Cape Times 2021-09-09

Philippa Larkin philippa.larkin@inl.co.za CAPITEC Bank yesterday welcomed the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) slapping Viceroy Research with a R50 million fine for publishing “false, misleading or deceptive statements, promises or forecasts regarding material facts about Capitec, which they ought reasonably to have known were not true”. The penalty was imposed on Viceroy Research and its partners, Aiden Lau, Fraser John Perring and Gabriel Bernarde, aka the respondents, in terms of section Financial Sector Regulation Act 9, which was payable within 30 days from the date of the order. Capitec, valued at R219.7 billion, and which has seen its share price soar 218.8 percent in the past five years to roughly 18 890 cents a share, has been recognised for the second time in a row…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa needs to recalibrate its debt management strategy as the finance costs on the government’s more than R400 billion debt are steadily gathering momentum, SA Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said yesterday. At a discussion on South Africa’s inflation targeting strategy, Kganyago said the State had this far only been able to adequately manage its debt servicing strategy due to low inflation costs, but the horse was fast bolting, with inflation ticking up. “Over the past 12 months or so, we have noticed that National Treasury borrowed over the short end of the yield cap, and because South Africa has such a steep yield cap, we have benefited from borrowing over the short end of the yield cap, but that must be telling us something…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za FORD South Africa has created around 1 200 additional jobs by adding a third shift as part of its $1.05 billion (R15bn) investment in its Silverton assembly plant, which will be operating around the clock to meet export and local sales orders. With the additional shift, the plant will be able to produce up to 720 vehicles a day, or 240 units per shift – which equates to one new Ranger coming off the line every two minutes, managing director Neale Hill said in an interview yesterday. He said while they are working full steam ahead to realise value from the investments to increase production capacity, the company has in the meantime also faced logistics-related challenges on component and parts supply, which he said was mostly related…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za FINANCIAL services group Momentum Metropolitan Holdings will not force its staff to vaccinate and its South African life insurance business paid a record R10.7 billion in mortality claims during the year ended June 2021. Speaking at a virtual financial results presentation yesterday, chief executive Hillie Meyer said the group would rather convince anti-vaxxers to vaccinate rather than enforce a mandatory vaccination policy. He said the group’s management fully supported the vaccination drive for employees, clients and the company. “I think it is the best weapon against the impact of Covid-19 but I would much rather sit with every one of the anti-vaxxers of our business one on one and try to convince them to vaccinate. Ultimately, it will be your choice,” he said. Meyer’s comments come…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za PROPERTY market demand is cooling following the strong rebound in the second half of last year that continued into the first half of this year, FNB’s property barometer for August showed. The FNB HPI annual house price appreciation decelerated to 2.6 percent year-on-year (y/y) in August, from 3.4 percent in July, economist for the bank Siphamandla Mkhwanazi said yesterday. This coincided with a weakening of the bank’s market strength index, as demand growth slowed relative to supply. Estate agent activity also moderated across price segments, as evidenced in the latest FNB Estate Agents Survey. However, mortgage extension in July rose by 7.2 percent y/y, the quickest in 12 years. “This seems at odds with demand and market activity indicators, a conundrum compounded by the…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za LIBSTAR groceries and perishable foods categories boosted turnover growth in the six months to June, but normalised headline earnings a share fell 0.8 percent to 24 cents. The share price slipped 4.22 percent to R6.13 yesterday afternoon after the release of the interim results. In the six months, group revenue increased 10.5 percent to R4.74 billion. The group’s food categories, which represent 93 percent of its revenue, benefited from the much-improved food service channel demand and a resilient performance in the retail channel. Although the upper-income consumer brackets where Libstar mainly operates were less affected than middle- and lower-income consumers, demand constraints became more evident at all levels, the group said at the release of its results yesterday. Chief executive Andries…