Company news in brief

PPC in new empowerment deal

PPC, South Africa's largest cement manufacturer, has announced a R380 million empowerment deal that will hand a tenth of its domestic operations to qualifying employees.

A new PPC Employee Share Ownership Trust has purchased 10% of the share capital of PPC South Africa Holdings, the holding company through which PPC manages the group and conducts its South African cement and materials businesses, the group said in a statement.

All South African employees not currently participating in PPC’s long-term incentive program will be eligible, although participation will be weighted in favour of historically disadvantaged individuals, the group said, with the shareholder loan set to be repaid via dividends.

Until the loan amount and capitalised interest are repaid, qualifying employees will effectively receive 2.5% of any dividends declared by PPC SA Holdings, the group said, after which they will then receive 10%.

PPC, valued at about R4.1 billion on the JSE, had 1 840 employees in SA as of its 2023 year, just over 70% of its total workforce. The company also operates in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Rwanda. - Fin24



Nedbank blocks digital stokvel's accounts

Nedbank has blocked the accounts of United African Stokvel (UASV) after a number of clients complained that the company had stopped paying out funds and essentially shut down communications.

The stokvel, founded in 2019 in Gauteng by Darren and Shirley Lynn Langbein, sold itself as the next step in the evolution of the traditional stokvel.

But it stopped making regular payments to members in March. Members say that the stokvel's consultants stopped answering their phones around this time.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority raided its offices in June in a search-and-seizure operation.

The financial watchdog later said that UASV had no license to operate as a financial services provider and had not applied for one.

Meanwhile, the National Stokvel Association of SA said it declined United African Stokvel's membership application in 2019 as it did not fit the definition of a stokvel.

UASV has not replied to any requests for comment from News24. – Fin24



SA won’t stop using Huawei

South Africa won’t succumb to pressure from the US to stop using Huawei Technologies Co. equipment on its networks, the country’s ambassador to the five-nation Brics bloc has said.

Countries are facing increasing pressure from the US to take a harder stance on China as conflicts over Taiwan and battles for dominance in technologies from artificial intelligence to chips and quantum computing escalate. The tensions have raised concerns around the world about the Asian nation using Huawei in core telecommunications networks to spy or sabotage systems.

"There was tremendous pressure on us from the US to stop using the Huawei network," Anil Sooklal said in a lecture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal last week. "It is banned in the US, and a major part of Europe has banned Chinese technology."

The announcement will mark a significant change in the global order, Sooklal said, even as some of its members push back against new admissions.

China favours a rapid expansion, but India and Brazil want guidelines to be framed first.

For its part, Huawei has offered South Africa thousands of training and technology transfer opportunities over the years, Sooklal said. – Fin24/Bloomberg