Pretoria News 2022-11-15

INVESTMENT group Brait yesterday finally announced the listing via private placement of its Southern Africa food, home and personal care goods subsidiary Premier, on December 8. The listing will be by way of an offer of shares held by Brait Mauritius, a subsidiary of Brait, which is expected to raise up to R3.7 billion. Brait first mooted plans to list Premier in July last year, but held off the listing due to poor market conditions. The share pricing range of R53.82 to R67.04 per offer share was proposed, which is expected to result in an equity valuation of R6.9bn to R8.6bn or a six to seven times earnings’ multiple, based on earnings for 12 months to September 30, Brait said in a statement yesterday. This represents a 10% to 28%…

SOUTH African stocks opened the week on a stronger footing over optimism about this week’s credit rating reviews, but the rand weakened on the back of a firmer US dollar. Investors are hopeful about the review of South Africa’s sovereign credit ratings by S&P Global and Moody’s agencies on Friday, after last month’s improved fiscal outlook. The JSE All Share Index surged to 73 258 points yesterday, its highest in seven months buoyed by retail and commodities-linked stocks, before declining below the 73 000 mark later in the afternoon. The market is expecting retail sales to grow on annual terms for the third month in September, as consumers return to shopping. Telecommunications groups Tel- kom and Vodacom led the losses with 6.3% and 6%, respectively. Vodacom had posted…

MOBILE operator Telkom’s shares plunged nearly 10% after informed its shareholders yesterday that it expects that its profits might drop massively due to its mobile postpaid versus prepaid mix changing. In its trading statement for the six months ended September 30, 2022, Telkom said its headline earning per share and basic earnings per shares were expected to decrease by between 45% and 55% compared to the prior interim period ended September 30, 2021. The shares slid to an intraday low of R32.47 after the update, later ending 6.04% lower at R33.73 on the JSE yesterday. This was mainly due to Telkom’s mobile postpaid versus prepaid mix changing which had the impact of deferring revenue over 24 to 36 months, as well as the cost base increasing, it said. According…

Aviation analyst Phuthego Mojapele says it is clear the deal was a mess INDUSTRY experts said the “jumping of the sinking ship” yesterday of Syranix’s nominated director, Gidon Novick, from the Takatso Consortium deal for South African Airways (SAA) was a sign the transaction was in trouble. Despite Novick’s resignation yesterday, Takatso said in a statement it and Global Airways were still committed to the deal. “Takatso, (as funded and led by Harith General Partners Pty Ltd) continues to work closely with the team from the Department of Public Enterprises to conclude the acquisition of a controlling interest in SAA. Additionally, Takatso has developed a business plan for a sustainable and competitive SAA endorsed by international aviation experts,” it said yesterday. Takatso said Novick, as a director of airline Lift…

HUGE GROUP’S shares plummeted 18.5% after it announced the approval of the business combination of two of its directly and indirectly wholly owned investment companies, Huge Networks and Huge Telecom, yesterday. At 2pm on the announcement the shares fell to a day low of R2.20 from Friday’s R2.70 close, but the share later recovered and closed at R2.60 on the JSE. “The Business Combination is a part of Huge’s organic growth strategy, which will underpin significant growth over the medium and longer term, whilst immediately unlocking significant operational benefits and synergies. “The combined new entity will leverage the inherent strengths of both companies for growth,” it said. The newly enlarged entity would seek to aggressively grow its already substantial combined customer base of more than 19 000 businesses, and…

SOUTH Africa is the most food-secure country in Africa, according to the latest Economist’s Global Food Security Index. While there were admirable results for food security at a national level in South Africa, there was still a need for massive improvement at the household level, agricultural Business Chamber chief economist Wandile Sihlobo said yesterday. This as the latest Economist’s Global Food Security Index, a measure of the food security conditions of surveyed countries relative to the world, ranked South Africa at 59 out of 113 countries, an improvement from the 70th position last year. This placed South Africa as the most food-secure country in the African continent, followed by Tunisia at 62nd. However, he said the agriculture sector could not solely shoulder the responsibility of household food insecurity since…