Flash Briefing: Investors cheer SA election; Total bets $8.8bn more on Africa; Uber; Net1

By Alec Hogg

Here's your Biznews Flash Briefing:

• Despite the South African ruling political party's worst showing in a national election since 1994, global investors celebrated the ANC's 57.5% victory as an improvement on the 54.5% it polled in the municipal elections three years ago. The Rand strengthened to R14.15 against the US dollar in late trade on Friday night – a gain of almost 20c on the session's worst point. The ten-year bond yield improved nine points from the pre-election level of 8.6%. Bonds have been moving in the right direction since touching 9.4% at the end of last year. South African shares gained half a percent on Friday, led higher by banking shares with Standard Bank, FirstRand, Absa and Nedcor adding between 3% and 4% on the election result. Shares of the country's big banks are highly sensitive to political developments, providing a reliable bellwether for global investor sentiment towards South Africa.
• French oil major Total is doubling down on its African bet. It has agreed to acquire Anadarko's assets in Mozambique, South Africa, Algeria and Ghana for $8.8bn. Total's move follows the acquisition of Anadarko by US group Occidental Petroleum, which, with the help of $10bn from Warren Buffett, beat off a competitive offer by US rival Chevron. The proposed deal between Total and Occidental was a key factor in the US company's ability to deliver a knockout offer for the target company. Provided all goes through, Total's purchase will add projects containing 1.2bn barrels of oil equivalent reserves, making it the world's second largest provider of liquified gas behind Royal Dutch Shell. In February, Total announced the discovery of a major gas field off the Southern Cape coast which it estimates could add a further billion barrels of oil equivalent to these reserves.
• Ride hailing business Uber Technologies, whose shares made their long-awaited debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, is off to a slow start as a public company. Uber stock ended 7.6% below the IPO price, which data from Dealogic shows is the fifth worst first day return in 24 years for any newly listed company with a market value of over $10bn. Last year Uber's bankers Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs valued the company at $120bn. Immediately ahead of the listing, Uber's valuation was set at between $90bn and $100bn. On a fully diluted basis, at Friday's closing share price the company is now worth $82bn.
• The struggle for once flourishing Net1 is laid bare in its quarterly results to end March which were released on Friday. Net1's fortunes were transformed when it lost a contract with South Africa's Social Security Agency (SASSA) at the end of September last year. The company, whose shares are listed on Nasdaq in New York, reported an operating loss of $21.7m for the three months to end March with revenues down by almost half to $86m. Compounding Net1's discomfort in the quarter was a further $25m write-down on the value of its 15% ownership of South Africa's number three mobile phone business, Cell-C. Net1 notes in the report that it has reduced its stake in DNI, which sells pre-paid airtime, from 50% to 30%. DNI has been given an option until the end of the year to acquire the balance of Net1's shares for $59m. The loss of the SASSA contract forced Net1 to retrench thousands of staff and with other cost containment measures employed, the company expects to hit break even on a monthly basis by the end of June. The report adds that Cell C is working on closing a transaction with a new investor. Net1's share price was unchanged at R53 on Friday having fallen by half in the past year.