Cape Times 2025-02-28

President Cyril Ramaphosa has emphasised that the Government of National unity (GNU) will have to make certain “trade-offs” in a bid to find each other over differences about proposed measures to fund the National Budget. This comes after finance minister Enoch Godongwana was unable to table the 2025 Budget Review last week after parties within the GNU opposed his proposal to increase value-added tax (VAT) by 2 percentage points from 15% to 17% in a bid to raise R58 billion for the fiscus. The government is facing a fiscal crisis as the national debt is forecast to stabilise higher at 76.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) while the consolidated budget deficit will rise to 5% of GDP in 2024/25. Debt-service costs, which consume 22 cents of every rand of revenue…

Meeting takes place against a backdrop of foreign aid cuts from both the UK and US The meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Reserve Bank Governors failed to reach consensus on a joint communiqué, and a chairman’s statement was released instead. This statement resolved to maintain and broaden discussions on concrete policy measures among the member countries and foster cooperation.South Africa's Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, in a briefing on Thursday, expressed disappointment that consensus for a communiqué could not be reached. He said that similar chairman’s statements were released after the Indonesia meeting in 2022 and in India the following year, when consensus could also not be achieved, although “several new differences emerged on a number of topics” that the ministers could not agree on this year. When questioned about…

MTN Group, the telecoms giant grappling with recent woes in Nigeria, expects a steep decline in headline earnings per share (Heps) for the full year ended December 31, 2024, it said in a trading update released on Thursday. The group forecasts Heps to fall between 59% and 79%, in a range of 66c to 129c, down from 315c in 2023. Earnings per share are set to plunge more than 100%, swinging to a loss of 509c to 554c from a 227c profit in 2023. The results are impacted by several external factors including the negative impact of local currency devaluation in 2024, particularly the naira, against the dollar. This included both translation effects and forex losses in its financials. An additional factor knocking the results is operational challenges in…

Foreign investors have not returned in large numbers to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) even though the higher volumes and values of trading that started after the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) last year have persisted into 2025. Speaking at the SA Trade Connect Conference that was held in Cape Town on Thursday, JSE chief executive Leila Fourie said the formation of the GNU had been a pivotal moment for the JSE and year-to-date since then there had been a 40% uptick in the value of shares traded. This uptick, which had slowed marginally since the start of the year, had also been boosted by consumer confidence improving following the lowering of interest rates and inflation, and improving GDP forecasts. She said this has also translated into…

Automotive and mobility company, Motus Holdings, has raised its interim dividend by 2% to 240 cents per share for the six months ended 31 December 2024 compared to the previous year, with returns on invested capital decreasing to 10.7%. Over the same period, Motus’ weighted average cost of capital also decelerated to 9.9% while its equity to net debt structure stood at 56%:44% compared to 52%:48% previously. During the half year period under review, headline earnings per share in Motus grew 3% to 681 cents while attributable profit for the period went up marginally by 1% to R1.127 billion. This came despite revenues over the half year period slumping R56.1bn, with earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation falling by 4% R4bn. Cash flows from operating activities of R186 million for…

The market on Thursday welcomed the interim results of KAP, the South African industrial, chemical, and logistics group, even as a R2.5 billion capital expenditure push to drive future growth exerted pressure on its performance for the six months ended December 31, 2024. The shares soared 9.6% to R2.74 by midday on the JSE on Thursday. CEO Gary Chaplin, presenting the results, framed the period as a pivotal moment for the group. “Looking at the results in context, we've completed a major capex cycle, R2.5 billion over and above our normal capex. There were no material delays or overspends in this, and all those projects are fully operational within the six months,” he said “The balance sheet is intact. We are ramping up the sales, and there's an obvious impact…