Cape Times 2022-04-26

SASOL yesterday said it has declared a force majeure on the export of some chemicals products due to the impact of heavy rainfall and floods. KwaZulu-Natal was recently hit by devastating floods. Sasol, the producer of fuel products and chemicals from coal, which released its production and sales metrics for the nine months ended March, said the impact of the floods might affect its fourth-quarter volume outlook. Sasolburg volumes were 11 percent lower than the previous period, resulting from coal supply issues. Liquid fuels sales were 5 percent higher due to a recovery in fuel demand. Chemicals sales volumes from Sasol’s South African assets were 10 percent lower, but this was offset by higher prices, resulting in a 16 percent increase in sales revenue. “At this stage, only production rates…

THE RAND continued a two-week slide yesterday, falling 2.27 percent to the dollar, while JSE prices slumped more than 3 percent, after global investors sought safer havens amid uncertainty about the global growth outlook and lockdowns in China, while the dollar soared. By 5pm the rand was bid at R15.75 against the dollar, 17 cents lower than at the same time the previous day. The all share index ended the day 3.48 percent lower at 69 750.67 points, while the Top40 index slid 3.81 percent to 62 895.89 points. The rand had already lost 7 percent over the past two weeks. Perceptions of aggressive interest rate hiking in the US due to rising US inflation – it increased by 60 basis…

THE INSTITUTE of Directors (IoDSA) yesterday clarified the role of a board member in the wake of the spat between Business Leadership SA (BLSA) chief executive Busisiwe Mavuso and Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa). Eskom board member Busi Mavuso, who is the chief executive of Business Leadership South Africa, is adamant she is doing her ethical duty as a board member. This after Mavuso defended her actions at Scopa on Friday acting as an Eskom board member after she said the ANC-led government had created the mess that Eskom was in and subsequently then was asked by Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa to leave the meeting. Yesterday, the IoDSA, whose chief executive Parmi Natesan is on leave, in answer to questions on Mavuso and board members, would not be…

PSG GROUP’s Project Value Unlock to unbundle its investments had been well received by shareholders, and the restructuring remained on track to be concluded by the end of August this year, chief executive Piet Mouton said yesterday. On March 1, the group announced a restructuring plan as a value- unlocking initiative for the benefit of its shareholders, following which PSG Group will be de-listed from the JSE. In the meantime, yesterday, strong financial results were again reported for the year to February 28, with a 36 percent increase in PSG Group’s Sum-of-the-Parts (SOTP) value to R127.88 per share from R94.24. The SOTP value increase is the group’s key performance metric. The share price fell 1.3 percent to R95.25 yesterday morning. Over a year, the price is up by…

ASTRAL Foods, the largest integrated poultry producer in South Africa, has upgraded its earnings forecast for the six months to March 31 – it now expects to raise headline earnings a share by 130 to140 percent. On February 2 it had indicated that earnings for the six-month period was expected to be at least 100 percent more than the same period in 2021. Small Talk Daily analyst Anthony Clarke said on Twitter that a revised earnings update from Astral had been predictable, and he had expected the higher earnings forecast. “They had a great H1 (as expected) as they are well hedged,” he said. He also believed the second half earnings might, however, be challenging for Astral, as input costs had soared. @tawakarombo from Tawakarombo & Associates also…

DESPITE raising capital expenditure by 4.2 percent to R335 million, Royal Bafokeng Platinum’s cash operating costs for the quarter to end March firmed on the back of increased production and inflation while there was a marginal decrease in head grade. This as RBPlat waded into controversy yesterday when it evicted former workers, dismissed in 2017 from an employee estate in Rustenburg. As many as 25 households – some of whom acknowledged that they are aware they are not supposed to be staying in the estate – were affected by the evictions. Others cited unfair dismissal and lengthy court processes to end the dispute. Labour relations have been thorny for South African miners. Far from the evictions and dispute with the former employees, RBPlat, in which Impala Platinum has…