Vodacom, Safaricom buy transfer app M-Pesa
◆ Vodacom and Safaricom buy M-Pesa platform from UK-based Vodafone: South Africa’s largest mobile operator, Vodacom, and Kenya’s biggest telecom company, Safaricom, said they have completed the acquisition of Kenya’s phonebased M-Pesa money transfer app from Vodafone through a newly created joint venture.
◆ Grindrod: The investment holding company announced that the company’s port and terminals businesses expected revenue to decline in April as a result of the lockdown and the closure of the border with Mozambique.
◆ Naspers completes R22.4 billion share buyback: Listed technology investor Naspers said it had completed its R22.4bn share buyback.
◆ KFC owner withholds rent amid lockdown: KFC-owner Yum! Brands has told landlords in South Africa that the US firm will not be paying rent while outlets are closed during the three-week lockdown.
◆ Gemfields triples production as demand for precious coloured stones soars: JSE-listed coloured gemstone miner Gemfields’s Kagem emerald mine in Zambia, which produces about 25 percent of the world’s emerald supply, has over the past decade tripled its gemstone production. Gemfields said it was concerned that the Covid-19 outbreak could push back auctions to the fourth quarter of this year, putting the company’s goingconcern status at risk.
◆ Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) seeks to speed up temporary allocation of radio spectrum:
Icasa will publish a Government Gazette containing regulations for the temporary allocation of radio frequency spectrum to aid in communications during the lockdown.