Star 2021-06-01

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za STANDARD Bank Group’s headline earnings were expected to be at least 40 percent higher for the six months to June 30, 2021, compared with the same period a year before, and an interim dividend was anticipated, the biggest bank in Africa by assets said in a trading statement yesterday. Headline earnings of 473.8 cents were reported in the six months to June 30, 2020, which included Covid-19 lockdowns in South Africa and when banks did not declare dividends. The dividend payout ratio was expected to be higher than in the 2020 financial year, but below historic levels of 45 to 55 percent. Standard Bank’s share price rose 0.27 percent yesterday morning to R133.50, up 27.7 percent over a year, although the price has…

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za MOTORISTS will benefit from a 10 cents a litre (c/l) drop in the price of 95 ULP petrol, while refined diesel (0.005 percent sulphur) will rise 21c/l following the effects of rising global oil prices and a weaker rand on the government-set local fuel prices. South Africa’s fuel prices are adjusted monthly, informed by international and local factors. The average Brent crude oil price increased to $66 (about R906.71) from $64.16 a barrel in the period under review, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy said in a statement yesterday. “The oil prices remain at high levels as the season for oil demand is approaching and the lockdown restrictions are lifted in most European countries and the US,” the department said. International refined petroleum product prices…

Says SA’s primary steel industry may not survive without measures to equalise trading conditions Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za ARCELORMITTAL South Africa (Amsa), Africa’s biggest steel producer, has stood by the extension of steel duty safeguards on imports amid a court challenge by a major steel merchant to have the duties overturned. Speaking to journalists on the state of the steel industry, Amsa’s chief executive, Kobus Verster, said that the safeguards were implemented to equalise trading conditions. “We are not in the favourable position like other countries in the world, either China or Eastern bloc countries. We do not have subsidised electricity. We do not have competitive rail. We do not have competitive anything,” Verster said. Amsa was granted an 8 percent import duty on hot-rolled coil that expired last December,…

ALLIED Electronics Corporation (Altron) will be in search of a new chief financial officer (CFO) as Cedric Miller tendered his resignation yesterday after two years with the ICT giant. The resignation is effective from June 30. Altron said Miller would also be stepping down as an executive director of the company as the resignation applied to all his roles and responsibilities within the group and its affiliates. It said the board would notify the market of a permanent appointment of a CFO in due course. Miller took on the role of group CFO of Altron in May 2019 and boasts more than 27 years of financial and accounting experience, having worked extensively in global investment and retail. He had a long and fruitful career with Standard Bank, where he worked…

RFG HOLDINGS – which owns brands such as Rhodes, Bull Brand, Magpie, Squish, Bisto, Hinds and Pakco –announced yesterday that Bruce Henderson, who has served as chief executive of RFG for 22 years, was to retire in September and would be succeeded by Pieter Hanekom. Hanekom, 56, is the group’s deputy chief executive and would be promoted to chief executive on October 1. He joined RFG in 2015 as managing director of long life beverages and was promoted to his current position in July 2020. RFG chairperson Dr Yvonne Muthien said: “Bruce has led the group with distinction, overseeing the expansion from a single brand fruit business into a diversified, multi-brand food producer owning a portfolio of market-leading brands and a world-class production base. “During this time the group has…

Justin Maier FOR MOST of us, it is hard to ima- gine a world without a cellphone, yet the world’s first short messaging service (SMS) was only sent in 1992 and the first downloadable content sold to mobile phones – the ring- tone – was less than 30 years ago, in 1998. Today, we can do so much more with our mobile phones than send an SMS or download a ringtone: these devices have in many ways become an extension of our brain – a tool used to literally store our memories. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, has been driven largely by the convergence of digital, biological, and physical innovations and technologies such as artificial intelligence, genome editing, augmented reality, robotics, and 3D printing.…