Cape Times 2021-12-03

siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za South African Airways (SAA) has resolved to sell its subsidiary Mango Airline and divest from the low-cost carrier as part of its restructuring, but the decision has angered some workers unions. This comes after a majority of Mango creditors yesterday voted in favour of the amended proposed business rescue plan for the low-cost airline. About 84 percent of creditors voted in favour of the proposed plan by the business rescue practitioner (BRP) Sipho Sono. According to the amended plan, SAA will withdraw from Mango and sell 100 percent of its shares to private investors. The State-owned carrier will now begin a process of finding an investor for Mango with the hope that one will be found by March 2022. Last month, SAA adjourned a meeting…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za CASH FLUSH Tharisa Minerals paid its highest-ever full year dividend during the financial year ended September 2021 as profits doubled, buoyed by the strong metal price environment. Tharisa, which operates the Tharisa Mine in the North West, declared a 5 cents a share final dividend bringing the total dividend for the year to 9c a share, up 157 percent from 3.5c a share declared a year earlier. The 9c a share dividend represents a payout ratio of 18.5 percent and is higher than the group’s policy of paying at least 15 percent of net operating profit after tax. The JSE-listed chrome concentrate and platinum group metals (PGMs) producer ended the year with a net cash position of $46.6 million (R740m) and…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa’s economic hub, Gau- teng, will be opening up more vaccination sites in a bid to avoid the looming fourth wave following the resurgence in Covid-19 cases driven by the new Omicron variant. A fourth wave of Covid-19 infections in Gauteng could spread countrywide, resulting in stricter restrictions and derail the much-needed recovery after the economy was decimated by the recent civil unrest. The significance of rising infections in Gauteng is due to the third wave of Covid-19 that began in the province, the most populous in South Africa and which is vital to the country’s economic functioning. Gauteng accounts for roughly 34 percent of gross domestic product in South Africa. Covid-19 statistics in Gauteng show that 6 168 new cases were reported on…

Willem van de Putte willem.vdputte@inl.co.za HARD ON THE heels of the announcement of the new Ford Ranger, Ford Motor Company have invested a further R600 million into the Struandale Engine Plant in Gqeberha as part of an upgrade to produce the new V6 turbo-diesel engine and upgrades to the existing assembly line for the 2-litre single turbo and 2-litre bi-turbo diesel engines for the next-generation Ranger. In February, Ford invested R15.8 billion in their Silverton, Pretoria, plant to upgrade the facility in order to manufacture the new Ranger for both local consumption and the export market. The changes to the assembly line will enable the Struandale plant to run a flexible format, as it will produce the new 3-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine alongside the Duratorq TDCi engines. There…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za MURRAY & Roberts Holdings (M&R), the South Africa-based multinational construction and engineering group, has built a robust project pipeline in a world where substantial infrastructure investment is likely in the post-Covid environment. The pipeline includes projects being negotiated on a sole-source basis, and it is anticipated the largest of these projects, worth about R20 billion, will be awarded to the group’s energy, resources and infrastructure platform during the current financial year, the group said in a business update yesterday. At the end of the year to June 30, M&R had an order book of R60.7bn, which included several multi-year projects. M&R said yesterday it was currently generating between R2bn to R2.5bn a month in revenue from its order book. It was maintaining the book value at…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za REBOSIS Property Fund had sold 32 office properties for R6.2 billion in the past three months, the proceeds of which would be used to deleverage the company, outgoing chief executive Dr Sisa Ngebulana said yesterday. He said at the release of the results for the year to August 31 that the successful disposals would reduce loan-to-value from 71 percent to about 42 percent, in line with acceptable loan-to-value levels for real estate investment trusts (Reits). “The transaction will restructure the business as a retail-focused fund. On conclusion of the deal, we expect to resume dividend payments to shareholders, provided that a stable macro- economic environment is maintained with no material tenant failures or prolonged economic lockdown periods,” Rebosis’s new chief executive, Otis Tshabalala,…