Author: Gugu Lourie

Vodacom reported on Monday that its financial services customers, including Safaricom, rose 12.6% or 6.1 million to 54.8 million in the six months to end-September. The Vodafone-owned group also reported that Financial Services business revenue rose 3.1% to R9.2 billion. The company’s key market of South Africa contributed R1.1 billion in revenues after experiencing a 15% increase on the back of its popular Airtime Advance, insurance and VodaPay services (direct airtime, prepaid electricity, bills). The company advanced R5.7 billion in airtime (38% of total recharges) via Airtime Advance platform to 10.1 million customers in South Africa. Insurance policies increased 23.4%…

Vodacom, South Africa’s mobile phone operator that is transforming itself into a technology company, is well-positioned to weather the coronavirus storm as it got into this crisis with a strong balance sheet. Vodacom reported on Monday that it was sitting on R13.9 billion in cash and cash equivalents as at 30 September 2020. Since March 2020, the World Health Organisation, officially declared the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, a pandemic, triggering various government interventions to stem the spread The Vodafone-owned company, which is led by Shameel Joosub, believes the strength of its financial position will continue to allow it to conduct its…

Health and social care in the UK can benefit from the roll-out of 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, according to new research from Vodafone, a parent company of South Africa’s Vodacom. The report stated that the UK government has committed to building 40 new National Health Service (NHS) hospitals by 2030, with six NHS Trusts already earmarked to receive funding to completely rebuild existing acute hospitals by 2025. “This is an unmissable opportunity to remodel the whole NHS estate, designing in new 5G and IoT technology from the ground up to optimise everything from patient experience, to clinical collaboration,…

Showmax, the internet TV service owned by MultiChoice, is gaining traction in South Africa. Internet TV is taking off across South Africa with several local and international services now available in the country. This week Mondia, a Dubai-based tech firm, announced the launch of its time-based entertainment platform Monsooq in South Africa. Monsooq is a first-of-its kind model where time is the currency and users pay only for the time they spend consuming content. The benefit of internet TV versus traditional services is that subscribers are able to choose from a catalogue of TV shows and movies and then start, pause…

Huawei today walked away with the COVID-19 Response Award at AfricaCom. The COVID-19 Response Award recognises organisations and initiatives that have successfully deployed technology solutions in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Huawei developed the AUTIN solution for network O&M, using new technologies such as blockchain, grid-based transformation and intelligentization of operations to enable the decentralization of Network Management (Portable NOC) in times of COVID-19 pandemic. About 100 million mobile subscribers in Nigeria – the most populous country in Africa – are served by 4 main operators that together combine around 30,000 sites nationwide. Maintaining these large infrastructures requires hundreds…

Africa’s pay-tv giant MultiChoice is planning to utilise its R11.8 billion cash pile to fund growth and the weather the COVID-19 pandemic storm. MultiChoice, which added 1.2 million 90-day active subscribers in the six months to end-September to close the period on 20.1 million households believes the strength of the balance sheet is critically important given the uncertain longer-term economic impact of COVID-19. The company added that a strong balance sheet is also critical due to potential challenges for specific markets in the Rest of Africa (RoA) because of a lower oil price. Some R7.3 billion in cash and cash…

MultiChoice, Africa’s biggest pay-TV operator, has acquired a 20% stake in BetKing, a pan-African sports betting group. As part of the deal, MultiChoice has made an made an upfront investment of $81 million (R1.3 billion), with the potential for a further payment of $31 million (R500 million) should certain earn-out targets be met between December 2021 and December 2023. As the group exercises significant influence over BetKing, the business will be equity accounted as an associate from 1 October 2020 by MultiChoice. The company said the deal is part of its plans to expand the its entertainment ecosystem. BetKing is…

Unemployment in South Africa has soared to 30.8% in the last three months, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the third quarter of 2020 revealed. The rise was a 7.5% increase from the second quarter. This comes after Stats SA in September reported that despite the South African economy shedding 2.2 million jobs due to the COVID-19 lockdown, unemployment in the country dropped to 23.3% in the second quarter of 2020. According to the report, released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Thursday, “The number of employed persons increased by 543 000 (3.8%) to 14.7 million compared to…

The new BMW iX SUV has been revealed as the brand’s first purpose-built electric SUV with two electric motors. The German carmaker says the BMW iX is the symbol for a new era of mobility at BMW. It is the first representative of a trailblazing generation of cars poised to redefine the driving experience, the feeling of space inside and the relationship between vehicles and those on board. The German carmaker said in a statement that the design and technology of the BMW iX form an overall package that lays the foundations for what is, in many respects, a new kind of driving…

Telkom considers its stock to be undervalued and will continue to explore ways to unlock trapped value, CEO Sipho Maseko told investors on Tuesday. “It is our core belief that we remain undervalued as a company,” Maseko said of his company’s share price. “Our market capitalisation is not a true reflection of our intrinsic value and there is a massive evaluation gap. We will explore ways to unlock this trapped value in this conglomerate.” On Tuesday, Telkom said that unlocking value from its portfolio of businesses is a key component of its capital allocation framework and will afford management…