BizNews Briefing – Tourism; Tshwane; Eskom; Nuclear; Mining; Amazon’s SA movie.

In the final episode of the week, BizNews editor Alec Hogg shares insights from energetic new Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber; Assesses the Tshwane mayoral vote with political analyst Dr Frans Cronjé and the UIM’s Neil de Beer; Deputy Minister Samantha Graham-Maré on Eskom; The FT and Kelvin Kemm on nuclear’s funding revival; Mining guru Peter Major; and Ari Kruger, director of The Shakedown, Amazon’s first original SA movie.

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Business news headlines – 26 Sept

  • From the BER – Business confidence among banks, IT, professionals, leisure, transport and hospitality sectors is on the up. These organisations, grouped by the BER in its “other Services” definition, improved their confidence index from 55 to 58 in the third quarter of 2024. This is six points above the long-term average, signalling respondents are relatively optimistic about prevailing business conditions. It is a significant shift from the start of the year when six out of ten respondents were unsatisfied – now, it’s nearly six out of ten respondents satisfied with prevailing business conditions. 
  • Industrial conglomerate Barloworld’s voluntary trading update for the 11 months to the end of August shows revenues down 7% and operating profit 14% lower. The group says its South African mining customers have been under immense cost pressure, and the prolonged sanctions are hitting its Russian subsidiary. Its bright spot came from Mongolia and a near halving in its net debt to R3.5bn.
  • As part of a broader global strategy to streamline and refocus its business HSBC has divested the bulk of its South African assets to FirstRand. HSBC’s South African branch, including its clients, banking assets, liabilities, and employees, will be absorbed into Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), ensuring ongoing corporate and investment banking services in South Africa for the divesting group’s multinational and large domestic clients. 
  • Financial services group Old Mutual reported a 7% increase in headline earnings per share for the half-year to the end of June. Its interim dividend has been increased 6% to 34c. A further R1bn is allocated to buying back shares, following R1.5bn invested in this way last year.  The shares were changed a little today, trading at R13.10 – a 43% discount to the group’s updated net asset value of R18.73. 

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