Sasol’s decision to invest no more money in either new gas-to-liquids (GTL) plants or plant expansions closes the door on several mega-projects that were being studied in Mozambique, Canada and the US. Abdul Davids comments.
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Downgrades of the country’s debt by ratings agencies directly affect the finances of everyday South Africans. While Moody’s did not downgrade SA’s debt in November, it did place the country on review to be downgraded after the 2018 budget. Abdul Davids comments.
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PPC nearly tripled attributable net profit in the six months to September, to R294-million from R102m in the same period in 2016. A “strong performance” from its assets in the rest of Africa boosted its regional earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) by 25 percent as group ebitda grew 4 percent to R1.2-billion. Meyrick Barker comments.
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Global oil and gas group Sasol will no longer invest in mega-projects on its own as it did in the past as it targets a greater balance between growth and shareholder returns in future, executives say. Abdul Davids comments.
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Gaming and leisure group Tsogo Sun, which endured a tough interim period to end-September with discretionary spending tight, is hoping for clarity on a second Cape Town casino before the end of 2017. Dirk van Vlaanderen comments.
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Transaction Capital’s SA Taxi, which finances more than 10% of SA’s minibus taxis, continues to defy the ailing economy, posting double-digit loan growth over the past year, as demand for taxi finance remains robust among entrepreneurs who do not qualify for bank finance. Meyrick Barker comments.
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Life Healthcare’s enlarged international business accounted for nearly a quarter of group revenue in the year to end-September 2017, from just 7% previously. The private-hospital operator bought 94% of UK-based Alliance Medical Group in November 2016 and increased its shareholding in India’s Max Healthcare Institute in August 2017 to 49.7%. These deals helped the group to grow revenue by 27% to R20.8bn in its 2017 financial year. Aslam Dalvi comments.
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Mr Price’s share price rose as much as 5.3% after the clothing retailer delivered a 23.6% jump in interim diluted headline earnings per share to 434.1c. Total revenue rose 6.7% to R9.8bn for the 20 weeks to September 2017. The group declared an interim dividend of 279c a share, up 22.3%. Simon Anderssen comments.
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Tongaat Hulett pushed up operating profit and headline earnings for the six months to September 2017 as revenue fell 4.5% during the period. Headline earnings of R661m were 4.8% better than the R631m reported in the six months to September 2016. Meanwhile, operating cash flow before working capital came to R2.447bn, rising from R2.317bn in the same period previously. Dirk van Vlaanderen comments.
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