Discovery eyes bigger stake in card venture – Business Day
Discovery plans to buy a bigger stake in DiscoveryCard from its partner FirstRand, in order to access a greater share of the profits and to start offering more banking products. The financial services group will pay FirstRand R1.35bn of the R5bn it is planning to raise in a rights issue for the increased share of the […]
Implats may seek market finance – Business Report
Metal prices at five-year lows will prompt Impala Platinum Holdings to seek market financing should it proceed with a targeted $2.5 bn of spending on mines. That is the view of Kagiso Asset Management, which says that the South African producer’s five-year plan for building new shafts will force it to either raise cash or […]
MTN looks to data growth in Africa – Moneyweb
Data is a major growth area for the MTN Group, with low smartphone penetration, low data consumption per subscriber and the lack of fixed data services all contributing to a ‘very large data opportunity’ in Africa. This is according to Aslam Dalvi. “MTN remains well positioned to capitalise on this opportunity,” he adds. view article
Company comment: Bidvest – Business Day
Companies have been reeling out their results in past weeks, and if one trend is evident across the myriad sectors they represent it is that SA Inc is in some sort of trouble, despite their valiant efforts. Along with Eskom’s woes, they talk of a slow economy, strikes and a lack of government spending in productive […]
Declines in manufacturing demand, activity narrows in Feb – Engineering News
The seasonally adjusted Kagiso Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell by a steeper-than-expected 6.6 index points to 47.6 in February, driven chiefly by a 16.2-point decline in the business activity index (BAI) to 45.5. While January’s figure was “artificially high”, owing to seasonal factors, Kagiso Asset Management research head Abdul Davids advised on Monday that the […]
Challenge to cement future pricing power – Financial Mail Investors Monthly
The promise of a quickly growing international business was, until September last year, propping up PPC’s shares despite a weak South African market. But the stock’s gains were whittled away during a four-month boardroom drama, which was finally resolved in late January after the board was reconstituted at the company’s AGM, and new CEO Darryll […]
Discovery to grow Vitality in the US with new partner – Business Day
Discovery has partnered with a major US life insurer to launch products developed on the Vitality model in April. The US insurer, which Discovery has not yet named, will launch a suite of products similar to those of Discovery Life in SA. The Discovery Life model offers lower premiums to customers with healthier behaviour. The insurer […]
Discovery vows to shake up life insurers – Business Day
Insurance group Discovery will use the bulk of a R5bn rights issue to grow its UK life insurance business in its bid to become the leader in a market it has vowed to shake up. CEO Adrian Gore said R3bn of the capital to be raised would be used in its UK VitalityLife business and as […]
Imperial’s vehicle import unit stalls in half-year results – Business Day
Imperial Holdings performed to market expectations in deteriorating trading conditions in the six months to December, as the weaker rand depressed margins and affected competitiveness. Group revenue grew 9%, mainly on acquisitions, but operating profit fell by the same percentage in the period. This saw core earnings per share fall 14% in the year, even as […]
Nedbank African units boost profit – Business Day
Nedbank’s operations in the rest of Africa contributed almost 4% to full-year earnings, with the inclusion for the first time of its recently acquired stake in the West African Ecobank Transnational Incorporated. Headline earnings from the South African group’s rest of Africa operations rose from a low base of R8m in 2013 to an estimated […]