Cape Times 2023-08-18

This is LIKELY due to it being a traditionally insulated industry with high barriers to entry by new competitors. Together with administrative procedures that make it difficult for existing customers to switch to an opposition financial provider, banks tend to be complacent. In-house research among nlighten- cx’s customer base shows that 50% of those who did move banks, despite the onerous administration involved, did so for reasons of trust and security, while another 50% did so for a better client experience. Better banking fees and better products/solutions – the two other categories listed in the research – played no part in the decision to switch banks. In a previous nlightencx snap poll conducted this year, which also looked at the banking sector in South Africa, only 24% of respondents were…

DRDGOLD yesterday flagged an expected increase of up to 18% in its earnings for the year ended June 30 due to the rand gold price rising by 16%. In a trading statement, the company said it expected its earnings per share to increase by 9% to 19%. Headline earnings per share (Heps) were likely to rise by 8% to 18%, amounting to about R1.40 to R1.54. DRDGold reported that revenue increased by R377.8 million, or 7%, to R5.5 billion compared to the previous comparable period’s R5.2m. The impact of the increase in revenue on earnings and headline earnings was moderated by an increase in cash operating costs of R224.3m, up 6% to R3.68bn compared to the 2022 financial year (R3.5bn). It said the expected increases in EPS and Heps for…

THE DEPARTMENT of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) said yesterday that mining companies must be held liable to undertake proper rehabilitation and safeguard their areas in the face of illegal mining. Illegal mining in South Africa was untenable as there was no due regard for public safety, resulting in environmental damage and damaged public infrastructure, DMRE director for enforcement and compliance, Nqobile Khanyile, said in a webinar yesterday. “Sometimes these activities occur in close proximity to Transnet pipelines that contain gas and some of them have petroleum products. “But it should also be a concern to South Africans as well because it is our public infrastructure that is damaged and the human rights of the people who live close to this area that are violated as a result of…

Eskom has maintained its confidence that wheeling will serve as a catalyst for enabling the private sector to participate in power generation, which will provide the system with the much-needed additional capacity to handle load shedding. Wheeling is the delivery of energy from a generator to an end-user located in another area through the use of an existing distribution or transmission networks. As an illustration, consider a solar farm operated by an independent power producer in the Northern Cape that sells its energy to a large corporation in Gauteng. Eskom’s transmission network and local distribution networks are used to supply the electricity. Eskom senior adviser for electricity pricing Onicah Rantwane yesterday said that the power entity had now moved from a single buyer, particularly the integrated utility model, to a…

STANDARD Bank Group, Africa’s biggest bank by assets, lifted headline earnings a share 34% to 1 280.6 cents in the six months to June 30 due to its differentiated franchise and Africa-focused strategy. The dividend was raised by the same percentage to 690 cents, equating to a payout ratio of 54%. Headline earnings increased a substantial 35% to R21.2 billion. The South African banking franchise headline earnings grew 17% to R8.4bn. The Africa Regions’ headline earnings were up 65% and contributed 44% of group earnings. “We continued to support our clients and our teams managed the business well through an uncertain geopolitical environment and volatile market conditions,” CEO Sim Tshabalala said in a statement yesterday. The top six contributors to the Africa Regions’ headline earnings were Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria,…

ANGLO American yesterday announced that H2 Moves Berlin, the fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) fleet jointly initiated with Toyota Germany and taxi operator SafeDriver Group-ENNOO, has now driven more than 1 million zero-emission kilometres, and provided more than 100 000 customer journeys. First launched at the end of 2022, H2 Moves Berlin is Germany’s largest FCEV fleet and forms part of Anglo’s strategy to help accelerate zero-emission transport through the deployment of platinum-enabled hydrogen FCEVs. When used in a fuel cell, platinum serves as the catalyst to generate electricity via a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. This is then used to power the motor of an FCEV, which can be refuelled in five minutes with ranges up to 650km and is similar to using a petrol or…