Vehicle sales soar, confidence drops

NEW vehicle sales rose 10.7% year on year in December to 51 461 units, data from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa showed. Export sales fell 1.6% to 21 833 cars. THE Competition Commission has given online retailer Takealot a conditional nod to acquire Naspers’s Kalahari.com, which would help form a formidable e-tailer to take on brick-and-mortar stores. THE National Energy Regulator of South Africa is looking at a framework to enable homes and businesses to get credits for feeding surplus power they generate from rooftop solar panels into the electricity grid. RHODES Food Group said it would buy Western Cape fruit juice business Pacmar for R165-million‚ its first major acquisition since the company raised R600-million when listing on the JSE in October last year. ZAMBIA Sugar, a unit of Illovo Sugar, said it had posted record production of 424 024 tons during the milling season that ended in December. The unit accounted for 31% of Illovo’s interim operating profit. BUSINESS confidence in South Africa fell to 88.3 in December from 90.8 in November, its lowest level since July, driven lower by a weak rand and chronic electricity shortages, the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry said. NET gold and foreign exchange reserves fell to $42.7-billion (R496billion) in December from $42.9-billion in November, Reserve Bank data showed. Gross reserves were higher at $49.1-billion from $48.5-billion. OFFSHORE investors sold a net R302-million worth of South African stocks in the week ended January 2 and another R72.6-million in South African bonds, according to data from the JSE. The HSBC purchasing managers’ index slipped to 50.2 in December from 50.5 in November as demand from the domestic market slackened while expansions in output and new orders fell, albeit only marginally. DISGRUNTLED employees of G4S Security have asked President Jacob Zuma to intervene in the security company’s share payment scheme‚ which has not paid out benefits to thousands since it was started 10 years ago.