Cape Times 2022-07-20

ASCENDIS Health has reached agreement to sell its Pharma business to Austell Pharmaceuticals for R410 million, a deal that it says will reduce its debt and stabilise the balance sheet. The share price shot up 10.8 percent to 72 cents by midday yesterday, indicating that some shareholders were clearly enamoured with the transaction. “This gives us enough runway to stay listed and build a company again,” chairperson Harry Smit said in a telephone interview. The Austell offer is 10 percent more than an earlier offer for the Pharma business, which was made by a Pharma-Q and Imperial Logistics joint venture. “The disposal of the Pharma business will significantly reduce the debt burden. The net purchase price will be set off against the R590m loan that Ascendis…

THE NATIONAL Treasury has proposed wide-ranging measures that could lead to severe sanctions, including disciplinary action, against accounting officers who fail to pay invoices within the stipulated 30-day period. The Treasury yesterday published the “2021/22 annual report on non-compliance with payments of suppliers’ invoices within 30 days” for the period ending March 2022. National and provincial government departments are required to pay suppliers’ invoices within the prescribed period in terms of section 38(1)(f) of the Public Finance Management Act. The report found that the number of invoices paid after 30 days by national and provincial departments in the 2021/22 financial year amounted to R33.7 billion. The situation deteriorated for the number of invoices older than 30 days and not paid by national and provincial departments as this stood at…

THE FINANCIAL markets were jittery yesterday ahead of the release of consumer inflation data, which is expected to show that the cost of living in South Africa has accelerated further. The rand danced around the R17-to-the-dollar mark as investors adopted a wait-and-see approach to South Africa’s upcoming headline inflation figure. Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) will publish the consumer price index (CPI) for June today amid historic highs in the US and Europe, which have propelled fears of the onset of a global recession. Inflation data globally continues to show an uncomfortable rise owing to rising energy and food costs, with the US printing a higher-than-expected inflation number of 9.1 percent last week. South Africa’s consumer inflation also quickened by more than expected to 6.5 percent year-on-year in May,…

JSE-LISTED BHP produced a strong fourth quarter to cap off a year of significant progress,while it yesterday warned of tough times ahead. In its operational review released yesterday the diversified miner said it had increased production across its portfolio of commodities during the June quarter. Iron ore production for the period was 64.2 million tons, an 8 percent increase, which showed record production from the Mining Area C hub, the continued ramp-up of the South Flank operation and the improved supply chain performance. Total copper production decreased by 4 percent to 1.57 million tons. Production for the 2023 financial year was expected to be between 1.6 and 1.8 million tons. Nickel production in the June quarter was up by 1 percent to 18…

SOUTH African Airways (SAA) and Kenya Airlines plans for a super airline to dominate the African skies has come closer to fruition with the announcement of a codeshare agreement, which will see each airline sell under its own code, flights operated by the other. Passengers travelling out of South Africa will have more options to travel to African destinations including Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Entebbe, Mombasa and Kisumu, while Kenya Airlines’ passengers will have more options for travel into Southern Africa including Cape Town, Durban and Harare. This follows the signing in November last year of a strategic partnership framework, which is expected to improve the financial viability of the two carriers by cutting costs, increasing the size of the available fleet at their disposal through code sharing and potentially…

NOT all financial woes can be attributed to Covid-19 and the lockdown. Sometimes the shoe pinched simply due to a downturn in the economy, a judge said in an application after the owner of a Ford Ranger who could not keep up with his instalments had to return the vehicle to the dealership. FFS Finance South Africa turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria for an order confirming the cancellation of an instalment of sale agreement between the parties and for an order directing the car’s owner, Quintin Vos, to return the Ford Ranger. Vos admitted that he was in breach of his obligations by being in arrears with payments, but told the court that it was impossible for him to keep up with the instalment due to the lockdown.…