Pretoria News 2022-04-28

PRIVATE wealth held in South Africa has declined 12 percent since 2011 to date, although the African continent’s most sophisticated economy is still home to the two wealthiest cities – Johannesburg and Cape Town – and a luxury market that generates $2 billion (R31.5bn) in revenue each year. The South African private wealth performance “has been poor” over the 10-year period under review, noted The Africa Wealth Report published on Tuesday by Henley & Partners and South African wealth intelligence firm, New World Wealth. Despite this, Amanda Smit, a managing partner at Henley & Partners, noted South Africa still ranked number 28 in the world when it came to private wealth, ranking ahead of major economies such as Argentina, Malaysia, Thailand and Turkey. In Africa, South Africa is still…

AFRICAN governments maintained spending on infrastructure, increasing the number of projects by a fifth compared with 2020, in spite of Covid and rising debt levels, according to a study by professional services firm Deloitte. The Deloitte African Construction Trends 2021 Outlook report covered 462 projects with a value of $521 billion (R8.21 trillion), with projects in southern Africa accounting for $147.7bn of that, while West Africa led the spend and in terms of the number of projects for the first time, with $172.8bn of projects. South Africa recorded 37, or 34.9 percent, of the projects in Southern Africa, the highest number in the region. Mozambique had 16 projects followed by Zambia with 14 projects and Angola, 10 projects. South Africa’s projects were valued at $54.7bn and included…

SOUTH African consumers can expect to feel a pinch at the till with higher food prices, economists say, after Indonesia banned the exports of palm oil, a commodity widely used in food production. Last week Indonesia banned the exports of palm oil, a move which will have profound price implications for the global vegetable oils market. Indonesia explained its decision was to ensure the protection of domestic consumers from rising prices. FNB Agribusiness senior agricultural economist Paul Makube said on Tuesday in an interview that South Africa was currently a net importer of vegetable oils and did not have the capacity or environment to produce palm oil. Palm oil was widely used in manu- facturing in both food and non-food and its ingredients could be blended with others to achieve…

BUSINESS activity in South Africa decelerated slightly in February amid interest rate hikes and heightened inflation expectations, the composite leading business cycle indicator showed on Tuesday. Economists flagged that it indicated growth was slowing in South Africa. The SA Reserve Bank (SARB) said yesterday that the composite leading business cycle indicator fell slightly by 0.1 percent to 127.2 index points from 127.3 points in January. The SARB said decreases in six of the 10 available component time series outweighed increases in the remaining four. The largest detractors were a decrease in the number of residential building plans approved and a deceleration in the six-month smoothed growth rate of job advertisement space. The largest positive contributors were an increase in the US dollar- denominated export commodity price index…

ALTVEST Capital, a company that will allow investment by the public in private equity assets from as low as R100, will initially list as a cash shell on the Cape Town Stock Exchange (CTSE) on May 5 and plans to acquire investments four to six weeks after that. Its planned R50 million listing of 10 million shares was on Tuesday approved by the CTSE, a statement said. The company’s management said they had started the selection process for potential investment opportunities, and the pipeline included privately- owned companies in the fintech, offshore medical property investment, sports team, wine estate and in the agriculture sectors. “AltVest aims to list up to four opportunities in 2022 and, thereafter, ramp up to a listing opportunity per month. “The vision is to…

DIVERSIFIED miner South32 has reported copper production for the first time at its Sierra Gorda mine, while its production guidance remained unchanged following a strong March quarter. The group released its quarterly report for March 2022 on Tuesday, saying the company attained several remarkable milestones. Chief executive Graham Kerr said South32 made progress in reshaping its portfolio for a low carbon future. “We reported copper production for the first time, having completed our acquisition of a 45 percent interest in the Sierra Gorda copper mine. We moved a step closer to doubling our share of green aluminium production, delivering first metal from our Brazil aluminium smelter following the end of the period. “We also reported the prefeasibility results for our Taylor deposit, underlining its potential to add further growth…