Author: Gugu Lourie
Banking group Absa has selected a company insider to be the next chief executive of the South African lender. Arrie Rautenbach, is currently Absa’s Chief Executive: Retail and Business Banking (RBB), the banking group said. Rautenbach will assume his new role immediately. He replaces Jason Quinn, currently Interim Group CEO, who will resume his role as Financial Director of Absa Group and Absa Bank, effective immediately, and remain an Executive Director on the Boards. Jason held this position from August 2016 to April 2021 after replacing Daniel Mminele. Rautenbach joined Absa in 1997 and has held several senior roles over the…
Telkom will continue to pursue its spectrum lawsuit against the country’s communications watchdog, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA). “Whilst Telkom has been able to secure the much-needed sub 1 GHz in the spectrum auction, we were constrained in our ability to acquire the amount of spectrum that we need to compete effectively,” the company informed investors today. “To secure its ability to compete effectively in the mobile market, Telkom persists with its court application to ensure that the licensing of spectrum promotes effective competition in the mobile market in line with the objective of the Electronic Communications Act.”…
Vodacom Group announced today it has spent R5.3 billion to acquire the much-needed spectrum to be able to deploy 4G and 5G. Vodacom’s contribution to the auction proceeds will significantly assist the government in achieving their objectives to unlock the digital economy, with widespread benefits across our society. Vodacomsaiod in a statement it will pay R5.38 billion for a spectrum portfolio that includes: 2 x 10 MHz in the 700 band MHz, 1 x 80 MHz in the 2600 MHz band and 1 x 10 MHz in the 3500 MHz band. “This is a momentous day for South Africa. We…
South Africa’s communications watchdog announced today that it had successfully concluded the much-anticipated high-demand radio frequency spectrum auction. The auction involved six qualified bidders: Cell C, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, MTN, Rain Networks, Telkom and Vodacom. The revenue collected from this auction totals more than R14.4 billion, which will go to the national fiscus. This is the total amount generated from the Opt-In phase auction, which took place on 8 March 2022, and the main auction stage, which commenced on 10 March 2022 and concluded today, 17 March 2022. The main auction stage comprised 58 rounds of bidding between the six…
Patrice Motsepe-backed African Rainbow Capital (ARC) announced today it has injected millions into TymeBank and TymeGlobal. The company said ARC Financial Services Holdings (ARC FSH) has injected an additional R257 million into TymeBank and TymeGlobal during the period as part of the scheduled capital requirements for the bank. At 31 December 2021, the ARC Fund had an effective interest of 25% in TymeBank, being its 49.9% of the 50.1% interest held by ARC FSH in TymeBank. ARC FSH is 50.1% owned by African Rainbow Capital Proprietary Limited and 49.9% owned by the ARC Fund, which is the vehicle holding the assets…
The days of Netflix password sharing with friends may soon be over. In a blog post titled “Paying to Share Netflix Outside Your Household,” the company announced that it’s testing measures that would charge accounts extra for allowing users to stream outside of a given household. “We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans,” Chengyi Long, Netflix’s Director of Product Innovation, wrote in the blog. “While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when…
JSE-listed tech group EOH is offloading more assets as it continues with its stated strategic intent of improving liquidity and reducing debt. EOH informed investors today that its wholly-owned subsidiary EOH Mthombo has entered into a share purchase agreement to dispose of 100% of its shares in the Information Services companies to Bachique 842 Proprietary Limited. The deal is subject to EOH Shareholder approval. EOH added that this disposal forms part of creating a fit-for-purpose capital structure that is adequately supported by its cashflows. Bachique 842 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of LR Africa Holdings Limited. LR Africa Holdings Limited is…
Nedbank, one of the top banks in the Southern Africa region with over 7 million customers, last September launched an intelligent digital assistant, called Enbi. Nedbank is committed to delivering market-leading solutions to its customers that improve client satisfaction levels. Nedbank announced this week that Enbi, its new artificial intelligence (AI)-driven chatbot, which was launched to meet client expectations for immediate and excellent personal assistance, now answers over 100 000 client enquiries a month. Enbi offers Nedbank’s customers an intelligent, insightful, and friction-free digital banking experience by assisting customers conversationally with their day-to-day banking needs and questions. Customers can find…
Nedbank, one of South Africa’s largest banks, announced today that its Money App has attracted more than 400 000 new customers in 2021. The bank said that its Monet app is now actively used by 1, 6 million clients for the year to end-December 2021, up by 38% from 2020. The Money App, which was first launched in September 2019, makes banking more convenient for retail clients. It’s an easy-to-use, on-the-go banking app that enables you to do all your banking on your smartphone or tablet. Nedbank added that transaction volumes on the Money app rose by 54% and transaction values…
MTN digital revenue rose by 22.8% to R3.3 billion in the year to end-December 2021 and the majority of the increase is due to greater uptake of the services of Ayoba, an instant messaging super app. MTN announced today that Ayoba reached 11.6 million monthly active users’ milestone as at 31 December 2021. “This represents an addition of 6.1 million users since December 2020.” MTN launched its instant messaging platform, Ayoba, in March 2019. The app features peer-to-peer private messaging, which is end-to-end encrypted and has been updated to include music, gaming, channels and money transfer services Ayoba users can…