By Linda van Tilburg
Here is today’s business Flash Briefing:
- President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his new Cabinet last night which has been shrunk from 36 portfolios to 28 with the all important post of Finance Minister remaining in the hands of Tito Mboweni. Pravin Gordhan also keeps his Public Enterprises Ministry where he is tasked to clear up the state owned enterprises. David Mabuza has retained the post of Deputy President. Surprises were the appointment of Naledi Pandor as Minister of International Relations and Cooperation instead of Lindiwe Sisulu who has been moved to the Department of Human Settlement, Water and Sanitation. Ramaphosa has also reached across to the opposition to Patricia de Lille from the GOOD party who will become the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure and Bantu Holomisa has been appointed as a Deputy-Minister. In a first for South Africa, half of the Cabinet are women. He also appointed Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. More on the full list and President Ramaphosa’s speech is on the Biznews website. The Rand that peaked at R14.90 to a dollar during day, strengthened to R14.64 after the Cabinet announcement.
- Naspers may be moving most of its internet businesses to a new listed entity in Amsterdam, but it is at pains to show it’s not abandoning South Africa. The creation of the still generically named NewCo Group will hold Naspers’s 31% stake in Tencent – now worth $121bn. Left behind in South Africa will be the media assets plus local online ventures Takealot and Property24. That looks like a bad deal for some local investors, who may feel some of their wealth is being taken to where it could be heavily taxed, but Naspers shares gained more than 4% on the back of the news. More clarity on how this will affect Naspers shareholders has been revealed in an interview with Bob van Dijk on the Biznews website.
- Royal Dutch Shell is planning to acquire an oil-block stake in a second deal in South Africa’s relatively unexplored waters, months after a major discovery by Total SA boosted the country’s hydrocarbon prospects. The Petroleum Agency South Africa has confirmed that Shell has applied to take a stake in a license owned by OK Energy, located in deep waters off South Africa’s west coast, according to Petroleum Agency South Africa. Total discovered an estimated 1 billion barrels of oil east of Anadarko’s blocks.
- Senior executives from the Public Investment Corp.’s two biggest trade union contributors are set to be appointed to the interim board of the PIC. They are Ivan Fredericks, the general manager of the Public Servants Association, and Mugwena Maluleke, the general secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union. It is the first time the PIC, who is currently under investigation for a string of questionably investment decisions has union representatives on its board. In another break in tradition the new board won’t be chaired by the deputy finance minister.
- The JSE closed higher despite some of the uncertainty earlier around the cabinet announcement. Big movers on the day were Rebosis Property Fund which was up 11% and the shares of another property company, Fortress B rose by 8.7%. Lonmin shares closed 5% higher.
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