new disease outbreaks may change the price outlook going forward, all…

The NATIONAL Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) yesterday told Parliament that it would appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) against the decision of the High Court judgement in which it lost an application to overturn the decision not to implement the Cost of Supply (CoS) method in determining municipal tariffs for the 2024/25 financial year. The decision to appeal to the Supreme Court comes after Nersa, along with the South Africa Local Government Authority (Salga), lost a judgment and appeal last month of an action launched by AfriForum seeking to stay the 2024/25 increases based on the CoS. In a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy yesterday, Nersa said it had outlined “the negative consequences of the order on the sustainability of munici- palities,…

THE GLOBAL community will be closely watching the upcoming Shanghai Co-operation Organisation meeting (SCO) in October as pundits continue to speculate whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the event in Pakistan. Out of the 24 member countries that are part of SCO, four of the country’s are BRICS member countries, with China, India and Russia being the most significant in terms of their economy and global standing. The SCO was established in 2001 by Russia and China to consolidate European and Asian countries on issues ranging from economic, political, security and defence. However, the organisation has been grappling with multilateralism, which Washington seemingly intends to exploit. Dr Rashid Alimov, the Secretary General of the SCO, maintains that the organisation was “established as a multi- lateral association to ensure security…