Cape Times 2021-11-30

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE BUSINESS sector, relieved that the country had averted another bout of lockdown restrictions, wants to be included on government’s decision-making bodies and called for greater consultation. President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday allayed fears of a stricter lockdown, announcing that the country would remain on alert level 1 with mild restrictions. Ramaphosa said the National Coronavirus Command Council had decided to not impose further restrictions, for now. Instead the government’s vaccination drive would be ramped up to reduce the impact of a looming fourth wave of Covid-19 amid the detection of the Omicron variant. Business Leadership SA chief executive Busi Mavuso appealed to the government against scoring any own goals with its efforts to manage the pandemic by consulting stakeholders. “Unfortunately, in previous measures, business has…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za PPC’s FIRST Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures report (TCFD), released yesterday, is likely to be the precursor of many more JSE-listed companies producing similar reports in the future. Investors and financial institutions are becoming increasingly vigilant about the environmental, social and governance aspects of the companies they invest in. As an example, Coronation Fund Managers noted last week in its results for the year to September 30, that it had written 89 letters to listed companies requesting their boards apply the TCFD reporting framework. PPC chief executive Roland van Wijnen and chairperson Jabulani Mo- leketi said in their TCFD report yesterday that, to date, they had faced relatively little pressure to reduce emissions from investors and shareholders. “We expect this to change in coming years. Therefore,…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za IMPALA Platinum Holdings (Implats) yesterday made Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) shareholders a staggering R43 billion offer to buy out a majority stake in the company as the bidding war with rival Northam Platinum heats up. RBPlats soared by more than 16 percent on the JSE while Implats was 6 percent stronger after the transaction was announced. Implats said on a 100 percent basis the total transaction value was R43bn, however, on a 65 percent basis, which would exclude the shares held by Northam, the transaction value is in the region of R28bn. Implats last week bought 24.5 percent of RBPlat shares constituting more than 70 million shares from institutional shareholders including Abax Investments, Allan Gray, Coronation Asset Management, M&G Investment…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za THE COMPETITION Commission yesterday blocked the R1.46 billion sale of Sasol’s sodium cyanide business to Czech-based Draslovka, citing that the merger would result in the prevention of competition. The commission said it found the proposed transaction would likely to result in a substantial prevention of competition due to inevitable post-merger price increases which would be detrimental to customers. “The commission finds that these price increases would be as a direct result of the proposed transaction. The commission further finds that this transaction would have a substantial negative effect on the gold mining sector,” said the commission. Sasol is South Africa’s sole liquid cyanide producer and the gold mining sector is dependent on the group for the supply of liquid cyanide. The anti-trust body said…

Given Majola given.majola@inl.co.za SOUTHERN African citrus growers delivered 161.6 million cartons of local citrus across the world during the year, an increase of 18.6 million cartons from last year, according to the Citrus Growers Association (CGA). CGA’s acting chief executive Paul Hardman said yesterday that this was achieved despite an extremely difficult and complex season that put the entire industry under severe strain. “The sector faced a number of serious challenges including the global shipping crisis, stringent additional phytosanitary measures by the EU that were costing the industry more than R4 billion annually, as well as serious operational challenges at South African ports,” Hardman said. He said the ongoing issues at the ports were intensified by the violence and looting that hit parts of Kwa- Zulu-Natal and…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za EPP, THE NETHERLANDS-based owner of retail property in Poland, will delist from the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and from its secondary listing on the JSE, prior to an internal reorganisation of the company, EPP said yesterday. The delisting plans follows Redefine Properties’ announcement to buy all the shares it does not own in EPP in order to recapitalise and to restore EPP to a dividend paying company by 2023. Redefine already owns 45.44 percent of EPP. EPP’s share price increased 2.67 percent to close at R12.32 on the JSE yesterday, while the Redefine’s share price closed up 4.17 percent percent to close at R5. EPP owned 29 retail properties and six office complexes in most of Poland’s regional cities as at June 30, 2021. It…