Hits&Misses
Bumper earnings for Capitec; business rescue for AutoZone
JSE-LISTED
Capitec, boasting 22-million active clients, expects to report bumper earnings for the half year ended August 31. Capitec said on Friday it expects an increase of up to 35% in headline earnings to between R50.90 a share and R54.97 a share, up from R40.72 a year earlier. It said earnings a share will increase to between R50.85 a share and R54.92 a share from R40.68 a share for the six months ended August last year.
THE department of trade, industry & competition has granted small private hospital groups an exemption from certain competition regulations for the next five years as it seeks to level the playing field in an industry dominated by three big groups — Mediclinic, Netcare and Life Healthcare. The department has agreed to a request by the National Hospitals Network, a lobby group for small players in the private health-care sector, to relax competition rules for its members, who collectively manage about 12,000 beds.
ZEDER has signed a R190m deal to sell Applethwaite Farming Business, one of its main farming production units, to Vredenhof Beleggings. It said the disposal was part of an initiative to maximise wealth for shareholders. The transaction comes just weeks after the company announced the sale of its Theewaterskloof Farming Business to the Japie Groenewald Trust for R283m in June. Zeder has been reviewing its portfolio amid high interest in its assets. Zeder has a range of investments that span the agribusiness and food industries.
AUTOZONE
has voluntarily applied for business rescue after South Africa’s biggest automotive spares retailer drowned in debt. Efforts to address the lack of performance were impeded by the pandemic, civil unrest and a period of stagflation. Throughout this period, AutoZone faced increasingly burdensome debt service obligations, diverting cash from operations to meet these needs, director and CEO Dion De Graaff said. In June, AutoZone’s facilities reached maturity and Absa refused to extend debt repayment holidays.
BHP will temporarily suspend operations at the Nickel West operations and West Musgrave project in Western Australia from October following oversupply in the global nickel market. Forward consensus nickel prices over the next half of the decade had fallen sharply, reflecting strong growth of alternative low-cost nickel supply, it said. During the temporary suspension, BHP will keep supporting its workforce and local communities. It intends to review the decision to temporarily suspend Western Australia Nickel by February 2027.
PGM production declined 4.1%, resulting in a 1.1 percentage point decline in the mining sector’s output, according to Stats SA’s production and sales data for May. Mining production was flat in May compared to the same month last year. The main positive contributors were coal and chromium ore, while gold and PGMs were the main negative contributors. The decline comes in the midst of interventions by PGM miners to preserve margins after a rapid decrease in metal prices, which has led to job cuts.