Star 2021-12-02

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za BUSINESS conditions in the manufacturing industry could remain subdued in the next six months in spite of the expected rebound of industrial activity in the fourth quarter of 2021. The Absa Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) released yesterday re- corded a solid increase in November, rising to a five-month high following weak conditions in the third quarter. The PMI gained 3.6 points to remain in expansionary territory with 57.2 points in November, up from 53.6 points in October, and pointing to a faster expansion in manufacturing since June. Absa said this was the highest level for the headline PMI since before the third wave of Covid-19 infections and the social unrest shock that caused a R50 billion economic fallout in July. At 55.4…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za FIRSTRAND missed the requisite shareholder support for its remuneration policy by the skin of the teeth during the 2021 annual general meeting (AGM) held virtually yesterday. All resolutions were passed with the requisite voting requirements with the exception of the remuneration policy and the remuneration implementation report despite the group drumming up support for the resolutions. FirstRand, whose subsidiaries in- clude First National Bank, Wesbank and Rand Merchant Bank, received 74.11 percent of shareholders support for the non-biding advisory vote for remuneration policy. A total of 48.75 percent of shareholders voted in favour of the non-biding advisory vote for the remuneration implementation report. This is the second consecutive year FirstRand’s remuneration policy and implementation report have not meet the 75 percent threshold set by…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE EMERGENCE of the Omicron variant and subsequent travel bans have turned investors hawkish about the South African economy’s prospects to return to pre-pandemic levels in mid-2022. Uncertainty about the virulence of Omicron, its ability to resist vaccination and spread rapidly, among other things, have rocked global financial markets. As a result, investors have started revising downwards their economic growth forecasts for South Africa due to these headwinds. Fund managers have pointed to the new Covid-19 variant, cost-pushing inflation dynamics and unstable electricity supply as some of the risks to the economic outlook. Momentum Investments, which has more than R550 billion in assets under management, yesterday said subdued activity would have serious implications for the fiscus. Momentum economist Sanisha Packirisamy said growth was expected to soften…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za FUEL RETAILERS will have to pay refunds, which could come to millions of rand, to motorists who filled up before the government picked up a costly error in the recent petrol price adjustment. The Department of Mineral Re- sources and Energy (DMRE) yesterday announced that it had overstated the petrol price adjustment that kicked in at midnight on Tuesday by 6 cents. On Monday, the DMRE announced that the price of petrol for both 93 and 95 ULP and LRP would increase by 81c per litre, taking the fuel hike to a record high of above R20 per litre. But yesterday, the department’s director of fuel pricing mechanism, Robert Maake, said the correct petrol price adjustment was an increase of 75c per litre, not 81c per…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za LOCAL and foreign banks implicated in alleged collusion of foreign exchange trading have asked the Competition Tribunal to dismiss the case against them as they claim that the Competition Commission has not accumulated sufficient evidence against them. The Competition Commission alleged, in a case initiated in 2015, that the Bank of America, Merrill Lynch International, BNP Paribas, JP Morgan Chase, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Standard York Securities, Investec, Standard Bank, Nomura International, Standard Chartered Bank, Credit Suisse Group, Commerbank AG, MacQaire Bank, HSBC Bank, CitiBank, Absa Bank, Barclays Capital and Barlcays Bank and Standard Americas Inc participated in a “single overarching collusion”. The banks allegedly did this by participating in chat rooms where information on their trading in the rand-dollar exchange rate was exchanged. The…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za AFRICAN Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI) halved its final dividend to 10 cents a share in the year to August 31, 2021, even though it held a strong balance sheet with R2.3 billion in cash. The total dividend for the year was up 33.3 percent to 40c. Net asset value per share decreased 12.25 percent to 1 102.54c after its investments were not spared from the negative impact of the pandemic on all global markets. The share price increased 53.9 percent to R1.40 in one deal on the JSE yesterday, Chief executive Valentine Dzvova said yesterday that while Premier Fishing and Brands had performed well, the technology business struggled with the loss of a large contract, some contracts not being renewed upon…