Author: Gugu Lourie
Data-only network provider Rain has withdrawn its statement that it wants to merge with partially state-owned telecoms group Telkom.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…
Nedbank’s Avo super app continues to attract customers and businesses as it competes with Vodacom’s VodaPay app. Nedbank announced today that Avo has added 500 000 new customers in the past six months to end-June 2022 pushing its total users to 1.5 million. Since its launch in app stores on 19 June 2020, Avo has over 24 000 businesses registered and offering their products and services on this e-commerce platform, up by 37% year-on-year. Avo is a one-stop super app enabling clients to buy essential products and services online and have them delivered to their home, with seamless secure payments and credit enabled by the…
The South African government has published draft proposals to address the widespread theft of copper cable and other forms of metal from public infrastructure that has crippled power supplies, left trains unable to operate and damaged public facilities in many parts of the country. The proposals have been developed following consultations by the Departments of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic), Police, National Treasury, Mineral Resources and Energy, Public Enterprises (including state owned enterprises), and Transport and was published in the Government Gazette today by Minister Ebrahim Patel. The draft measures propose a six-month export prohibition on scrap and waste…
Facebook is shutting down its live shopping feature on October 1 to focus on Reels, the company announced in a blog post. The company said from October 1, 2022, you will no longer be able to host any new or scheduled Live Shopping events on Facebook. You will still be able to use Facebook Live to broadcast live events, but you won’t be able to create product playlists or tag products in your Facebook Live videos. Shifting focus to Reels “As consumers’ viewing behaviours are shifting to short-form video, we are shifting our focus to Reels on Facebook and Instagram,…
Vodacom Group has again demonstrated its resilience in the face of increasing pressure on consumers, increasing revenue by 5.2% to R26.1 billion in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, said revenue growth was underpinned by a resilient financial performance in most of our markets and South Africa in particular. “Our service revenue growth was supported by a 10.4% increase from our International portfolio and 9.3% growth from our financial services business. The growth rate in financial services was dampened by mobile money levies in Tanzania, and if adjusted for this impact would have been an…
THElatest data released today shows that the value of Vodacom’s mobile money platform, M-PESA, continues to rise at an impressive rate, with transaction values exceeding R5.7 trillion in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. Vodacom also informed investors that M-PESA had attracted 807 000 new customers. M-Pesa revenue grew 11.8% to R1.4 billion and was up 3.4% on a normalised basis. The company added that excluding the impact of the mobile money levies in Tanzania, normalised M-Pesa revenue increased 18.1%, highlighting the strong underlying growth momentum in customer and product adoption. “We added 807 000 M-Pesa customers in the quarter, with…