COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

SAA, Denel, Transnet want nearly R13bn

National Treasury warned the country can’t afford to extend welfare grants to the poor, citing an over-stretched budget and spending pressures including additional funding requests from state-owned firms totaling R12.8 billion.

A temporary R350 monthly stipend was introduced in 2020 to help shield the poor from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, and the Department of Social Development and civil rights groups have been pushing for the payments to be made permanent.

The Treasury has repeatedly questioned where the money would come from. Africa’s most-industrialized economy already spends the equivalent of almost 4% of its gross domestic product on welfare.

Extending the grant by just one year would cost at least R50 billion, and that isn’t accommodated for in the current fiscal framework, the Treasury said in a document seen by Bloomberg that delves into the financial pressures it’s confronting as it prepares next month’s budget update.

Reallocating funds from other programs could potentially only generate about R21.2 billion, and the alternative of providing grants to caregivers and job-seekers could be considered, it said.

"There should be no substantial change to the current fiscal strategy," the document reads. "Restoring fiscal sustainability over the medium term remains the key focus."

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is set to deliver the budget update on 26 October, and it’s unclear whether the Treasury’s views will prevail. The Treasury declined to comment on the document.

"Discussions are ongoing and those issues are normally dealt with by the minister during the medium-term budget policy statement in October or annual national budget in February," it said in response to emailed questions.-Fin24

Anglo American Platinum cuts refined production

Precious metals group Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has cut its refined production guidance by as much as a double-digits after it detected the delivery of sub-standard materials for its Polokwane smelter rebuild, an issue that is expected to result in a two-month delay.

Refined production guidance for platinum group metals (PGMs) has been cut to between 3.7-million and 3.9-million ounces from as much as 4.4-million previously, Amplats said in a statement, although unit-cost guidance remains unchanged.

This represents a fall of 11.36% for the upper-end of its range, with the miner saying this is also subject to revision due to load shedding, which resumed this week. The miner had intended to rebuild the smelter, its first since commissioning, during in the three months to end-September.

"As we undergo our first full rebuild of the Polokwane smelter in twelve years, our quality assurance processes identified a defective consignment of materials required to complete the rebuild," CEO Natascha Viljoen said in a statement.

"We remain committed to ensuring the structural integrity of our Polokwane smelter, with high standards embedded into the rebuild to ensure asset integrity and the longevity of this operation. We will not compromise on safety or quality and therefore the defective materials will not be used, and a new consignment of materials is expected to be delivered by the end of October."-Fin24

Prosus sells 1 million Tencent shares

Prosus, the consumer internet arm of Naspers, has placed 192-million Tencent shares worth US$7.6 billion (R133 billion) in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's clearance and settlement system, having sold 1.1-million of the shares on Thursday as part of its ongoing share buyback programme.

Bloomberg reported the appearance of about 2% of the shares of the Chinese tech giant in the system earlier on Thursday, which allows the shares to be traded, fuelling speculation about significant potential moves from a major shareholder.

Prosus and Naspers on Thursday described this as "an administrative step," having announced in June that they would begin a long, open-ended, buyback programme aimed at tackling the hefty discount at which their shares trade.

This would include the potential sale of some of the US$134 billion in Tencent shares held by the stable, a reversal from a commitment made in April not to sell additional shares for three years. That commitment came with its announcement Prosus had sold 2% of Tencent's shares, taking its holding to 28.9%.

Prosus said on Thursday it had sold over 1.1-million ordinary shares in Tencent, bringing its total ownership to 27.99%, with regulations requiring to report whenever their shareholding in Tencent crosses over a whole percentage point number.

Shares of Naspers were up 0.72% to R2 392.12 in afternoon trade on Thursday, while Prosus had given back 0.78% to R992.41. The announcement by Prosus in June resulted in its shares rocketing by as much as a quarter on the day.-Fin24



Shoprite CEO has advice for European retailers

European retailers could turn to peers in South Africa for ideas on how to manage the worst energy crisis in decades as they brace for potential blackouts this winter.

The chief executive officer of Shoprite, Africa’s biggest grocer, is advising European retailers to prepare to boost investment to plan ahead and manage disruption from interrupted energy supplies.

Europe’s retailers, which for years have benefited from comparatively low energy bills, are facing dramatic price increases amid a shutdown of gas supply from Russia, and that could push some smaller companies out of business. UK Prime Minister Liz Truss announced a sweeping package for households on Thursday as part of measures to fight the crisis.

The challenge is already evident. Associated British Foods Plc, the owner of Primark, warned this week that its profit will fall next year as it grapples with volatile, high energy costs the likes of which it has never encountered before. Usually energy costs from stores move by about £10 million (US$12 million) a year, though this year the increase has been £100 million.

