Pretoria News 2022-05-04

COMBINED Motor Holdings shareholders are in for a healthy 135 percent dividend increase after the group lifted headline earnings 117 percent to 501 cents in the year to February 28. Cash resources increased 8 percent to R817 million. Revenue was up 30 percent to R11.17 billion. Operating profit increased 75.7 percent to R606.15m. Dividends declared amount to 225c per share, up from 100c the year before. Net asset value per share was up 22 percent to 1 484c per share. Chief executive Jebb McIntosh said the results were “exceptional” and the period was a classic case of “preparation meeting opportunity”. “Tough and stressful decisions and actions taken in the previous year positioned the group to take advantage of the few…

SOUTH Africa’s automobile industry has warned that the shock of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) flooding disaster to domestic business conditions will reverberate for some time to come. The devastating floods left a trail of billions of rand of destruction in KZN industrial areas, with Toyota South Africa Motors having to scrap hundreds of brand new cars that got flooded at its plant in Prospecton. The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) yesterday said that as a result, the domestic automotive industry will be operating on a stop-start recovery for the duration of this year as a result of the floods and other preceding headwinds. Data from Naamsa yesterday showed that aggregate domestic new vehicle sales rose by 4.3 percent in April from a year ago. The vehicle…

THE SOUTH African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) is throwing the book at its acting chief executive, Sobantu Tilayi, who was suspended in April last year, and now faces a list of charges after a forensic investigation report was recently released. In a more than 160-page report, accountancy and auditing firm Morar Incorporated outlined numerous issues including allegations that Tilayi, overstepped his position and was implicit in corruption and cronyism, which risked the organisation’s stability and reputation. The report noted there was a lack of clarity on his qualifications, the interference with the business of independent contractor South African Marine Fuels (Samf), facilitating payment for pals and improper appointment of executives amongst other things. In a brief response yesterday, Tilayi said he was applying his mind to the matter. “It…

SOUTH African stocks opened the week on the back foot yesterday after a long weekend as the signs of a fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and rotational power cuts affected sentiment while expectations of aggressive monetary policy tightening in the US weakened the rand. The JSE All Share Index closed 1.5 percent lower at 71 339 points yesterday, dragged down by commodity-linked sectors and industrial firms. At 3pm the resources index fell by 1.3 percent as the largest resources companies were trading in the red, and later in the day closed 0.42 percent lower at 76 871.77 points. The industrial index eased by 2.14 percent to 78 480.27 points at the close. By 3pm Thungela Resources led the pack of losses…

A STATE-OWNED Enterprise (SOE) is a legal entity created by a government to enable participation in commercial activities on the government’s behalf. It can either be wholly or partially owned by a government and is typically earmarked to participate in specific sectors. In South Africa, there are about 128 SOEs and other public institutions – the list can be viewed at: www.gov.za/about-government/contact-directory/soe-s? Media have reported ad nauseam on the shortcomings at SOEs in South Africa, as newsrooms have filled with one horror story after another over the past 15 years. These entities have dismally failed the country and its people and exhausted the economy. At their root, a conglomeration of corruption, inefficiency, mismanagement and poor governance. The list of SOEs’ failures and mismanagement has made South Africa and the ANC…

BUSINESS conditions in the manufacturing sector in South Africa are expected to remain strong in the six-month period ahead in spite of the floods that left more than 400 people dead in KwaZulu-Natal, severely disrupting activity in April. The seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released yesterday by the Bureau for Economic Research showed that a number of factories implemented temporary work stoppages to deal with the catastrophic natural disaster. The Absa PMI fell sharply by nearly 10 points to 50.7 index points in April from a healthy 60 points in March, following three consecutive monthly increases. This was the lowest level of the PMI since July 2021 when unprecedented looting and rioting shook local production and demand during civil unrest. Absa said that business activity and…