Company news in brief

TOPS boosts Spar's profits

The Spar group reported a 5% increase in group sales to R67.6 billion, with operating profit increasing by 7% to R1.8 billion in the six months to end-March.

Its diluted headline earnings per share increased by almost 4% to 641.1 cents, and the retail group declared an interim dividend of 175 cents per share.

Spar's share price rose almost 2% in opening trade yesterday.

Spar’s TOPS made a strong recovery following the lifting of alcohol trading restrictions in September with growth of almost 42% in sales compared to the same period in the previous year. Wholesale grocery and liquor turnover increased by 8.5% for the period.

Trading was still impacted by the closure of stores since the unrest in July last year. At the end of the period, 13 Spar and nine TOPS stores remained closed. However 26 new stores were opened across the group in the period. – Fin24

Implats, Northam's battle comes to a head

The takeover battle for Royal Bafokeng Platinum has shifted to South Africa's antitrust agencies as Northam Platinum tries to block a bid from rival Impala Platinum.

There’s a lot of stake for both companies as the Competition Tribunal prepared to hear Northam’s arguments yesterday. For Northam CEO Paul Dunne, the purchase of RBPlat would help close the gap on the country’s top tier of producers.

For his Implats counterpart Nico Muller, RBPlat’s low-cost mechanized assets are essential to maintaining the profitability of the company’s adjacent Rustenburg operations.

It’s a fight that could influence the competitiveness of a key South African export industry and the fate tens of thousands of jobs. It also comes as the sector faces pressure from electric vehicles, which threaten to curb demand from automakers that use platinum-group metals in anti-pollution devices.

Northam said any takeover of RBPlat by Implats would be anti-competitive as it would concentrate significant mineral reserves with one company, according to documents filed with the tribunal and seen by Bloomberg News. The acquisition would also mean that Implats may run out of refining capacity to process metal from smaller third-party producers, Northam said in the filings. – Fin24/Bloomberg

Discovery death claims nearly tripled in 2021

Discovery Life paid our R11.8 billion in claims in 2021. Of that, R9.1 billion went to individual retail life customers, with Covid-19 deaths dominating the claim payouts.

Because of Covid-19, Discovery Life's death claims in 2021 nearly tripled what the company recorded in the first year of the pandemic. The insurer paid R3.8 billion in total towards Covid-19 related claims.

This included R3.64 billion in death claims, R91 million in severe illness benefits, predominantly paid to clients admitted to intensive care units, and R64 million for income lost by those who couldn't work because of how sick the virus made them.

But while the pandemic was responsible for 60% of all death claims Discovery Life paid in 2021, the insurer saw a marked increase in all claim categories. Severe illnesses claims for conditions like cancer, disability and income protection claims all went up by double digits.

Cancer, respiratory complications outside of Covid-19, nervous system complications, heart and artery complications and unnatural deaths also stood out as causes of life insurance claims. – Fin24

Sygnia posts record half-year performance

Index-tracking asset manager Sygnia reported record profits for the first half of its financial year, which ended on 31 March.

The group's revenue increased 13.4% to R397.4 million while its expenses remained low. Its after-tax profit jumped 31.5% to R139.1 million. The company's basic and headline earnings per share also increased by 23.8% to 92.6 cents.

Sygnia said this "ongoing success" was largely linked to the growth of its assets under management coming from institutional and retail clients. As more investors embrace passive investing for its low costs, Sygnia saw its assets under management and administration rise by 6.1% to R295.3 billion by 31 March. And revenue linked mostly to assets under management (AuM) increased by 10.6%, to R311 million.

And the asset manager said it wasn't just market movements that boosted this. It also scored new business flows.

Sygnia has attracted R241.2 billion from institutional investors, like pension funds, even though it experienced net outflows of R9.2 billion in the six months to end-March. These outflows were seven times bigger than what the company recorded in the six months that ended on 31 March 2021. But it said R7.2 billion of that related to a "mutually agreed termination" with one client. – Fin24

Vodacom ordered to pay new levy

The Democratic Republic of Congo has ordered mobile-phone companies operating in the African nation to pay a levy estimated at about US$180 million (R2.8 billion) a year, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The operators including South Africa's Vodacom, Orange, Airtel Africa, and Africell received invoices sent by the regulator through a consultancy, 5C Energy, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The amount is based on the invoice the firms received for a seven-week period, they said.

The DRC’s four mobile carriers - “Africell, Airtel, Orange and Vodacom - have been invoiced various amounts by the regulator following the introduction of levies,” the Federation Des Entreprises Du Congo, the main business association, said. “As things stand, all the carriers in the DRC have rejected these invoices as irregular and therefore unenforceable.”

The industry body said it wants to continue talks with the government and regulator to avoid raising prices.

The additional fee includes an amount charged on every voice minute, message, and megabyte of data used by customers, said the people. The levy cannot be passed onto users, they said. – Fin24