Brics boost to Southern Sun; Astral gets the sniffles
THE
Reserve Bank kept the repo rate unchanged for a second meeting running, but retained a cautious tone in its statement as renewed risks to inflation from recent rand weakness and increased global fuel and food prices remain a concern.
SOUTHERN Sun reported a strong increase in occupancy in the first five months of its financial year with events such as the Brics summit in Johannesburg and the Netball World Cup in Cape Town driving demand. The company’s occupancy rate rose 11.1 percentage points year on year to 55.3% in the five months to endAugust.
INDEPENDENT
power producer Sola Group, partowned by billionaire Patrice Motsepe’s African
Rainbow Energy, will build a R2.5bn solar facility in North West. The project will sell energy to the platinum mining operations of African Rainbow Minerals, the diversified miner founded by
Motsepe, through a longterm power purchase agreement using the national grid to deliver the power. Sola Group said the project will generate 270GWh of clean electricity annually. — BusinessLIVE
ASTRAL Foods warned that load-shedding and a severe outbreak of bird flu will hit profits. The poultry producer is spending about R45m a month to run generators. It is forecast earnings will fall about 165%. The bird flu outbreak is expected to cost the poultry industry R220m for disease control measures such as culling.
THE present business environment is one of the most difficult it has ever faced, Remgro said. The urgency of addressing such issues as weak economic growth, crumbling state infrastructure and “the slow pace of economic reforms to date ... cannot be overstated”. Other problems include power cuts, high inflation and interest rates, geopolitical tensions, crime and corruption. These factors “have created what is probably one of the most difficult business environments to operate in since Remgro’s inception”, said the investment holding company chaired by Johann Rupert.
RETAIL
trade shrank 1.8% in July from a year earlier, Stats SA data showed. It is the eighth consecutive month of decreases in retail activity, mainly attributed to the effect of high interest rates.