Cape Times 2022-01-28

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za ELECTRICAL goods group ARB Holdings has received a R698.6 million buyout offer from privately-held Masimong Group Holdings, acting with investment group Sabvest Finance and Guarantee Corporation. JSE-listed Sabvest is controlled by the family trust of its chief executive, Chris Seabrooke. The Masimong investment group was founded by its chairperson, Mike Teke. The offer to ARB shareholders by way of a scheme of arrangement would result in its de-listing, a statement from the group said yesterday. Teke is also chairperson of investment company Anchor Group, in which Masimong is a shareholder, which delisted last year. Masimong’s other investments include in Seriti Resources, Masimong Energy, Southern Cross Investments, InteliChem and Rolfe Group. The offer was pitched at R8 per scheme share, which was a 21.9 percent premium…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za THE SOUTH African Reserve Bank’s (SARB’s) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) raised interest rates by 25 basis points (bps) yesterday in line with economist predictions, due mainly to inflation from food, fuel and utility prices rising faster than expected. Reasons for these rising prices included supply disruptions to the global economy arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, into a global market where demand was rising quite sharply after being subdued during the pandemic, SARB Governor Lesetja Kganyago said. The rise in repo rate to 4 percent, suggested by four out of five MPC members, pushing the prime lending rate to 7.5 percent, was not unexpected. In a poll 16 out of 23 economists had predicted the 25 basis point increase. Kganyago, responding to a question…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za STATE-OWNED power utility Eskom said yesterday that it had kept the lights on since late November last year as it ran the gauntlet of numerous challenges and affirmed it had burnt more than R3 billion in diesel on open cycle gas turbines (OCGT) to keep pace. The utility had battled vandalism, fraud, technical mishaps, wet coal, loss of generation capacity and low energy availability factors leading to difficulty in maintaining its generation and transmission capacity. With Koeberg and Medupi out of the count with a collective 1 600 megawatts out of commission, Eskom has already spent R5.5bn for the year-to-date to run its own OCGT plants and a further R3bn to purchase electricity from the private Avon and Dedisa plants, as the energy availability…

Dieketseng Maleke dieketseng.maleke@inl.co.za RETAILER Shoprite yesterday issued a strong interim operational update with sales up 10 percent and as it raised a glass to LiquorShop’s sales, which increased by a whopping 49.8 percent due to less strict Covid-19 restrictions. This despite being impacted by Covid-19 regulations and the riots which occurred in Gauteng and KwaZulu- Natal in July. For the six months to January 2, 2022, the group’s sales for the period increased by 10 percent to R91.1 billion. Excluding the impact of the temporary closure of the Supermar kets RSA LiquorShop business due to Covid-19 lockdown regulations, the group increased the total sale of merchandise by 8.2 percent. The group’s core business, Supermarkets RSA, contributed 79.5 percent to group sales and achieved sales growth…

Chevon Booysen Chevon.booysen@inl.co.za STRIKING Clover employees were supported globally yesterday as the continued protest by about 5 000 workers served to again highlight their demands, including better working conditions. The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and its affiliates, the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) and the General Industries Workers Unions of South Africa (Giwusa) together with other trade unions and organisations nationally and internationally, organised a National and International Day of Action in solidarity with striking Clover workers yesterday. According to the union groups, protest action in at least six parts of South Africa, as well as nine other locations, amplified the demand for decent working conditions and an end to factory closures, employee exploitation and slashing of jobs. The strike action also aimed to gain justice…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za THE replacement of steam generators at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station is set to cost Eskom R20 billion. This came to light at an Eskom briefing yesterday, where the power utility confirmed the coal fleet “remains unsatisfactory” with loadshedding still very likely. Eskom said Unit 2 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station had recently been taken offline for a long-term outage with a major project to extend its operating life by another 20 years. “Considering that the power station has been largely depreciated, the Steam Generator Replacement (SGR) project, at a budgeted R20 billion for both units, will enable Koeberg to continue to deliver zero-carbon electricity at a highly competitive cost, making the SGR project one of the most financially attractive projects in the Eskom portfolio.” Eskom…