Pretoria News 2022-10-25

ALTRON Group lifted headline earnings per share 242% to 41 cents in the six months to August 31, after the technology group’s operations performed well, with all of them becoming profitable, in a challenging environment. New chief executive Werner Kapp said in a presentation yesterday that although it was difficult to make a forecast for the second half, after having only been in office for 15 days, all the businesses were performing well, barring “one or two” facing short-term problems, and he and the management of these entities were “rolling up our sleeves” to deal with problems. The group’s directors said in a statement that “a solid second half” and further strengthening of the balance sheet was expected, in spite of ongoing challenges facing the industry, including a…

THE RAND fell to another two-year low yesterday as the markets turned sour on the back of a stronger US dollar and lingering concerns over the impact of ongoing power cuts on the domestic economy. The rand weakened to R18.43 against the greenback by 5pm, the lowest level since May 2020, sliding from its close of R18.05/$1 on Friday, as risk aversion levels rose both globally and domestically. The domestic currency has remained under pressure for the better part of this month as South Africa’s electricity crisis worsens in spite of a number of measures in the energy plan. Emerging market currencies, including the rand, also took a beating as investors voted with their feet and sold more than $1.3 billion (R23.5bn) worth of Chinese stocks after President Xi Jinping…

Remediating its ‘significant non-performing loans portfolio’ THE LAND BANK will be aggressively going after clients who are owing it more than R12 billion in outstanding loans as it has resumed new lending activities to commercial farmers after a two-year hiatus. In its integrated report released yesterday, the Land Bank said that it was implementing a strategy to remediate its significant non-performing loans (NPLs) portfolio. The bank said the settlement of client facilities has had the obvious effect of reducing its loan book concomitant to the reduction of its liabilities and has brought about an increase in the NPL ratio. Land Bank chairperson Thabi Nkosi said this challenge of a deteriorating overall loan book quality has received special attention by the board. Nkosi said they had developed and begun the…

DIS-CHEM Pharmacies’ forecast of a 43.1% to 45.4% increase in headline earnings per share for the six months to August 31, 2022, saw its share price ratchet up 5.82% to R33.46 at the close of the JSE yesterday. The pharmaceutical retailer courted controversy when chief executive Ivan Saltzman issued a memo to staff last month saying that the retailer, which has more than 20 000 employees, was falling behind on racial transformation targets at some level and would no longer be hiring whites, unless a special case was made to him or the head of human resources. Saltzman subsequently apologised for poor wording in the memo, but the group stood by its decision. The group said in a trading statement yesterday, that headline earnings per share (Heps) was expected…

GLOBAL grains and oilseeds prices are unlikely to return to the pre-Covid-19 and pre-war levels anytime soon due to current production levels, according to Agricultural Business Chamber chief economist Wandile Sihlobo. Overall, the 2022/23 global grain and oilseed season presented an encouraging picture of supplies. “Still, the price moves of the commodities will likely differ in the coming months because of the variations in the production levels compared with the 2021/22 season. “The current forecasts will probably be sufficient to provide relief from the levels the prices were at in the weeks after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war,” Sihlobo said. Agbiz said as the 2022/23 summer crop season began in the southern hemisphere, the grains and oilseeds production estimates released by the International Grains Council (IGC) and the US…

GOLD FIELDS, which operates gold mines across three continents, said yesterday that its board of directors had unanimously recommended that its shareholders vote in favour of the controversial Yamana transaction. This follows Gold Fields announcing a deal to acquire Yamana Gold in an all-share transaction that appraised the Canadian company at $6.7 billion (R121.2bn) on May 31. On Friday, Reuters reported that an independent evaluation estimated Yamana’s mineral asset value at between $6bn and $8bn, in line with Gold Fields’ initial all-share offer of $6.7bn. In the past, some shareholders expressed concern that Gold Fields’ proposed acquisition of Yamana was too expensive, too dilutive of Gold Fields shares and would negatively impact returns for existing shareholders. Under the deal, Gold Fields has offered 0.6 of one of its…