Cape Times 2023-05-18

TELKOM shares plunged 30% after the mobile operator said yesterday that it was planning to impair assets by R13 billion in order to migrate legacy units to new generation technologies, while it expected its annual earnings to decline by up to 105%. The assets it is impairing are Openserve, Telkom Consumer, Gyro and BCX. After the group’s release of an early morning trading statement yesterday for the year ended March 31, the shares dived and closed 15.62% down at R26.48 on the JSE yesterday. The counter has decreased by 33.8% in the past year. Telkom said significant market changes and current economic conditions, including accelerated load shedding, low anticipated economic growth rates and a high-interest rate environment, coupled with evolving technological advancements had had an adverse effect on…

The former Eskom board member, dumped R18 million into controversial probe PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has vowed that his department will launch an investigation into the role of former Eskom board member Busi Mavuso in an intelligence-driven investigation of the power utility while she was a board member. Mavuso, who is the CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), pumped R18 million of her organisation’s coffers into a controversial R50m investigation dubbed “Project Ostrich”. The clandestine probe was conducted early last year by George Fivaz Forensic and Risk, a firm owned by former police commissioner George Fivaz, at the behest of former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter without the board’s approval. It is this report which De Ruyter based his allegations during a TV interview in February that…

RETAIL activity in South Africa is expected to remain subdued in the coming months after sales fell to a nine-month low in March, on the back of the rising cost of food, driven by load shedding and higher interest rates. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) released yesterday showed that retail sales shrank faster than expected, falling by 1.6% in March compared to the same month a year ago. This was the fourth consecutive month of decline in retail activity following an upwardly revised 0.7% fall in February, and the most pronounced since June 2022. This March sales figure was a significant decline compared with market estimates of a 0.7% decrease, as six of the seven retail categories fell, with the ongoing power crisis hitting the food, beverages and tobacco…

SOUTH Africa-focused Dipula Income Fund maintained a steady performance in the six months to February 28 and is likely to repeat this in the second half in spite of economic and other headwinds, CEO Izaak Petersen said yesterday. “This is what you want from a property investment, to be a consistent hedge against inflation,” he said in an online interview yesterday. He said that in many ways their retail portfolio, with its bias towards convenience, rural and township centres, was less affected by load shedding than large shopping malls, as they did not require as much electricity to operate as large malls, and most of their anchor tenants had their own back-up power. Nevertheless, Dipula was working on solar, battery storage and back-up power solutions for its buildings, in particular…

NINETY ONE’S annual dividend fell 10% to 13.2 pence (R3.15) per share in the year to March 31 following significant market and other headwinds that saw a £10.6 billion (R252.7bn) net annual outflows of asset under management (AUM). Coming off a record 2022 and many years of growth in AUM, the London and JSE listed asset manager faced higher inflation, a fast rise in interest rates, heightened geopolitical uncertainty, a liability-driven investing crisis in the UK, bank failures in the developed world and energy shortages across the world. All of this led to risk-aversion among asset owners, creating headwinds for a firm that primarily offers “risk-on”, public-market strategies, the group said. “This (the decline in AUM) is disappointing” and the group was working hard to turn around the…

THE SOUTH African Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Co-operation was briefed by the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) on preparations for the 15th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit to be held in Johannesburg from August 22 to 24. Ben Joubert from Dirco said the theme of the Summit was “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for mutually accelerated growth, sustainable development and inclusive multilateralism”. To address this theme, five key priorities were selected. They were: ■ Developing a partnership to- wards an equitable just transition. This aim is to alleviate the effects of climate by moving towards a net zero carbon dioxide emissions target by 2050, while at the same time ensuring that no one gets left behind. ■ Transforming education and…