Cape Times 2022-03-08

Dieketseng Maleke dieketseng.maleke@inl.co.za THE FOSCHINI Group (TFG) yesterday announced that it would acquire Tapestry Home Brands – which owns Cori-craft, Dial-a-Bed, Volpes and The Bed Store – for R2.43 billion as it expands into the homeware space. The purchase is still subject to approval from competition authorities, but if approved, it would expand TFG’s business which would include producing furniture and mattresses. Tapestry owns 175 stores in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana and has manufacturing facilities in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Gqebera, and makes about 47 percent of products locally. The acquisition will also help TFG not to rely on the import markets amid increasing costs and the Covid-19 pandemic disruptions on supply chain. The retailer also owns factories in Caledon and in Maitland that produce clothing for…

Dieketseng Maleke dieketseng.maleke@inl.co.za MASSMART, the owner of Makro, Builders Warehouse and Game stores, yesterday again was on the backfoot with ballooning losses as it said its performance for the past year was severely hit by Covid-19 lockdowns and the July civil unrest. In its results for the 52 weeks ending in December 2021, the retailer reported a 65 percent decline in headline earnings per share to a loss of 705.5 cents per share, with a loss for the year of R2.2 billion, from R1.75bn before. Massmart’s shares tanked 7.09 percent to R44.92 yesterday, with the share down 46 percent in three years. Massmart chief executive Mitch Slape said the group’s sales performance had been challenged by external events that had significantly impacted the com- pany’s…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za THE COMPETITION Commission yesterday approved, with some lengthy conditions, Magister Investments’ possible acquisition of Tongaat Hulett (THL) following its partial underwriting of a THL rights offer. Tongaat’s shareholders recently voted to implement a rights issue of between R2 billion and R4bn, which would be partially underwritten by up to R2bn by Mauritius-based Magister Investments, a privately-held group controlled by Zimbabwe’s Rudland family. Depending on how the shareholders take up the rights issue, Magister might be left with more than 50 percent of THL’s shares. THL spokesperson Virginia Horseley said they welcomed the decision of the Competition Commission and the group was aligned with the commission on the requirements. “We will continue to progress the outstanding conditions precedent, including approvals from the South African lenders and…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE GOVERNMENT is staying mum about its discussions to review the way petrol is priced, as the global oil price threatens to soar to an all-time high following the war in Ukraine. Analysts yesterday warned that mo- torists could be looking at further record-high fuel price increases for April, due to supply constraints as the government dithers over easing fuel prices. The oil price jumped early yesterday to its highest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis, with Brent crude briefly touching $139 (R2 124) a barrel before slipping back below $130 on supply fears. In a note, economists from the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) led by Hugo Pienaar, yesterday said the local impact of the extraordinary oil price gains was signalling that domestic fuel…

FOR THE FIRST time in many years I have turned very bullish on Naspers and Prosus. Prominent commentators and fund managers accuse Prosus’s and Naspers’s management of destroying value. Although there may be merit in their criticism, another major factor is overlooked. Naspers and Prosus combined was by far the single largest equity holding and asset in the Government Employees Pension Fund’s (GEPF’s) fold and exposed the fund to extreme market risk. According to the GEPF’s financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2021, the fund held 76 million Naspers shares or 17 percent of the Naspers shares in issue valued at R268.7 billion. The GEPF’s exposure to Prosus was 14 million shares valued at R22.9bn. The fund’s combined exposure to Naspers and Prosus amounted…

Dr Baptiste Dungu and Lindiwe Mabena. SEVERAL false statements have been made by the current Board of Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) on the reasons and outcome of my and Lindiwe Mabena’s suspension, disciplinary process and outcome that led to the termination of our contracts as chief executive (CEO) and the manager in the office of the CEO, respectively. During the debate on the State of the Nation 2022, the Minister of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, the Honourable Thoko Didiza, stated that my departure at OBP was linked to the GMP project, which is the facility upgrade project at OBP, for which the organisation received in 2014 close to R500 million. (The Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), is a certification that will allow it to enter…