“I never thought they would have to experience what for us has sort of become daily life,” Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said in an interview. “We’ve got standby electricity and standby water, because that’s the next thing that’s going to come.”

Outages are par for the course in South Africa, where debt-saddled state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. is unable to meet demand from its fleet of aging and poorly maintained coal-fired plants. It implemented electricity outages for more than half of the days in the second quarter and rolling blackouts resumed this week as five coal-fired plants broke down and its sole nuclear plant malfunctioned.

Morleys Group, a regional department store chain, said its energy bill rose 50% last year and will rise another 70% next month. The retailer is investing £1 million in measures such as installing LED lights and timers to try and ease the soaring cost pressure across its eight stores.-Fin24





Bell grows profits

Bell Equipment, which makes and sells heavy machinery such as dump trucks and forklifts, is still confident about its growth prospects as many governments embark on infrastructure spending to drive a post-pandemic recovery, also avoiding any write-downs for its relatively small Russian business, which has paused operations amid sanctions.

Bell's profit rose almost a fifth to R210.33 million in the firm's year to end-June, also benefitting from better-than-expected demand from the mining industry, but the firm is still grappling with uncertainty over the global economy, as well as headaches stemming from supply chain disruptions and surging input costs. Along with the uncertainty, Bell said on Friday it was considering investing in its own operations, and it opted not to declare an interim dividend.

Valued at about R1.3 billion on the JSE, Bell generates more than 60% of its revenue in SA, with most of the rest coming from Europe. Bell said on Friday while SA's construction sector continued to struggle, its strong black-empowerment credentials had helped it gain some market share, while it also benefitted as miners look to take advantage of high commodity prices.

"While there are signs of economic slowdowns in some markets, existing stimulus packages continue to drive demand for Bell products in most international regions," the firm said. "The group has healthy order books in all regions for the remainder of the 2022 financial year and expects global demand for its products to continue to increase."-Fin24



First Checkers 'dark store' to open doors

Checkers plans to open its first "dark store" later this year to support growing demand for its Sixty60 on-demand grocery app.

A dark store is a retail outlet that exists exclusively to support on-demand deliveries. It does not have a store front or retail customers, but purely assists with order fulfilment.

It will be in Bree Street in Cape Town's central business district, and comes as the group considers the capacity of its store base to meet the growing demand from SA's leading grocery app.

The Checkers Sixty60 one-hour delivery service was launched in November 2019 and order volumes continue to grow exponentially. It is already available in 300 locations across the country - up from 233 locations last year. About 23 000 products are on offer at in-store prices and it has created almost 6 300 jobs, according to Checkers.

The need for such a store format is due to Checkers limiting the number of Sixty60 deliveries it can support from each retail store, which is necessary to avoid inconveniencing in-store customers. The growing number of Checkers Sixty60 orders will, therefore, be complemented through dark stores.

Checkers forms part of the Shoprite group, SA's largest grocer. Group CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said during a radio interview with 702's The Money Show earlier this week that Cape Town's southern suburbs is an example of where the group is under-represented. It is one of four areas in the country earmarked for the opening of a Checkers Sixty60 dark store. He did not name the other areas.



Checkers Sixty60 forms part of the Shoprite group's "re-platformed" business strategy of which physical stores remain the centre, but with the ability to build alternative sources of income around it, according to Engelbrecht.-Fin24



German gas firm VNG seeks govt aid

German gas company VNG became Friday the latest European energy firm to seek government aid as reduced Russian pipeline flows pushed up energy prices and put its business under stress.

VNG, Germany's third-largest gas importer and storage operator, asked for support to "avoid further damage" and to maintain the group's "ability to act", it said in a statement.

Russia has slowly dwindled supplies of gas to Europe in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, sending prices for the fuel soaring.

Unfulfilled contracts meant "gas quantities had to be procured at significantly higher prices" to meet supply arrangements with customers at "significantly lower, contractually agreed prices", leading to a cash crunch, VNG said.

Further "stabilisation measures" were needed despite a government plan to allow gas companies to pass on some of their procurement costs from October 1.

VNG, which is majority owned by the German utility EnBW, in turn part-owned by the region of Baden-Wuerttemberg, said it remained in "ongoing talks" with the federal government over rescue measures.

Uniper, Germany's biggest importer of Russian gas, asked for government support earlier this year under the pressure of rising gas prices.

Officials in Berlin agreed to take a 30 percent stake in the struggling company as part of a bailout greed in July.-Fin24