By Jackie Cameron
- DA leader John Steenhuisen says the ANC, not Covid-19, is to blame for the country’s economic woes after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the lockdown will be substantially eased. “The president’s words of commiseration for all the industries and businesses that haven’t been able to operate and whose employees have earned no salary these past 80 days ring hollow indeed, as it is his government’s irrational lockdown that has caused this misery. The truth is that the world’s longest hard lockdown, and not Covid-19, killed our economy and ruined the lives of millions of South Africans.” You can read Steenhuisen’s analysis on BizNews.com.
- Tesla directors, including co-founder Elon Musk, awarded themselves massive compensation packages over a three-year period that improperly siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars out of the electric carmaker’s coffers, a pension fund invested in the company alleges. That’s according to Bloomberg, which says directors – including Oracle founder Larry Ellison, James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk – wasted corporate assets in granting themselves some of the highest director pay awards among US corporate boards, a pension fund representing Detroit police and firefighters said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Delaware. Musk has been a lightning rod over executive compensation ever since he co-founded Tesla in July 2003. In 2018, Tesla shareholders approved a controversial long-term incentive plan that offered the entrepreneur the chance to reap more than $50 billion from stock-option grants if the company increased its market capitalisation, says the news service.
- Covid-19 containment has broken many businesses and pushed many perilously close to collapse – but for the Sasol executive team this has proved to be a time to develop plans to improve the business and review its business and workforce structures. Sasol has been a rollercoaster ride for stockholders. Today’s news of progress and improvement failed to ignite the Sasol share price – and it had barely moved by the end of trading.
- South African retailer The Foschini Group gained more than 5% on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange after announcing plans to raise about R4bn. It plans to lower its debt and protect its balance sheet, as profit fell by 1.1% in the year to March 31, its executives told Reuters. TFG, which also operates in Australia and Britain, said the proposed rights offer was fully underwritten by a syndicate of banks comprising three of its largest lenders, and its major shareholders have shown support. TFG has taken the decision to exit Kenya and has left Ghana following a review last year.
- Other South African company bosses are focused on containing debt levels. Education provider Curro will use a R1.5bn rights offer to proactively reduce the gearing levels and troubled Tongaat Hulett has entered into an agreement with eSwatini’s Public Service Pensions Fund to sell Tambankulu Estates to help it reduce its massive debt.
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