Pepkor, Absa and MTN grow — but so do company liquidations

SA’s largest non-grocery retailer, Pepkor, says it has grown market share as consumers hunted for deals in the six months to end-March, while also benefiting from demand for electronics as consumers were forced to work and study at home. Pepkor owns Pep,

Ackermans and Incredible Connection. Strong cash generation helped cut debt by more than half to R6.1bn.

ABSA has raised its 2021 growth forecast for SA to 3.8%, from 3.1% previously, but warned the recovery from Covid19 will be protracted with real GDP only returning to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. SA’s economy contracted 7% last year as lockdowns resulted in the biggest annual slump in GDP in 100 years.

AFRICA’S largest mobile operator, MTN, says profit at its Ghanaian unit rose almost a third in the quarter to end-March, benefiting from increasing demand for data and digital payment services as well as a network expansion.

DATA from Stats SA shows liquidations rose 49% year on year in March. In a report released this week, statistician-general Risenga Maluleke said the liquidations had hit small, medium and macro enterprises the most. A total of 216 companies were liquidated in March.

POULTRY group Astral Foods said this week half-year profits were expected to fall more than a third as SA’s food producers grapple with soaring input costs. Prices of grains and legumes, including soybeans and maize, have spiked since late 2020 as China moved to rebuild animal herds.

FRENCH energy group Total declared force majeure on its $20bn liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique and has withdrawn all personnel from the site after Islamic Statelinked insurgent attacks last month. Total, which aimed to produce its first cargo from the project in 2024, suspended work on March 27 after the militant attack.