Star 2023-01-19

STEINHOFF International’s share price surged up 8.16% early yesterday after it announced that it had raised €315.2 million (R5.79 billion) through the sale of 38 million shares in its Poland-listed, pan-European discount variety retailing subsidiary Pepco. There was strong demand for the shares, and the initial offer of 34.5m shares was later upsized to 38m during the placement. Steinhoff, which has Luxembourg as its primary listing and a secondary listing on the JSE, intends to use the proceeds to reduce its debt, and Pepco will not receive any of the proceeds from the placement. Steinhoff said in a JSE notice that it had sold through IBEX Retail Investments (Europe), an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, 38 million ordinary shares of Pepco Group at a price of PLN (Polish Zloty) 38.95 per share,…

Merged company to invest in new brewery in KZN and malt operation in Western Cape DUTCH multinational brewer Heineken’s takeover of South Africa’s alcohol drinks group Distell will result in the merged company investing R5.5 billion into the local economy, the Competition Tribunal heard yesterday. The Tribunal yesterday began its hearings from interested parties in the deal. The Competition Commission said in a statement on its testimony to the Tribunal yesterday that part of the commitments made from the deal included a R3.8bn investment in a new brewery within five years in KwaZulu-Natal, and the setting up of a R1.3bn malt operation in the Western Cape. On concerns of less access to retail infrastructure for smaller rivals, the commission found that the merged entity was unlikely to have the ability…

THE COST of living in South Africa will not ease anytime soon as the central bank is expected to maintain its hawkish monetary policy stance a bit longer, in spite of consumer prices softening to a seventh-month low in December. Data from Statistics SA (StatsSA) yesterday showed that the annual headline consumer price inflation (CPI) slowed for the second month in a row in December, easing to 7.2% from 7.4% in November. Monthly consumer prices were up by 0.4%, following a 0.3% rise in November and slightly above market forecasts of a 0.3% increase. StatsSA said the December CPI print was driven by the slowdown in transport inflation, which softened for a fifth consecutive month to 13.9% from 15.3% in November, due to easing fuel prices. Prices in the…

THE AILING South African Post Office (Sapo) said yesterday it was overstaffed and could not sustain its staff expenses, hence it would seek options to cut staff costs. This as the DA spokesperson Dianne Kohler Barnard, yesterday alerted media that Sapo aimed to cut staff salaries by 40% as of next month. When contacted by Business Report, Sapo did not address the salaries cut, but said several strategies and options were currently being considered as staff cost reduction was unavoidable. The group said it was unsustainable for Sapo to carry staff expenses accounting for 68% of its overall expenditure. The parastatal said that it had over the past number of years seen a substantial decline in letter volumes, which was in line with international trends and a decline in revenue.…

RICHEMONT’S third quarter sales of its luxury products increased by 8% for the third quarter to December 31 driven in the main by double-digit growth in Japan and Europe. The group, which owns brands such as Dunhill, Cartier, Baume & Mercier and Montblanc, said yesterday that sales for the third quarter were up by 5% at constant exchange rates and by 8% at actual exchange rates, on the back of strong comparatives and disruption of trading in mainland China due to Covid-19. There had been sales growth across all regions except Asia Pacific, which was affected significantly by China’s underperformance, Richmont said in an ad hoc announcement. There had also been growth across all distribution channels, led by the retail and online retail channels. The jewellery maisons and other business…

AS THE temperatures plummeted in Switzerland over the last day or two, I had the pleasure of attending The Davos Circle, an event hosted by Professor Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), that recognises veterans of WEF. What struck me forcefully this time round, is how few Africans were in attendance, suggesting that few of us have been part of the gathering for ten years or more. Over the past few decades, Africa has been a hot topic on many fronts. Usually, the narrative extends to wanting to ‘help’ us on the continent at our cost, oft with the misunderstanding that we are one single homogenous people and not 54 independent countries. This has led to an upswelling of calls for “Africa for Africans”…