Cape Times 2024-03-27

IN A SIGNIFICANT development for South Africa’s financial landscape, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has approved Jaltech (via its subsidiary Jaltech Digital Asset Holdings) as one of the few investment product providers to receive a crypto asset service provider (CASP) licence. In a statement yesterday, Jaltech said: “The significance of this development is that it grants Jaltech the licence to offer intermediary services for its cryptocurrency investments to open doors for financial advisors, institutional and retail investors to allocate a portion of their portfolio to cryptocurrencies.” Gaurav Nair, a co-founder of Jaltech and head of fund management, said: “We are thrilled to be at the forefront of regulatory innovation in South Africa’s financial sector. “The FSCA’s decision to grant Jaltech the CASP licence reflects a recognition of the…

Yesterday S Africa sold as much as R3.9bn of its R2037, R2040 and R2048 bonds SOUTH African fund managers were more inclined towards equities and bond bulls, Bank of America said yesterday in its Fund Manager Survey for March. The survey also indicated that local stocks were currently undervalued. On South African bonds, respondents to the Bank of America survey were confident of “bond bulls this month”, which are likely to be “supportive of above-inflation bond returns”. Yesterday South Africa sold as much as R3.9 billion of its R2037, R2040 and R2048 bonds at an auction. “Some 67% of managers say bonds are undervalued,” the survey report showed. It added that about 69% of surveyed managers were of the view that South African “equities are undervalued” with 73%…

REAL ESTATE investment trust (Reit) Vukile Property Fund says its exposure to struggling Pick n Pay is limited to 6.2% of its total rent collections. The struggling South African grocer is now restructuring its stores and turning others into its value-offering Boxer, which it said would be spun off and separately listed. This month, another Reit, Hyprop, cited the challenges Pick n Pay is facing in South Africa among the decisions that had prompted it to skip payment of a dividend. According to market analyst Simon Brown many Reits across South Africa were likely to catch a cold from the Pick n Pay and retail industry slowdown. However, Pick n Pay has previously told Business Report that it has not informed Hyprop…

RENEWABLE industry experts yesterday welcomed Nordex Energy South Africa’s plans to locally manufacture wind turbine concrete tower sections in the Eastern Cape, saying it was a welcome investment boost. A total of 300 jobs will be created within the region. However, the value of the deal was not disclosed. The purpose-built manufacturing facility will be situated in Humansdorp, approximately 1½ hours from the Port of Ngqura, where the remaining turbine components will land. Operations at the manufacturing plant, responsible for producing the 120 metre high towers, are set to commence as early as May, supplying a trio of wind farms totalling an installed capacity of 336MW. David Moncasi Hortet, Nordex Energy South Africa’s head of sales for Africa, said the wind farm cluster would elevate the share of renewable…

STATISTICS South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday released a first-of-its-kind migration report for the country. The “Migration profile report for South Africa: A country profile 2023” tracked migration and emigration data. It revealed that the highest percentage of migrants coming to South Africa enter for work purposes, followed by students looking for better education and followed by refugee seekers. StatsSA said that most migrants entering the border originated from countries in the Southern African Development Community region. “Labour migration, the movement of individuals across the borders for employment purposes, is a fundamental aspect of the global economy and has profound social, economic, and political implications,” StatsSA said in a statement. The report found that migration data is dominated by the black African population group, with the migration landscape revolving around Gauteng as…

THE QUESTION is more than academic, as the importance placed on business within a manifesto suggests much about how a party understands and views the economy and its ideological and policy orientation regarding the relationship between business, the State, labour and civil society. This ranges from a broadly sympathetic approach to business and its operating challenges, or conversely, accusations of its complicity in ex- ploitation, corruption and malfeasance. The treatment of business within a manifesto is also suggestive of the respective party’s current and aspirational electoral constituency and even sources of funding. One simple measure of its importance to a party is the frequency with which the term “business” or “businesses” appears in a manifesto. Analysing the 2024 election manifestos of the parties representing more than 90% of the electorate,…