Cape Times 2024-02-09

The company posted a headline loss of R1.8bn for the full year ended December 2023 ARCELORMITTAL South Africa (Amsa) has deferred the closure of its Newcastle, Vereeniging steel mills by six months, but will revert to its original decision to shut down the longs steel businesses if there is no progress in government commitments to fix Transnet, other infrastructure and policy framework bottlenecks. Amsa, which yesterday posted a headline loss of R1.8 billion for the full year ended December 2023 against a profit of R2bn in the year earlier, announced yes- terday that it had agreed to postpone the shutdown of its longs steel mills at Newcastle and Vereeniging by six months. This followed a series of meetings and engagements with the government, labour, suppliers and other key stakeholders.…

ANGLO American, hit by suppressed platinum prices, muzzled productions across key metals and heightened bottlenecks in Transnet’s rail capacity is considering an impairment for diamond producer De Beers as it aligns its iron ore operations with Transnet’s crippled rail capacity. The company’s output of nickel increased by 9% during the quarter to the end of December, “reflecting improved operational stability” while steel-making coal production was also 2% higher. However, a 16% decrease from the Chile copper operation suppressed overall output of the metal by 6% despite higher output from the Quella- veco project in Peru. With rough diamond output down by 3% for the quarter and primarily due to the planned reduction at Venetia, which is transitioning to underground operations, Anglo American is evaluating an impairment hit from De Beers.…

PSG ASSET Management has advised investors to look at the glass as half-full than half-empty as it remained optimistic about the economic outlook and while business confidence rose to a one-year high. The asset manager, with more than R50 billion of assets under management, yesterday presented its 2024 Outlook for South Africa, including possible market scenarios post-elections. PSG head of equities Justin Floor yesterday said South African assets were under-owned and were ripe for outperformance, with institutional South African equity weights at lows while retirement funds were close to maximum offshore allocations. Floor acknowledged a number of risks in local assets, but said the existing opportunities far outweighed the risks, adding that investors could balance this by diversifying globally and look for opportunities in smaller companies. He said as…

It’s commonly thought that debt problems are more prevalent among lower earners, but a recent survey shows that people taking home more than R35 000 a month may be in more trouble when it comes to their debts than is generally recognised. Last year, 2023, may have been the worst year financially for South African consumers at least since the 2008 global financial crisis. A combination of interrelated factors created a perfect storm: a stagnant post-Covid economy characterised by crippling load-shedding and crumbling infrastructure, near-zero wage growth, high inflation and high interest rates. One way of telling how well consumers are coping financially is by looking at their debt levels and, more pertinently, their ability to service that debt. In a media presentation this week to coincide with the beginning…

Traditionally, accountants, attorneys and financial advisers agreed to act as independent trustees for their clients’ trusts. Often they have provided the service for “free”. The general view was that they could not dare start charging for the services, as clients were so price-sensitive that they would take their entire business away from them and move it to someone else. However, there is a saying “nothing in life is for free”. It may similarly apply to providing independent trusteeship “for free”, as normally, the independent trustee charged the client for other services they provided and factored the cost of trusteeship into the other services. Shockingly, many so-called independent trustees have done nothing or less than the required minimum, which fits in well with the saying “you get what you pay for”.…

CURRO Holdings said a creditable operating performance and strong cash flows saw headline earnings per share (Heps) increase between 14.1% and 23.1% for the year to December 31. “The group’s high schools continue to grow in line with expectations but the challenging effects of higher interest rates on constrained consumers impacted young families particularly negatively and resulted in a reduction in enrolments of learners in the youngest grades of primary schools,” the group said in a trading statement yesterday. Curro had 73 159 learners on February 5, 1.9% more from the 71 809 learners on November 30, 2023. The group had 73 047 learners on February 20, 2023. Earnings per share figure for the year was expected to fall due in the main to the need to…