Pretoria News 2022-06-02

AT FIRST blush, African Bank’s acquisition of niched investment property and asset finance-focused Grindrod Bank does not seem to make sense. While African Bank has indicated a wish to diversify from retail banking, its business banking aspirations are to tackle the lower to middle-income business banking market, such as providing funding for small business owners. Explaining the merger rationale, Grindrod Bank chief executive David Polkinghorne said yesterday that while it was true that Grindrod Bank currently focused on the higher end of the market, it had never in the past been afraid to diversify, such as, for example, a few years back when it had 10 million SA Social Security Agency customers. However, he said the bank was at a stage where it had wished to grow into the middle…

MOTOR vehicle export sales plunged by 29.9 percent to 25 786 units in May compared with the same month in 2021 due to the flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, damages to the Toyota plant and widespread global economic decline. The Automotive Business Council said yesterday that various key export markets continue to face multiple headwinds, including rising interest rates, supply chain disruptions, resurging Covid-19 waves as well as producer and consumer inflation at the highest levels in decades. Exports are key to maintaining the competitiveness of the local car industry, one of the country’s biggest sectoral em- ployers, because of the relatively small local market. For the year-to-date, vehicle exports are now 6.2 percent below the level of the same period in 2021. The council, however, said “prospects for…

TROUBLED Comair suffered a further blow to its corporate reputation after it suspended flights for British Airways and kulula.com due to a lack of funding which, analysts said yesterday, might signal the death knell for the airline with no apparent funding channels in sight. In a brief statement on social media platforms late on Tuesday, the company said: “Comair regrets to advise its flights have been voluntarily suspended from June 1, pending securing funding to resume operations. “If your flight has been cancelled, please don’t travel to the airport unless you have alternative arrangements. Our heartfelt apologies for the inconvenience,” the statement went on to read. The flights, which Comair operates under a licence agreement, equate to about 40 percent of the country’s aviation capacity. Aviation analyst Puthego…

DESPITE a solid rebound in manufacturing activity in May on a normalisation in demand following the floods in KwaZulu-Natal, business activity was stuck just below the neutral 50-point mark, which economists say flags a quarterly contraction in the second quarter. The seasonally-adjusted Absa Pur- chasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released yesterday rose by 4.1 index points to reach 54.8 points last month. Lara Hodes, an economist at Investec, said yesterday that the reading, which was above consensus expectations (Bloomberg) was boosted largely by a robust pick-up in new sales orders. “Business activity remains in contractionary territory, which does not bode well for the manufacturing sector’s Q2.22 (second quarter 2022) performance,” she said. A significant recovery in the new sales orders index underpinned the increase in the headline PMI during…

FAIRVEST Property Holdings, in its first results following the merger with Arrowhead Properties, yesterday reported dividends equal to 100 percent of distributable income at 61.52 cents per A share and 21.33c per B share. Fairvest merged with Arrowhead Properties on January 26, creating a company with retail, office and industrial properties valued at R11.77 billion, across the nine provinces. The 100 percent dividend payout ratio has become rare among listed real estate investment trusts because the companies are choosing to maintain cash balances instead of paying out full dividends, due to potential challenges in the tough and currently unpredictable commercial property trading environment. The integration of the two businesses started in February 2022, with the main objective of transitioning to a convenience retail portfolio while…

JSE-LISTED BHP Group said yesterday it had completed its merger of its petroleum arm with Australian-based Woodside Energy as it moves away from fossil fuels and decarbonises its footprint. The merger was agreed last August, followed by the signing of a binding share sale agreement in November 2021. Woodside Petroleum’s shareholders voted last mont for a merger with BHP Petroleum International to create a top 10 global independent oil and gas producer worth $40 billion (R623bn), according to a vote count at the company’s annual meeting. In the transaction, Woodside acquired the entire share capital of BHP and issued 914.8 million new Woodside shares to BHP, which BHP has distributed to its eligible shareholders. “As a result, BHP has now distributed Woodside shares to eligible BHP shareholders.…