Star 2025-01-14

Eskom, which has plans to set up 14 000 kilometres of new transmission lines, is reviewing the impact of ArcelorMittal South Africa’s closure of its longs steel business unit, which could impact its plans to roll out transmission lines across the country. Amsa announced this month that it will be closing down its longs steel operations at Vereeniging and Newcastle, a move set to result in about 3500 employees losing jobs and a loss of capacity of about one million tons. The closure, apart from impacting other industries such as South Africa’s automotive sector, will likely have an effect on Eskom, especially its transmission division, the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA). In November last year, NTCSA said it had identified priority programmes that include “the Additional Transformation Programme providing…

SA REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust) are likely to deliver an 8%-9% income return in 2025, after outperforming all other classes in 2024, said Merchant West Investments head of listed property and portfolio manager Ian Anderson. He said the return would likely be a solid starting point for investors. Commenting on the December Chart Book, which he compiles, Anderson said on Monday: “With limited company-specific news, investors focused on broader macroeconomic issues likely to shape 2025, including concerns over tariffs, the Federal Reserve’s actions, and escalating geopolitical risks." These factors weighed on investor sentiment, contributing to a decline in the South African equity market. While the bond market followed suit, the South African REIT sector defied the trend, rising by 1%. For 2024, SA REITs delivered a 35% return, while…

The agreement is to sell 100% of LHC’s interest in LMI for $350 million (about R6.48 billion) Life Healthcare Group’s (LHC) investors had valued the group’s Life Molecular Imaging (LMI) business at zero two years ago, and Monday an agreement was announced to sell it for $760 million (R13.9 billion) to US-based Lantheus Holdings, CEO Peter Wharton-Hood said yesterday. The agreement is to sell 100% of LHC’s interest in LMI for an upfront payment of $350 million (about R6.48bn and earn-out terms of a potential further $400m, linked to future sales milestones. “Two years ago our investors valued LMI at zero. Essentially, what we did was take a small company, invest in it, and grow it,” Wharton-Hood said in an online interview. He said LMI had also reached a…

Farming associations and experts welcomed the announcement on the formation of SA’s Agricultural Conditions Assessment Committee. This follows the reporting of a sharp decline in South Africa’s agricultural performance in the third quarter of 2024, with a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 28.8%. The committee will include the Department of Agriculture, Agri SA, Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), and the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP). . In a joint statement, Agbiz and Agri SA said that the committee will meet regularly to assess the state of agriculture in South Africa and release brief insights following their discussions. Wandile Sihlobo, the chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of SA, said that the committee will be formed and start its work this month. “It will be housed at…

Despite apparent political headwinds and an oft-cited ESG (environment, social, governance) backlash in some parts of the world, investor demand for impact investing strategies has continued to grow. This has been driven by potential for positive diversification and the opportunity to access return opportunities across the global energy transition and via private markets. According to the Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN) Sizing the Impact Investing Market 2024 report, there is currently close to $1.6 trillion (R31trl) in impact investing assets under management (AUM) globally, being managed by more than 3 900 organisations. For the first time, GIIN was also able to calculate a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for impact investing AUM since 2019. At 21%, this rate is well above that for the wider asset management industry and outstrips…

At a press conference at the fifteenth session of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Assembly in Abu Dhabi, IRENA Director-General, Francesco La Camera, said that investment in renewables had reached a tipping point and the world was moving in the right direction to create a new energy system. He noted that this year’s conference had a record attendance with more than 2 000 people charting the direction for the year ahead. “Investment in renewables has reached a tipping point and what needs to be determined is the speed and scale of transformation. This is why 2025 is so important as countries submit their updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) next month,” he said. NDCs are national climate action plans by each country under the 2015 Paris Agreement. A country's NDC…