Pretoria News 2022-08-02

JSE-LISTED insurance investment holding company Conduit Capital has expressed surprise that its subsidiary, Constantia Insurance Company Limited (CICL), has been placed under provisional curatorship and slammed the decision as “premature”. Conduit’s share price dipped by almost 52 percent on the JSE in intraday trade yesterday to R0.17. Its shares have dropped by 73 percent in the past three years. Constantia is a diversified pan-African insurer writing business in health, life, medical malpractice and property and casualty, providing coverage to people, professionals and institutions across SA and 19 other African countries. The SA Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority (PA) approached the High Court of South Africa on July 26, by way of an ex parte application, to place CICL under curatorship. CICL was placed under provisional curatorship after it failed…

THUNGELA Minerals yesterday flagged that it expects to be printing money hand over fist in its interims on the back of the strong benchmark coal price for thermal coal, and higher realised prices achieved. In its trading statement for the six months ended June 30, 2022 released yesterday, the coal producer said its earnings per share were expected to increase by about 2 044 percent to between R66.85 and R67.45. Headline earnings per share were likely to increase by about 2 101 percent to between R66.85 and R67.45. Thungela has gained from the global coal prices that have risen in the first half of the year, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a drought in China, while supply disruptions and rebounding electricity demand have warmed up the market for…

Stocks of major poultry producers lose wind on the JSE after minister suspends duties Stocks of major poultry producers lost wind on the JSE yesterday as Minister for Trade and Industry (DTI) Ebrahim Patel suspended punitive import duties for 12 months that had been imposed after an investigation into poultry dumping by Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Poland and Spain last year. The news flustered local poultry producers, but was welcomed by meat importers and exporters. On the JSE yesterday Astral Foods in afternoon trade saw shares fall to a low of 3.32 percent, closing 2.39 percent lower at R195.19 while RCL Foods shares ended the day unmoved as the decision gazetted yesterday is still making the rounds of the market. According to the International Trade Administration’s (Itac) notice in…

ESKOM has not approached the government for additional money to fund its massive maintenance costs in a bid to end loadshedding. This was according to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana yesterday who said the struggling power utility had not officially approached the National Treasury for capital injection for its maintenance programme. Godongwana was speaking during a briefing by a cluster of ministers in the Energy Crisis Committee, unpacking actions to achieve long-term electricity supply. “Eskom has not come to us, for now, for the cost of maintenance,” Godongwana said. “What we do know, the matter was raised (and) a figure of about R2 billion in the context was raised. On closer interaction with Eskom, Eskom said no, it’s too early to do that precisely because they have given the generation division…

MTN Group’s share price increased more than 3.4 percent yesterday after forecasting robust earnings for six months to June, 30 and following strong results from its Nigeria subsidiary. The share price traded at R143.65 yesterday after a trading statement said interim headline earnings per share (Heps) were expected to increase by between 40 to 50 percent. It would translate to between 542 cents to 581 cents for the six-months, compared with 387 cents at the same time last year. MTN’s share price had surged to more than R200 in February, the first time it had breached this level in nearly seven years, but the price fell again after the Nigerian Communications Commission announced in April that all mobile operators had to restrict outgoing calls for subscribers with SIMs not linked…

LIBERTY Two Degrees has reported continuing recovery in its retail-focused property portfolio and will pay a full interim dividend that is 11 percent above the same time last year. The strong recovery was reflected in the 10.2 percent increase in the foot-count for the six months to June 30, compared with the same time a year before. Among its leading properties, retail trade turnover at Sandton City increased 31.4 percent compared with the same period in pre-Covid 2019; Midlands Lifestyle Centre’s was up 72.2 percent, while Botshabelo Mall’s increased 36.3 percent. “Our customer experience initiatives continue to pay off as the portfolio records the highest foot-count in the first six months of 2022 compared to the prior three comparative years. “The portfolio consistently experiences double digit growth in foot-count, having…