Star 2023-01-26

GLOBAL Airways Consortium unit Takatso Airways maintains it is well equipped for the 51% takeover of SAA, even as insiders insist the ANC conference was a watershed moment for the deal as the February deadline looms for Takatso to show face. Takatso’s newly appointed spokesperson, Thulasizwe Simelane, said the consortium is ready to fulfil IRS commitment to funding SAA’s operational costs to the tune of R3 billion over two to three years, to ensure the airline is agile in a competitive market, commercially viable, and contributes to growth of the South African economy, especially tourism, aviation and related sectors, as well as regional and continental trade and integration. Industry insiders insist, however, that Takatso's window shopping of SAA is over, and that the looming Cabinet reshuffle will put paid to…

Astral CEO Chris Schutte says that food security is threatened through agriculture reliance on failing infrastructure and services ASTRAL Foods yesterday warned not only that it might have to resize and cuts jobs, but South Africa’s food safety was compromised, as poultry companies in South Africa are being slaughtered by high feed input costs, devastating levels of load shedding and the general decay of municipal infrastructure. This as the JSE-listed poultry Astral Foods said yesterday in a voluntary update for the six months ending March 31, 2023, it expected its headline earnings per share (Heps) to drop by 90% year on year to 142 cents. It cautioned the market that Astral was expecting market conditions to deteriorate, with record high feed input costs, devastating levels of load shedding, and…

QUILTER, the British multinational wealth company, said yesterday that it had put in a resilient performance in the fourth quarter of 2022 despite a seasonal slowdown and lower net flows. “Although net flows for 2022 were below the level we want to achieve, we finished the year on a solid note despite the usual seasonal slowdown towards the end of the quarter. I was particularly pleased with the performance from our high net worth segment, which has continued to deliver a robust performance, with good flows from the Quilter channel offsetting a slowdown in IFA flows,” CEO Stephen Levin said. He commented at the release of a trading statement for the fourth quarter, a period of relative economic decline and rising interest rates and inflation in developed markets. The full…

ECONOMISTS have widely predicted that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) will hike the interest rate once again today. The SARB’s monetary policy committee (MPC) will make their decision on the repurchase rate (repo rate), with economists saying that a further hike will put more financial pressure on consumers. 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. Economists had widely predicted an increase of 50 basis points from the MPC in January, however, with the surprise decrease in the CPI, some economists say that it could be slashed to 25 basis points. Andra Nel, a purpose manager at KFC’s Add Hope, told Business Report: “A rate hike makes it very hard…

SOUTH Africa’s message at the recent annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos was that it is open for investment and ready to partner with the local and global community to lift its economy to higher, jobs-rich and more sustainable growth, a statement from the Department of Finance said yesterday. The South African delegation acknowledged to the WEF that addressing the electricity shortage is “the first and most important step” to unlocking faster economic growth, creating employment and attracting investment, the department said in a statement. The WEF’s annual meeting, themed “Co-operation in a Fragmented World”, captured the economic, geopolitical and social challenges currently faced by the globe. The worldwide energy, food and cost-of-living crisis, driven by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and fast-rising inflation, were among key…

DIGITAL bank TymeBank has roped in retail giant TFG (The Foschini Group) to exploit its footprint in expanding its financial products and services to its expanding customer base, both instore and on digital platforms. The partnership is set to deliver, among others, more than 600 TymeBank TFG Money branded kiosks to open TymeBank TFG Money bank accounts in TFG stores across the country. The TymeBank TFG Money debit card is linked to two of South Africa’s leading rewards programmes; customers benefit from TFG Rewards and Pick n Pay Smart Shopper when they shop at any of the 20+ TFG brands, in-store or online, and double Pick n Pay Smart Shopper Points when shopping at Pick n Pay. TFG customers will benefit from TymeBank’s ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ product MoreTyme, which…