Hits&Misses

Sibanye clears Lonmin hurdle but asset manager in the slow lane

SIBANYE-Stillwater’s all-share takeover bid for the world’s third-largest platinum miner won critical yet highly conditional approval from the Competition Tribunal, clearing the way for the creation of one of the world’s biggest platinum group metal producers. The final conditions to complete the takeover of Lonmin by SA’s gold and platinum producer are votes of approval by shareholders in both companies and a UK court ruling in favour of the deal.

THE first tax-efficient venture capital company is set to list on the ZAR X exchange in early 2019. The Titanium VC1 Fund, a SA Revenue Servicecompliant section 12J fund that will invest in technology converting carbon-rich feed stocks into alternative energy sources, hopes to raise R250m at its listing.

MEDIA and e-commerce giant Naspers said it expects first-half core headline earnings per share to be 35% to 43% higher than a year earlier. CORONATION, one of SA’s largest asset managers, says it has borne the brunt of a depressed economy, a declining retirementsavings market with formal employment falling and the JSE’s “mediocre return”. The company reported a 1.8% decline in revenue in the year to end-September, while assets under management fell 4.4% to R586bn, the lowest in five years.

INFLATION breached 5% for the second time this year in October as the cost of fuel surged to a record. Consumer prices rose 5.1% from a year earlier compared with 4.9% in September, data from Stats SA showed.

THE finances of Eskom, Transnet and other companies owned by the government have deteriorated to such an extent that they now pose a significant risk to the country’s finances, auditor-general Kimi Makwetu told reporters in Cape Town.