Business News Leaders

Inflation woes prompt Reserve Bank to hike rates

South Africa’s Reserve Bank has raised interest rates by 25 basis points, as inflation remains at the higher end of the Bank’s 3%-6% target band. The move takes the repo rate to 4.25%, and marks the monetary policy committee’s third consecutive rate hike. The Bank has also ramped up its…

24 Mar 2022 12PM 8 min

Remgro more than doubles first-half profit

Remgro has more than doubled its interim profit, with headline earnings per share surging by 139%. The investment holding conglomerate has pointed to an earnings recovery by most of its investee companies, which include Mediclinic, Grindrod Shipping and TotalEnergies. Business Day TV spoke to CEO Jannie Durand for more detail.

24 Mar 2022 12PM 8 min

BPO uses smart tech to grow

To paraphrase the famous playwright George Bernard Shaw, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, outsource”. For many companies, business process outsourcing (BPO) allows them to contract certain back-office and front-office functions – such as customer relations, HR management and even accounting – to third-party solutions providers. This in turn…

24 Mar 2022 8AM 26 min

Inflation holds steady in February

Consumer prices held steady at 5.7% in in February, but rising food and transport prices put upward pressure on the monthly rate and saw CPI up 0.6% month-on-month. Business Day TV unpacked the print with RMB economist Siobhan Redford.

23 Mar 2022 1PM 6 min

A2X bags another listing

Companies are seeing value in the secondary listing market, and car dealership Motus is one of those firms. The company’s announced that it plans to list on the A2X, with its shares being available for trade from April. Business Day TV caught up with the CEO of A2X, Kevin Brady…

23 Mar 2022 1PM 7 min

Commodities - boom or bust?

Global inflation is intensifying with the Russia-Ukraine war approaching its fourth week. Historically commodities have thrived in high inflationary environments, and the year-to-date performance of the Rogers International Commodity index is reflective of that with the outlook for the asset class remaining positive for the rest of the year. Business…

23 Mar 2022 1PM 7 min

National Infrastructure Plan 2050

Infrastructure has become something of a national fixation. Successive economic policy documents, from RDP, to GEAR and Asgisa to the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, all had a major focus on how the country’s infrastructure programme could be used to catalyse growth and to varying degrees be used as levers…

23 Mar 2022 7AM 25 min

Master Drilling holds onto its dividend

Master Drilling has delivered record annual revenue of $171.8 million, while headline earnings per share more than doubled to 12.9 US cents. The global drilling company has however decided to hold onto its dividend, citing concerns around the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Business Day TV discussed the performance…

22 Mar 2022 12PM 8 min

Eased lockdown restrictions give Attacq a boost

Attacq has benefitted from eased lockdown restrictions. The property developer and landlord says less stringent rules helped it reduce its Covid-19 rental discounts by 84% to R8.5 million in the six months to end-December. Distributable income meanwhile grew by 33.4% Business Day TV unpacked the performance with CFO Raj Nana.

22 Mar 2022 11AM 7 min

Scale up lessons

In the year 2000, when the world was recovering the dotcom bubble the breathless non-event of the Y2K a former optometrist in Cape Town was busy developing his start-up company, which had created a way to send SMS from the internet to cellphones – a world first at the time…

22 Mar 2022 8AM 23 min

Watch: The Week In Perspective

The war in Ukraine enters its fourth weeks with mounting speculation that Russia is lying the groundwork for the use of chemical weapons. SA is one step closer to a future of widespread 5G telecommunications as MTN and Vodacom led buyers in the long-delayed radio frequency spectrum auction, which raised…

18 Mar 2022 7AM 25 min

Growth in ARC’s investee companies give it a boost

A strong showing by African Rainbow Capital's investee companies gave its half-year performance a boost. The investment firm’s intrinsic value has increased by 14% to R14 billion. Business Day TV unpacked the performance with Co-CEO Johan Van Zyl.

17 Mar 2022 12PM 8 min

Metair books record profit amid strong battery demand

Metair generated record headline profit in 2021, supported by its Covid-19 response strategy and a recovery in demand for batteries. Business Day TV spoke to company's CEO Riaz Haffejee for more detail on the performance.

17 Mar 2022 11AM 7 min

Local bonds are back in favour

Investors are still seeing value in emerging market bonds especially with regards to South African debt. Local bonds are still ranked as the best performer out of 19 developing-nations, and have delivered returns of close to 9% in dollar terms in the first two months of 2022. Business Day TV…

16 Mar 2022 1PM 5 min

Growthpoint lifts its interim dividend

Growthpoint has managed to reward shareholders, despite a slump in activity in the office property market. The landlord has lifted its interim dividend by 5% to 62 cents, as the operating environment in the retail and industrial sectors gained momentum. Business Day TV discussed the company’s performance with Group CEO…

16 Mar 2022 12PM 6 min

Libstar serves up profit rise amid higher input costs

Libstar has delivered a 7% rise in annual revenue from continuing operations and more than doubled its profit, as an improved sales mix and price increases helped offset muted volume growth. The group has maintained its dividend at 25 cents. Business Day TV spoke to company's CEO Andries van Rensburg…

16 Mar 2022 12PM 9 min

South African banks recover from Covid-19 blow

SA banks have delivered solid results this earnings season, according to a report by PwC. Combined headline earnings came in at R86.6bn, reflecting a 99% increase as trading conditions improved. Business Day TV discussed this in greater detail with the PwC's banking and capital markets industry leader, Francois Prinsloo

15 Mar 2022 12PM 7 min

Why construction activity is slowing

The recovery of SA's construction industry has slowed, according to the Afrimat Construction Index. Activity picked up in the second and third quarters of 2021 but momentum petered put in the fourth quarter with the index rising just 0.8%. For a closer look at why this has happened Business Day…

15 Mar 2022 12PM 8 min

A Molotov in the macros

One of the best-performing categories since the beginning of last year has been commodities. Everything from oil to wheat to palladium to gold is up, due in large part to inflation worries. But how much room is there left to run? And how big a portion should commodities make up…

15 Mar 2022 8AM 25 min

What Stadio has planned for the future

Private higher education group Stadio has declared a maiden dividend after the firm managed to grow its student base by 9% in it’s year to end-December. Business Day TV speak to Stadio CEO Chris Vorster about the company’s future plans to capitalise on this growth.

14 Mar 2022 1PM 7 min