Star 2025-10-14

South Africa’s citrus export season has wrapped up on a high note, with Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) reporting a 19% year-on-year increase in export volumes handled across the country’s ports. According to TPT on Monday, the Durban Multipurpose Terminal recorded the most impressive growth, moving 131.6% more citrus than in 2024. The Ngqura Container Terminal saw a 35% rise, while both the Cape Town and Durban Container Terminals also posted double-digit increases of 27.4% and 28.8%, respectively. Michelle van Buren Schele, TPT’s general manager for commercial and planning, described the 2025 citrus season as “a remarkable achievement,” and thanked all those that have made this possible. “This year has been a remarkable achievement – and this is attributed to a bumper crop season, much improved terminal operational performance, and strong…

Westbrooke Renewable Energy Alternatives, an alternative investment strategy managed by Westbrooke Alternative Asset Management said on Monday that it has acquired a portfolio of operational solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage system assets located at 91 Shell Downstream South Africa (SDSAs) owned service stations across South Africa. The portfolio was purchased alongside one of Westbrooke Real’s partners, CVE South Africa, an experienced independent power producer. The assets were acquired from Thebe Solar Energy, which exited its position as part of a strategic realignment. The portfolio is fully operational and produces approximately 7.8 GWh of renewable power annually. The acquisition forms part of Westbrooke Real’s strategy to invest in South African behind-the-meter solar projects with experienced operators such as CVE. Westbrooke Real’s partnership with CVE has seen the joint acquisition and…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank's semi-annual gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors gets underway in Washington on Monday, against the backdrop of new trade threats from the world's two largest economies. Last week, China unveiled new export restrictions on critical minerals, prompting a fierce response from US President Donald Trump, who said he would impose new 100 percent tariffs on Beijing in response. The news, delivered just after US stock markets closed on Friday, sent shares plunging after hours, as investors digested the prospect of a reinvigorated trade war. Last week, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva told an event in Washington that the world economy is doing "better than feared, but worse than we need." She added that the Fund now expects global growth to…

A secondary inward listing will preserve South African investor access and market liquidity CANAL+ Groupe, the global media and entertainment group that has closed the R35 billion acquisition of MultiChoice Group (MCG), plans a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock exchange. The deal that adds MultiChoice's extensive African subscriber base to CANAL+'s portfolio will see it serve more than 40 million subscribers across nearly 70 countries. It was CANAL+'s biggest acquisition, to date, and follows the global group's listing on the London Stock Exchange in December 2024. In June last year, CANAL+ and MultiChoice set out an offer by CANAL+ to acquire all the issued shares of MCG, not already owned by CANAL+, for R125 per share, payable in cash. "We are pleased with the overwhelming success of the offer.…

The JSE share price of ASP Isotopes, an advanced materials company that produces isotopes for various industries, surged by 28% to R210 on Monday after the announcement of a new supply agreement for enriched silicon-28 and a strategic acquisition. In a business update, ASP Isotopes revealed the acquisition of an independent radiopharmacy in Florida, USA, aimed at expanding PET Labs' nuclear medicine business. This move represents PET Labs' first expansion outside South Africa. "This acquisition marks an important first step in the planned expansion of PET Labs beyond South Africa. Over the next several years, we expect to grow PET Labs through both brownfield and greenfield expansions, with the goal of ultimately establishing PET Labs as a global leader in the production of radioisotopes for treating various forms of oncology,"…

Governance is often spoken of in technical terms. Policies, processes and compliance frameworks dominate the conversation, leaving little space for reflection on the quiet dignity that once defined good leadership. Somewhere along the way, governance became procedural rather than personal, more about ticking boxes than inspiring trust. Yet, governance was never meant to be a system of control. It was meant to be a practice of conduct. When did governance lose its grace? Perhaps it was when rules began to replace relationships, or when compliance became an end in itself rather than a means to ethical stewardship. In the pursuit of accountability, we may have forgotten that governance is not only about what an organisation does, but how it chooses to do it. True governance is not a rulebook. It…