- Business confidence slid in the first quarter of the year. According to RMB, close to seven out of ten senior executives are concerned about current business conditions. Such low confidence levels continue to highlight the fragility of economic recovery. “Against such an uncertain backdrop, the best contribution the government can make is to fulfil its promises of confidence-inspiring economic reform focussed on the private sector becoming the key driver of GDP growth,” says chief economist Ettienne Le Roux. Kevin Lings, Chief Economist at Stanlib notes that the rapid increase in the public sector during 2020 has heightened investor concerns regarding the vulnerability of public sector finance should central banks feel compelled to raise interest rates sooner than expected due to an increase in underlying inflationary pressure.
- South Africa’s state-owned rail and port company said it plans to scrap contracts worth billions of dollars awarded to companies including General Electric and Bombardier. Transnet applied to the High Court to have the contracts for over a thousand locomotives set aside because it said they were based on a “flawed market demand strategy”. The company added that “Laws, government instructions and Transnet policy were deliberately ignored to make the tender awards, conclude the contracts and effect payment.”
- MTN added 29 million customers and increased its adjusted full-year headline earnings per share by over 50%. The company suspended its dividend due to its “near-term focus on faster deleveraging of its holding company and uncertainty around cash repatriation from Nigeria and Covid-19″.
- Growthpoint has announced increased operating profit of R4bn for the six months ended in December. Headline earnings per share increased by 5% and a dividend of nearly 60 cents per share was declared.
- SoftBank’s Vision Fund injected at least 400 million dollars into Greensill Capital at the end of last year, according to people familiar with the matter, increasing the potential losses faced by the tech investor. According to The Wall Street Journal, the cash was in addition to $1.5bn dollars the Vision Fund had invested in Greensill in 2019. The money was used as a financial backstop when another Vision Fund company, construction startup Katerra, came close to defaulting on a loan to Greensill.
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