Cape Times 2021-11-05

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za TRANSNET, the state-owned logistics company, yesterday vowed to work with the government to guide its future audits as the group risks defaulting on multi-billion rand near-term debt maturities due to its struggle to raise new long-term debt to bolster its diminishing liquidity profile. This comes as Moody’s Investor Services has downgraded Transnet’s ratings status due to its weak liquidity profile and weak corporate governance. Moody’s on Wednesday downgraded the corporate family rating of Transnet to Ba3 from Ba2 and the national scale senior unsecured Medium-Term Note rating to A2.za from Aa2.za. Transnet’s baseline credit assessment, a measure of standalone credit quality prior to any assessment of potential extraordinary government support, was lowered to b1 from ba3 with a negative outlook. Moody's senior analyst Lisa Jaeger said Transnet’s…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za MTN YESTERDAY unveiled a public offer of just under 3 percent of shares in MTN Nigeria, its biggest market, saying it was on track to reduce holding company debt, raising hopes of dividends after a two-year break. MTN plans to sell up to 575 million shares in MTN Nigeria for R3.7bn (101.1 billion naira), as part of its focus to ‘further localise’ 14 percent of the group’s holding in MTN Nigeria over the short to medium term. The offer is expected to close next month. “The offer is anticipated to open in November 2021 with a bookbuild to institutional investors after which a fixed price is expected to be announced for retail investors also in November 2021,” said MTN. In July MTN announced…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za The APPOINTMENT of deputy finance minister David Masondo as the new chairperson of the Public Invest- ment Corporation (PIC) alongside labour stalwart Frans Baleni into the new look board has been hailed as positive by sectors of the economy. This appointment has become effective after amendments to the PIC statutes earlier this year provided for a deputy finance minister or any other deputy minister in the economic cluster to chair the PIC board. The State earlier this year has made an amendment to the PIC act to facilitate for a stronger transfor- mation role for the PIC to play in the economy in view of previous con- troversies of the State funder which holds a huge chunk of civil servants funds. This presents a slight, but important…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za EMPLOYMENT levels worsened for the second month running in October as industrial activity in South Africa was severely affected by the metalworkers’ three-week strike. The IHS Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) published yesterday showed a sharp decline in activity across the private sector in October, largely caused by the strike that disrupted output and sales. IHS said the PMI fell to contractionary levels to 48.6 points in October from 50.7 points in September, a third deterioration in business conditions in the past four months. The index was the second-lowest in more than a year after July’s reading. However, after recording the first uplift in four months in September, output at South African businesses fell sharply at the start of the fourth quarter. The National Union…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za AFRIMAT, the construction materials, industrial minerals and bulk commodi- ties group, is working on another acquisition after strong iron ore prices, cost and efficiency initiatives boosted cash and earnings growth in the six months to August 31. Chief financial officer Pieter de Wit said in a telephone interview yesterday that the balance sheet was healthy and debt-free, the group had funded two previous acquisitions in the interim period from its own cash resources, and that they could not yet disclose the details of the next acquisition. Many exciting opportunities were being investigated, he said. The interim results were boosted by favourable iron ore prices. He said iron ore prices had since fallen sharply, but the iron ore business was still operating at better average margins than the…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za LOCAL online tourism and events booking platforms are being squeezed out of the market by international competitors such as Booking.com, Expedia Travel and Google Travel. These behemoths had the financial muscle to relegate the local companies far down the list of internet search page listings, and afford themselves greater marketing spend, the Competition Commission heard yesterday. This was the evidence of SA- Venues.com director Christine Searle, who spoke online yesterday at the Competition Commission’s inquiry into online intermediation platforms. Local tourism industry activity has slumped dramatically in the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She said since 2011, the SA-Venues.com platform had faced increasing competition from global competitors, both in terms of their access to more favourable internet search listings, such as in the first…