COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Equinix to invest R2.8bn in data centre

Equinix plans to invest US$160 million to build its first data centre in South Africa, as part of the firm’s African expansion push.

The US data centre company will build its first facility in Africa’s richest city, Johannesburg, and expects to be operational by mid 2024, said Equinix EMEA president Eugene Bergen in an interview. The deal follows its acquisition of Nigeria’s MainOne, that valued the west African data centre business at US$320 million.

"South Africa was a big target for Equinix as it is the most developed economy in sub-Saharan Africa," said Bergen. "We are focusing to get into Africa, and we are looking at another five or six countries to enter."

California-based Equinix is looking to take advantage of a predominantly young African population with increasing access to the internet that is providing a boon for the industry, albeit from a low base.

With the South African deal, the global data centre investor plans to serve large enterprises such as banks, content and media companies, and hyper-scalers operating in the country and on the continent, said Bergen. The company is seeking anchor customers that it could potentially follow to other African countries, said Bergen. "We expect the customer ramp-up in South Africa to go quite quickly," he said.

Tech giants such as Amazon.com and Microsoft have also invested in data centres in African countries in recent years as demand for storage grows. The continent accounts for just 1% of global data centre capacity, creating a large opportunity for investors that want to tap into the region’s growh potential, while taking on certain operating risks such as an unreliable power supply.-Fin24

Shein to spend R263m on factories

Fast-fashion giant Shein will spend US$15 million (R263 million) upgrading hundreds of factories after an investigation found that two of its suppliers’ warehouses are flouting local working-hour regulations.

The Chinese retailer will spend the money over the next three to four years, Shein said Monday. The move is in response to allegations of labour abuse in a recent UK television documentary that found that employees at two factories in China were working 18-hour days and fined for making mistakes.

Shein said it has reduced orders from two factories where employees were having to work longer hours than permitted by local regulations - an independent review found employees working as many as 13.5 hours a day. Shein has given the suppliers until the end of December to reduce the time.

However, the company denied its factories withhold worker salaries or illegally deduct wages if targets aren’t met.

Shein faces growing criticism over its environmental, social and governance record practices, including worker exploitation and copyright theft. The online behemoth has disrupted the fast fashion industry with its sales of £5 (US$6.16) T-shirts and £11 dresses. The company was valued at US$100 billion in a fundraising round earlier this year, though the figure has probably dropped some since then.

Shein plans to increase unannounced spot checks and invest more in training to ensure its suppliers comply with its code of conduct.

"While the audit did reveal an issue with working hours, this has been raised with both manufacturers and we have significantly scaled back our orders from them until they take effective action," said Adam Whinston, head of environmental, social and governance for Shein.-Fin24

Saccawu nixes Massmart group strikes

The South African Commercial, Catering, and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) have opted to suspend plans to strike at all of Massmart Group's companies over a dispute at Makro, and will attempt to seek an arbitrated solution instead.

Saccawu said last week that it would get members at five other Massmart companies to hold sympathy protests as workers at Makro continued their campaign for major wage increases at the hardware giant.

But instead of a 15 000-strong protest at Game, Builders Warehouse, Rhino, Fruitspot, Shield, and Jumbo, the union has joined Makro at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) to seek a negotiated solution to the wage impasse.

Among other things, the union is demanding an across-the-board increase of R900 or 12%, whichever is the greater, a minimum wage of R8 000, an increase to the commission on sales of 20%, and a moratorium on retrenchments.

Saccawu spokesperson Sithembele Tshwete told News24 that the union and Makro were spending much of this week in an arbitration process at the CCMA, rather than going ahead with the planned action immediately.

"We have since suspended the action pending a CCMA mediation intervention as per Section 150 of the Labour Relations Act. We however put emphasis on 'suspension' pending this process. However, if this process does not yield the required results we are going ahead with the planned action on 15 December 2022," said Tshwete.-Fin24

Shell to challenge blocked seismic survey

A high court has granted Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and oil and gas company Shell leave to appeal a ruling that blocked a seismic survey off the Wild Coast, at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

The judgment was delivered by the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda, on Tuesday morning, following a hearing on 28 November.

Wild Coast communities had launched the court application last year to stop a proposed seismic survey. The Makhanda High court had eventually set aside the minister's decision to grant an exploration right to Impact Africa (which was later transferred to Shell) and its subsequent renewals.

The court had noted procedural issues in the granting of the exploration right - especially regarding inadequate consultation processes with the affected communities from the Wild Coast. But Mantashe and Shell sought to challenge this.

In his papers, Mantashe argued that leave to appeal should be granted because it raises novel issues of law and an appeal has reasonable prospects of success, News24 previously reported.

Another key argument from Shell is that the Wild Coast communities did not exhaust all internal remedies - in other words, appeal the decision to grant the exploration right to the minister - before approaching the court for intervention.-Fin24

RMH slumps as net asset value falls

RMB Holdings (RMH) says its strategy of focusing on property is starting to deliver for investors, but conditions are tough, and it suffered a double-digit decline in net asset value for its half-year to end-September.

The group said on Tuesday the property sector had been hit by uncertainty in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, along with record load shedding and flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, and its net asset value fell 14% over six months to R3.37 billion to end-September. The group's shares slumped 10.34% to 52c in afternoon trade on Tuesday.

The former FirstRand parent company separately listed its insurance interests – Discovery, Momentum Metropolitan and OUTsurance – as RMI in 2011, and then expanded its investment strategy to include a property investment business, RMH Property, in 2016.

In 2020, RMH divested from all financial services ventures to focus on RMH Property, unbundling its last remaining financial sector stake in FirstRand, just as its two remaining co-founders left the firm.

Since RMH turned its focus solely on RMH Property, it has been looking for options to monetise or "liberate" its business to return maximum value to shareholders, and it paid a special dividend of R2 billion to shareholders in October, which followed the sale of some of RMH Properties' assets to Cyprus-based Brightbridge Real Estate in July.-Fin24

Comair liquidation on ice

The court case to determine whether Comair can be saved or should be placed in final liquidation was postponed until June next year. The matter came up in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

According to the office of Comair's provisional liquidators, the Sechaba Trust, a postponement was requested because they are still in talks with parties interested in potentially buying certain parts of the company. It mainly relates to intellectual property like brands and licences.

In August, the Air Services Licensing Council suspended two air service licences of Comair for two years. The various operating licences are the company's most valuable unsecured assets. News24 Business is aware of at least one local airline which has expressed potential interest in some of the assets.

Comair's fleet of aircraft, valued at about R3.5 billion, is encumbered in favour of secured creditors such as banks.

The Covid-19 pandemic and related lockdowns negatively impacted Comair, which at one point accounted for 40% of South Africa's domestic market.

The company went into business rescue in May 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 travel restrictions. It was also hamstrung by an attempt to cancel a contract to buy Boeing 737 MAX planes. Rising fuel prices after Russia invaded Ukraine added to its woes.-Fin24