Star 2024-09-27

Gerhardus Burger was an associate of the late former CEO, Markus Jooste FORMER Steinhoff shareholder Gerhardus Burger yesterday pleaded guilty to three charges of insider trading in contravention of the Financial Markets Act and was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. Burger, who is 79, received a five-year sentence that was wholly suspended for five years on condition that he does not trade shares based on inside information during that period. He also has to pay back the proceeds from selling his shares. He was an associate of the late former Steinhoff CEO, Markus Jooste, who apparently sent him, Jaap du Toit, Marthinus Swiegelaar and the late Ockert Oosthuizen text messages warning them to sell their Steinhoff shares. Burger sold more than 39…

MULTICHOICE Group said yesterday it and NBCUniversal Media (NBCU) had since April 1, 2024, substantially ramped up their investment by $164 million (R2.83 billion) to make Showmax the leading streaming service in Africa. By the end of March 2024, the two companies had provided $120m in equity funding over a year, each in proportion of their respective shareholdings, to develop Showmax’s services, a statement said yesterday. MultiChoice had entered into an agreement with Comcast Corporation (Comcast) subsidiary NBCU and Sky in March 2023 to form a partnership with the aim of driving Showmax to become the leading streaming service in Africa. NBCU acquired a 30% equity stake in Showmax Africa Holdings (SMAH), and provided support through the licensing of its Peacock platform and content from NBCU,…

METAIR Investments, the international energy storage solutions and auto components group, plans to sell its Türkiye battery subsidiary Mutlu Akü to Quexco Incorporated, for $110 million (R1.89 billion), half what it paid for the company more than 10 years ago, to de-risk the group. Metair’s share price fell 1.89% to close at R14 on the JSE yesterday after it reported a headline loss per share of 3 cents versus a 41c per share profit in the same period a year before. However, in the difficult environment, the group did manage to address strategy relating to a recovery at Hesto Harnesses, debt levels in South Africa and the sale of Mutlu. Metair had acquired Mutlu in October 2013 for $270m and it was a very good manufacturer of…

SHOULD Vodacom be allowed to merge with Vumatel, and Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), this would limit competition in the fibre space and result in the creation of a monopoly. This is according to Advocate Daniel Berger, SC, who is delivering his closing statement on behalf of the Competition Commission at the Competition Tribunal regarding the merger to create the largest fibre infrastructure player in South Africa yesterday. Maziv, which is what the proposed fibre operator will be called, will be partially owned by Vodacom, while the South Africa’s largest mobile operator will simultaneously hold on to its mobile business, long-haul fibre assets, and retail ISP business. Berger said, instead of the merger being approved, Vodacom should wait for three to five years when more spectrum will become available. At the…

DURING the past 12 months, households and businesses have been saddled with the highest lending rate in 14 years, and one of the highest in the world. Although the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) has finally provided millions of indebted South Africans with marginal relief from very high debt service costs, capital markets are suggesting that the MPC is very far behind in reversing the restrictive monetary policy stance that kicked in at the end of 2021. Three fundamental flaws underpin the strange decision by the MPC to lift the prime overdraft rate to a level of 11.75%, when it was 10% just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, and also considered too high by the standards set by the MPC when Gill Marcus was governor…

STANDARD Bank is still maintaining physical banking points despite a 30% rise in digital and online transactions over the first half year to June 2024. For its 2024 first half year, Standard Bank recorded earnings of R22 billion, “underpinned by strong underlying organic growth”, which was “driven by increasingly digital clients and growing client” franchises. This came as in-branch transactions decreased by 13% to around 2.5 million transactions on the back of the increased shift to digital channels by the bank’s South African depositors. Online transactions for the bank increased by 30% to 1.5 billion transactions. “Standard Bank clients perform(ed) an average of 10 400 digital transactions per month, compared to just 0.017 transactions in branches. “ATM transactions have also increased by 8% to 104…