COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Independent Newspapers retrenches 128

Independent Newspapers, the publisher of The Cape Times, The Star, Isolezwe and The Mercury, has retrenched 128 employees to cut its wage bill.

The newspaper group, an indirect subsidiary of Iqbal Survé's Sekunjalo group, warned of the "harsh reality of job reductions" in June amid falling advertising and dwindling circulation figures.

The last day at work for the employees was 31 October. Of the 128, 44 took voluntary severance packages, while 84 received notices saying they would not be reappointed after they were asked to reapply for their jobs.

Another 13 staff members chose to resign, bringing to 141 the number of people leaving.

The group includes editorial and advertising staff, as well as admin and sales workers in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

Many are now up in arms that the first tranche of their promised severance packages has not been paid.-Fin24

UK not a viable model for NHI

Discovery CEO and co-founder Adrian Gore says the UK's National Health Service (NHS) is not a viable model on which to base South Africa's proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) fund, as the country simply does not have enough money.

Gore, who was speaking on PSG’s Think Big webinar series on Tuesday, said while Discovery supported the concept of the NHI, the proposed universal healthcare fund was not workable without the private sector.

The UK's office for national statistics shows that government healthcare expenditure, including the NHS and other public bodies, equated to £3 477 (R78 753) per person in 2021.

By contrast, Discovery estimates that South Africa spends about R425 per person each month to provide public healthcare to those not covered by private health insurance. That equates to R5 100 per person per year, or almost 94% less than the UK spends on healthcare per person annually.

"When you think about the NHS, banish any thought that we can do that. We don’t have that kind of money," Gore said. "Healthcare is just incredibly complicated to fund. We're in the UK as a health insurer. The NHS is going through considerable difficulties – an ageing population, post-Covid issues."-Fin24

Nedbank expands small business offering

In South Africa, small businesses contribute significantly to job creation and inclusive growth – especially in the local communities.

Despite tough trading conditions, small businesses remain the backbone of the economy as they account for 60% of employment and contribute 34% to the gross domestic product (GDP).

As financial experts who do good, Nedbank has long been on a journey to serve and support this critically important small-business sector in South Africa. We enable small-business owners to manage their businesses more effectively by offering them the right business account for the stage they are at.

Nedbank Small Business Services (SBS) has extensive experience in serving start-ups, small and growing, and established businesses with an annual turnover of up to R30 million.

“We offer tailored small-business banking accounts for each business owner’s unique needs. For example, our Startup Bundle is tailored for sole business owners with a turnover of less than R3 million a year. It offers zero monthly service fees for the first 6 months, as well as up to 20 free transactions, eNotes and more.”-Fin24

MTN says its SA network has improved

MTN, Africa's largest mobile phone operator by customers, says it increased revenue from fintech services by a fifth during the quarter ended September, as it scaled up investments in fintech and data services across its markets.

But despite a significant boost from data and improved network availability in South Africa, a weaker Nigerian naira and conflicts weighed on the group, which reported that its core profit fell almost 14% in its third quarter, while group service revenue fell almost 5%.

For the nine months, however, group service revenue is up 9% to R156 billion and core profit almost 3% to R70.3 billion. The group said it had increased network availability in South Africa to above 95%, while it was seeing signs that inflation is starting to subside.

Active data subscribers rose almost 7% to 144.6 million in the period, almost half the total subscriber base of 290 million phone users, helping to data traffic by a fifth, while fintech transaction volumes grew 33.9% to 12.7 billion.

Mobile phone operators have come in to close the gap left by poor banking infrastructure across many African countries, with MTN employing its Mobile Money (MoMo) technology to enable customers to transfer money over long distances while also lending and providing insurance services.-Fin24