Author: Gugu Lourie

South African banks will fully transition to digital banking within five years as consumers embrace digitisation. A new report on the future of retail banking drafted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on behalf of Discovery Bank found that more than two-thirds of South Africans (69%) believe that the country’s banks will transition to a fully digital banking system within five years. The Discovery Bank-BCG survey also found that most South Africans (60%) believe that in just five years, there may be no need for banks to have physical branches. The survey was based on responses from 1,000 consumers from all walks…

Swift intervention by the Financial Intelligence Centre’s Fusion Centre has seen government recover R659 million to the fiscus deemed to have been proceeds of crime. Through the Fusion Centre, the FIC’s crime fighting public-public collaboration has secured several positive outcomes, including the preservation and recovery of pilfered public funds. In a statement, the FIC said the two-year-old Fusion Centre had secured achievements in improving efficiency in financial investigations related to corruption, fraud, abuse of power and maladministration. “In addition, the collective work of the Fusion Centre has resulted in the recovery of tax revenue, identification of fraud in the temporary…

MTN today informed investors that negotiations to buy South Africa’s Telkom are still in progress. “Shareholders are advised that discussions are still in progress which, if successfully concluded, may have a material effect on the price of the Company’s securities,” MTN said on Monday. “Accordingly, shareholders are advised to continue to exercise caution when dealing in the company’s securities until a further announcement is made.” Last month, MTN announced that it was in early talks to buy Telkom, the partially state-owned fixed-line telephone operator. Africa’s largest mobile phone operator said in a statement it had entered into discussions to buy…

EasyEquities, which is 70% owned by JSE-listed company Purple Group, has reached terms with an e-wallet provider (Provider) in the Asia Pacific Region. The company will launch investing services within the Providers e-wallet Application (e-wallet APP). The Provider will offer the EasyEquities investing services to its significant user base in the region, comprising tens of millions of users, through its e-wallet App. The Provider has requested for limited disclosure at this time so as not to pre-empt the commercial launch of the product planned for September 2022. “This is an exciting opportunity for EasyEquities and the Purple Group to expand…

Prosus, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world, today announced it has agreed to acquire the remaining 33.3% stake in iFood, from minority shareholder Just Eat for €1.5 billion or R25.6 billion in cash plus contingent consideration of up to €300 million or R5.1 billion. Following the transaction, Prosus and its affiliate company, Movile (a Brazilian investor in technology companies) will fully own iFood. iFood has performed exceptionally well since Prosus first invested in the business through Movile, founded by Fabricio Bloisi, in 2013. Starting as an online food ordering website, the…

Data-only network provider Rain has withdrawn its statement that it wants to merge with partially state-owned telecoms group Telkom. Following engagement with the Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP), at the TRP’s instruction, rain hereby withdraws its press release of 11 August 2022, said in a statement on Tuesday. “As rain, we are pleased with Telkom’s SENS announcement stating that if an offer or formal proposal is received from rain, the board of Telkom will consider it. rain intends to submit a formal non-binding proposal to Telkom in due course,” said Vivian Ngalo Chief Communications Officer at Rain. “Further details will be published…

MTN Group is flirting with 20 million InsurTech registered aYo policies for the six months ended-June 2022. The company informed investors today that its InsurTech platform reached 17.9 million registered aYo policies, up by 31.9% year-on-year. MTN said active policies reduced by 26.9% year-on-year due to a shift in the strategy to focus on a higher average revenue per policy and new revenue streams, particularly in Uganda. This resulted in termination of free policies in the portfolio. “Active policy growth was also impacted by platform migration and integration challenges as we shifted to a proprietary infrastructure,” said MTN. In total,…

MTN GROUPsaid on Wednesday that it expects to spin off its Fibre Business within the next two years. “The structural separation of the fibre business is also underway and is set to be completed within the next two years,” Ralph Mupita, MTN Group CEO, informed investors on Thursday. He added that in this business, MTN made encouraging progress with the additional build of 670km of fibre in the period. “Across the portfolio we now have 101 800km of proprietary fibre.” MTN also disclosed that MTN GlobalConnect (MTN GC) continued to drive fibreco ambitions, scaling its fixed connectivity and wholesale mobility services…

MTN Group said on Wednesday that the process with potential strategic investors for its FinTech business had been initiated, the outcome of which is anticipated to be concluded by the end of December 2022. In March, MTN announced plans to spin off its FinTech Business. For more read: MTN Set To Spin Off Fibre, FinTech Businesses, Invite Third Party Investors “The work to structurally separate the fintech business from the GSM business within the operations progressed well, and the implementation of inter-company agreements and necessary regulatory approvals are tracking in line with expectations,” Ralph Mupita, MTN Group CEO, informed investors on…

The Walt Disney Company has announced that Disney+ now has 221 million total subscriptions across our streaming offerings after adding 14.4 million new subscribers in the nine months to end-June 2022. “We had an excellent quarter, with our world-class creative and business teams powering outstanding performance at our domestic theme parks, big increases in live-sports viewership, and significant subscriber growth at our streaming services,” said Bob Chapek, CEO, The Walt Disney Company. Most of Disney+ growth for the quarter occurred outside of the United States and Canada, where the service added 100,000 subscribers to reach 44.5 million. The company reports…